The Client and Project
The TWIST Museum opened on Oxford Street on 16 November 2022. It introduces the world to pioneering immersive, interactive, multi-sensory attractions across a 15,000 sq. ft visitor attraction at the heart of London’s famous West End.
The Museum’s directors describe the experience as “a trip down the rabbit hole into a world of illusion”. TWIST, which stands for The Way I See Things, is the collaborative work of leading artists, psychologists, and neuroscientists.
Crossover’s team of AV integration experts specified, installed, programmed, and commissioned essential audio-visual equipment at the Museum, as well as a centralised control backbone to make the day-to-day running and management of the venue simple and efficient. They worked closely with the museum directors, world-renowned consultants Artists & Engineers, creative design house MDM Create, and a host of hand-picked international artists to deliver what is already proving to be a hugely successful project with many thousands of paying visitors through the door in the first week alone.
Project Highlights
Digital Mirror and Digital Kaleidoscope
Developed by multimedia artist Aristotle Roufanis, the Digital Mirror exhibit uses a camera and large format display to create an interactive “mirror” distorting peoples’ reflections in real time. The Crossover team provided the displays, the audio system, and the back-end processing hardware, that processes the captured images to display the illusions and distortions to the viewer.
Crossover helped the Museum’s project team build another of Roufanis’ creations, the Digital Kaleidoscope. The Kaleidoscope is a mirrored hexagonal tube. People entering it immerse themselves in a stunning display of colours and patterns and their reflections which are influenced by their movements and interactions. Crossover supplied and installed the projection systems, camera, and the back-end processing hardware and audio system for this interactive marvel.
Audio interactive Space and Mind Hub
The Audio Interactive Space is a large octagonal acoustically treated 360-degree surround-sound room that immerses the visitor in soundscapes created by artist and composer Antoine Bertin. Custom-programmed LED lighting synchronises with the audio to enhance the sensory impact. Crossover delivered this vision through the installation of eight Genelec active speakers suspended just above ear level, bass provided by Martin Audio subs, audio signal processing and audio playback from QSYS, and the skilful installation and programming of the LED lighting.
About halfway through the visitor’s journey, the visitors enter the Mind Hub. Crossover installed the lighting and supplied the lighting control hardware and audio system for this spectacle, at the centre of which is a huge cube of 1,000 individually controllable LED spheres hanging from the ceiling, creating mesmerising patterns and shapes.
Upside Down Room and Ames Room
The Upside-Down Room and the Ames Room are two treats for visitors, and they both deliver fun-filled disorientating experiences which are proving to delight adults and children alike. In the Ames Room, originally pioneered by Adelbert Ames Jr., a large format display and high-quality camera supplied and installed by Crossover helps replicates the shrinking effects of the illusion inside the room itself. The Upside-Down Room features a Martin Audio music system, with the option for a DJ to play for parties and events.
Centralised Venue-wide Control System
The Crossover team installed and programmed the Q-SYS backend to give the Museum complete control of the exhibits’ audio, video and lighting. An easy-to-operate touch panel interface allows staff to monitor the exhibits and to maintain uptime.
Project Success
David Sacks, Crossover’s Director, said: “This was a brilliant project to have worked on. It was particularly rewarding because of the close collaboration with international artists to bring their visions to life with some of the best audiovisual technology around.
The project team, including MDM Create and Artists & Engineers, delivered a very unusual, memorable visitor attraction that pops with life and will amaze visitors of all ages. We would highly recommend a visit.”
Read more about our recent project work here.
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