Project Archive
Culture
Rockheim, The Norwegain Museum of Pop and Rock, Norway (August 2010)
Rockheim is an innovative music experience project, and the national Rock and Pop Museum in Trondheim, Norway. A key part of the Rockheim experience is Virtual Rockheim, an immersive online museum where visitors enter a 3D real-time world as avatars of their own making, exploring themed spaces, interacting with other visitor avatars, making music and otherwise co-creating content to share with others.
Virtual Rockheim, Norway
Virtual Rockheim (www.rockheim.com) is a collaborative 3D virtual world built on Parallel World Labs' unique PwlMMO Open Source platform. Unlike most MMO technologies, PwlMMO is designed less for fast action game-play and more geared towards rich media integration and collaboration.
EXPO2005, Japan
Co-design of EXPO2005 Canada Pavilion building and visitor experience including a CyperSalon exhibit, international broadband network, a 3D virtual world/social network and interactive stations in 12 major museums across Canada. Our key contribution to this large-scale international project was the design of a CyberSalon experience, where interactive stations invited visitors to explore Canada virtually through a custom-built 3D world showcasing the cities, geographic wonders, and top tourist destinations of Canada.
Isfronten Cold War Experience, Arctic Circle, Norway
PWLabs is working with the Norwegian Aviation Museum and Norwegian Air Force Museum to develop an initial proposal for the concept of a Cold War “experience” housed in a mountain cavern formerly used as a military facility.
Norwegian National Railway, Norway
Consultation and visioning workshop with the national railway organization for development of advanced media tools.
Science
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, United States
We developed an experience called “Dinosaurs: Beyond Extinction,” including a series of games that explore the concept of species adapting to their environment evolving following the cause and effect principles.
La Cite des Sciences, France & Government of Canada, Foreign Affairs/International Trade
Design of Cyber/Explorer a broadband-networked synchronous interactive experience featuring interactive stations connecting two partner sites: La Cite Des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris and the University of Montreal.
Mote Marine Laboratory, United States
Production of a 40-minute interactive show on dolphins and a state-of-the-art theatre featuring 40-foot/12-meter HD screen, Dolby sound, and individual LCD touch screens at each seat, built at the aquarium’s visitor centre. This ambitious educational experience, called “The Dolphin Bay Project”, taught the audience about dolphin research and conservation.
Mystic Aquarium, United States
Design and Installation of an educational interactive show “Explorations: Sea Lions” and a digital facility for simultaneous interactive broadcast and virtual Q&A sessions with science experts. In Explorations: Sea Lions, the audience is given an active role in researching the cause of the decline in the population of sea lion pups.
Universitarium, Denmark
Visioning workshops, consultation, and business plan development for a new science centre experience.
Centre des Sciences de Montreal, Canada
Design & installation of an immersive, interactive theatre and show on Sharks. Also, instillation of a CyberExplorer standalone interactive exhibit as park of the Expo2005 Canada Interactive Network (of museums across Canada).
New England Aquarium, United States
Design, development, and installation of a 20-minute interactive experience featuring a simulation show and theatre called Storm Over Stellwagen (S.O.S). S.O.S was designed to teach the audience how fragile our ocean environments are, and to illustrate the complexity of this ecosystem.
Education + Health
British Nuclear Fuels Visitor Centre for The Science Museum, England
Design of the BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels) Visitor Center in Sellafield, including central theatre/show “Sparking Reaction” and several other interactive experiences. Sparking Reaction teaches visitors about the nuclear debate through a series of six simulations, where the audience makes decisions regarding the location of nuclear power plants, fuel production, waste processing, alternative energy sources, energy supply in the future and the impact it will have on their lives.
JASON Foundation for Education/Dr. Bob Ballard/Mystic Aquarium, United States
Design and installation of “classroom of the future” and “Ring Road” show featuring interactive deep-sea explorations, a live video feed from an underwater ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) in Monterey Bay, California, and live Internet II broadcast. The project used our pwlDECISION.THEATRE platform for interactive explorations, where students could interactive with the live world by controlling the ROV for the theatre while doing a simulated investigation of the deep sea on their personal interactive consoles.
Harvard University, University of Toronto, and other post-secondary institutions
Installation of smaller pwlDECISION.THEATERs as advanced visualization, design, and debate tools in urban design, architecture, and other projects.
CAMeRA Center for Advanced Media Research, The Netherlands
Consultation on the advanced media industry.
EU Healthcare Research Project: A2E2 Adaptive Ambient Empowerment of the Elderly
Software design and development for the A2E2 (EU-funded) research project featuring easy-to-use, avatar-based “smart environments” for prevention and management of chronic diseases in the elderly.
Positive Deviance Initiative, Canada
The PWLabs Farm was the spectacular location for a new visioning and concept development workshop on a new mobile app on Positive Deviance. PD is a problem-solving methodology used in a wide range of sectors including healthcare, global health, education, environment, politics, community development, and culture. http://www.positivedeviance.org
Sport + Tourism
International Olympic Committee — Youth Olympic Games, Singapore (2010)
PWLabs was hired by the IOC Ethics Commission to conceptualize and develop a bilingual interactive education program called “Taking the Heat” for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore. The interactive program, distributed both directly to youth athletes at the Games and to the public through the official YOG website, explores the issues and consequences of game-fixing.
International Olympic Committee — Youth Olympic Games, Innsbruck (2012)
Enhancement of the 2010 version of the IOC ethics interactive educational program for the 2012 Youth Olympic Winter Games. This new version — to be launched for the 2012 Winter Games — includes two new languages (German and Russian), two new sports games (snowboarding and hockey), added game complexity, and a PSA-style video of an athlete sharing his (fictional) experience with game-fixing.
Air Canada Centre, Canada
Interactive kiosk experience design and implementation for Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors sports “Fan Zones” circa 2000-2001. The installations included a “speakers corner” style video setup that allowed fans to record clips on their opinions about specific topics, which were then displayed during sports games on the large screen in the main area.
Cliffs of Moher Visitor Center, Ireland
Design and installation of a large-format, immersive animated film featuring the famous cliffs’ spectacular landscape and wildlife.
Boston Millennium Celebrations, United States
Here’s Boston was an interactive travelogue and game show created for the New England Aquarium, as part of the Boston Millennium. The show took the a audience on a tour through the beautiful multicultural city of Boston, and introduced destinations of choice, highlighting their history, cultural importance, and exciting features. The experience was enhanced through personal stories of members of the community.