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Extreme Ice

Education | Museum

Combine the unparalleled partnership of Design Island and Balance Studios, with a photography project spanning ten years in brutal sub-zero temperatures, and the Museum of Science and Industry, one of the most prestigious institutions in the country, and what do you get? A collaboration that could change the world.

Adaptation and ingenuity created magic so all guests can dive into the science of ice, terminology, and understanding the seriousness of the global challenges that our world faces. Tasked to use the museum's existing 80” screens, the team modified the large-format platforms to offer an ADA accessible option for many of the exhibition experiences. This highly innovative and unique modification allows visitors to virtually “lower” the screen so content and functionality re-adjusts making the full experience within reach for everyone.

Next, add kids, whose play and feedback helped the team turn prototypes into massive, interactive displays to create Extreme Ice: a “visual voice” for the risk of rising temperatures and the global challenges our civilization faces. Photographic art meets scientific research and the result is engaging, stunning, and, quite frankly, chilling. Guests leave with a heightened sense of seriousness about a topic that may otherwise be unrelatable. An experience that creates an emotional connection and educates, entertains, and inspires change. Now that's something cool.

Melting Glaciers

Touch Screen Application

This interactive map table shows the impact melting glaciers have on rising sea levels. The potential threat to civilization is sobering. Guests explore the world by continent and see how much of the population will be displaced as seas rise and how new continental coastlines could look if action and change does not occur.

Champions for Change

Touch Screen Application

Passionate people and pointed perspectives. Champions of Change features individuals from all walks of life sharing a common goal: to improve the quality of the planet we share. An energy company CEO, a clean air activist mom, a rapper rhyming for climate change, and the mayor of a poor coastal region in Senegal all provide powerful voices on the importance of not giving up without a fight.

Make a Difference

Touch Screen Application

Guests walk away educated, even changed, after using this touchscreen application that shows how their daily decisions impact our changing world. Utilizing complex data from Yale and Berkeley, information is relatable and easy-to-digest, illustrating how just one person, making small changes, can make a huge global impact. An interactive map with a series of questions answered by people all over the United States shares different points of view about an often heated, but very important, topic.

Ice Science

Touch Screen Application

This series of scientist-hosted videos educates visitors about the many types of ice that researchers studied across the continent during this incredible large-scale experiment. Guests dive deeper into the science and understanding of the different types of ice, terminology, and understanding of the role that these massive ice formations play in our overall global health.

Eye On Glaciers

Touch Screen Application

Fighting the harshest weather conditions on the planet, the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) team, led by James Balog, maintained a complex camera network for an entire decade. How on earth did they do it? This touchscreen application highlights the team's incredible commitment and the technology behind the massive undertaking to capture the time-lapse photography research. Integrating photo-real 3D modeling, learn about the technical innovation and the people dedicated to keeping all systems operating in the world's most bitter and volatile climates.

The Idea

Create awareness about global concerns and cultivate change. Break down 10 years of scientific research into ways that are easy to understand, interesting, and relatable.

Services

Commitment, unparalleled collaboration, and powerful storytelling that can affect the way people live. Innovation, technology, and unmatched creativity were used to help create a human connection to a very complicated and heated topic. The tricks, the tools, and the same passion as our partners to inform, change minds, change hearts, and hopefully, change the world.

The Result

The museum experienced extremely good visitor engagement with the exhibit. Guests appreciated the "lower screen" functionality and the easy-to-digest way that this complex subject matter was presented.

“From the beginning of a project to opening day and beyond, Tim Steinouer and his team from Design Island, and their alliance with Balance Studios, together exhibit extraordinary professionalism, commitment to excellence and a creative, “can-do” spirit. Working with them is a true, collaborative partnership in every sense of the word. This team cares deeply about the end result and understands what it takes to create exceptional guest experiences. Whether things are easy or difficult, they are a pleasure to work with and they give it their all.”

~ Patricia L. Ward, PhD, Director, Science Exhibitions and Partnerships - Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

Extreme Ice

Education | Museum

Melting Glaciers

Champions for Change

Make a Difference

Ice Science

Eye On Glaciers

The Idea

Services

The Result

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