In early March 2017, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP (formerly the EMP Museum)) opened a new and improved iteration of its long-standing Science Fiction & Fantasy Hall of Fame. Now in it's 20th year (it actually pre-dates the museum itself … long story), the Hall of Fame has existed in various locations and permutations over the years. The desire for this version was to bring it out of the corner (literally) and place it front and center as a permanent gallery. Curatorially, the goal was to elevate the environmental experience for visitors so that the Hall of Fame was more than just a wall of faces and to help these visitors make connections with inductees through artifacts and interactives.
Design-wise, I tried to look at the whole space as a sort of reverential, fantastical cave. I drew a good deal of inspiration from Superman's Fortress of Solitude and mashed this together with the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz. I worked in SketchUp to build the model for this gallery and spent a lot of time with our team of fabricators to prototype the pipe lighting and the big 'Inductee Wall' structure. In addition to the physical aspects of the gallery, there were two content-heavy interactives that rounded out the experience: 1) an Inductee Database and 2) a choose-your-own-adventure-style Quiz Interactive.
Exhibit run: March 2017 – Indefinite
Space Design Partner-In-Crime: Keith Griffith
Gallery photos: Me
