Anguish and Fire is the title of a new and different exhibition at the Justice & Punishment Museum in Faaborg. The visitor is provided with a stable lantern and sent into the exhibition, which initially is only barely lit. When visitors move around, a warm light appears around them – their movements also triggering sound and projected imagery. In this way, the story is told of a 100 year old crime; where a young man of 16 caused a fire, in which a young girl died. The visitor is at the center of a total interactive experience – that is an innovative and new way for a museums to communicate.
No Parking participated in the concept development of the project, and was the general contractor for the overall interactive experience. We have supplied lighting design, sound, video installations, and an advanced control system that can read the audience’s movements in the exhibition and trigger the digital installations. This is done with the use of advanced sensors throughout the exhibition. The control system is connected to intelligent lights that dim up when the visitors appear. In one of the rooms a grand fire is simulated by a large projection, accompanied by flickering lights and sound, creating a life-like illusion of the violent flames devouring the farm.
In the last room of the exhibition, we have provided a game where you have to answer a number of witness statements and thus help to determine the sentence on the young offender. The game creates a dialogue with its audience and finally descends into afterthought, when the judgment is given. This supports the fact that there was capital punishment in Denmark 100 years ago – and you therefore risk sending the young man to the executioner.