World Heritage Exhibitions/Cityneon turned to Lightswitch to design lighting for a new tour focusing on the ancient pharaoh Ramses the Great. The exhibition incorporates a notable amount of video content, and required us to design lighting that would complement the existing illumination from the screens.
World Heritage Exhibitions/Cityneon turned to Lightswitch to design lighting for a new tour focusing on the ancient pharaoh Ramses the Great. The exhibition, which began at the Houston Museum of Natural History, incorporates a notable amount of video content. This immersive, theatrical showcase opens with a short film segment, then ushers guests through a series of ancient artifacts juxtaposed with videos describing Ramses’ life, significant battles, and other accomplishments.
Because of the large amount of video content in this exhibit, Lightswitch was tasked with the challenge of designing lighting that would complement the existing illumination from the screens. Our design involved the installation of LED ribbons into many scenic elements, resulting in the appearance of “floating” objects. Our experience in designing for museums helped us create a strong foundation for the featured videos and other immersive elements. For example, one especially interactive segment demonstrating the ancient Egyptians’ knowledge of astronomy allows guests to press a button to see a simulation of sunlight shining through specific corridors on significant days of the year — thought to correspond to the dates of Ramses’ birth and coronation.
In the original exhibit, a number of areas could either be controlled manually by a team member or set to run automatically throughout the day, depending on the volume of museum traffic. Lightswitch also engineered the lighting so that it could be edited remotely, allowing us to go into the system and make changes whenever desired.
In order to achieve success in our design, Lightswitch embraced the client’s vision of an immersive and theatrical exhibit — a style which is becoming more and more popular. Since its first stop in Houston, the tour has visited San Francisco, Paris, and Sydney. With its video and interactive elements, this exhibit is a great example of the way World Heritage Exhibitions/Cityneon seeks to change how people experience trips to the museum. Lightswitch has supported this effort throughout the tour by providing dramatic, atmospheric lighting that helps transport visitors back to the time of Ramses the Great.
Photographs courtesy World Heritage Exhibitions / Cityneon
