Dark Space Planetarium

Client: Glasgow Science Centre

Location: Kirkcudbright, UK

Roles and Responsibilities:
Concept Development, Interactive Exhibits, Setworks integration, Gallery Layout. 

Link:
https://www.darkspaceplanetarium.org/

Summary:

The Dark Space Planetarium was opened in July 2021 as part of the redevelopment of the Old Johnston School building located in Kirkcudbright. The visitor centre aims to promote the 'Dark Sky' designation of the nearby Galloway Forest Park, which is renowned for it's lack of light pollution and clean air quality.

The visitor centre features a mixture of digital and electro-mechanical interactives that aims to inform, educate, and entertain visitors through a variety of hands-on experiences.

As part of the design team at Unusual Projects, my role on this project was to take the client's initial concept package and work within the allocated budget to produce the highest quality interactives possible.

A personal highlight for me was redeveloping a refurbished arcade claw-grabber machine into a new interactive called the 'Reverse delayed grabber'. Visitors are challenged to use inverted and delayed controls to pick up space rocks from the planet surface, in a similar fashion to how the NASA mission team would control the Mars Rover remotely from Earth.