H2E recently created an exciting exhibition, 'Aluksne Banitis Station,' which offers a virtual trip though time and space dedicated to a unique narrow gauge railway line in Europe. Installed in what was once a baggage repository, the exhibition has been created as a virtual journey in which visitors are offered the chance to sample an all-encompassing spatial, visual and sensory experience through sight, hearing and smell.
The exhibition's design generates associations with travelling in a moving railcar. The impression of movement was achieved through a combination of spatial layout, the use of multimedia and the dynamic composition of sound and lighting. In the historical building around the perimeter along the wall, 10 improvised passenger benches are located and on monitors that are integrated into the railcar windows, passengers can observe the slowly moving surrounding landscape. Video footage is augmented by local residents' stories about the little train "Banitis" that rolls along the railway line, conjuring up an all-encompassing pictorial narrative of important historical and local events as well as technical details of trains and rail transport.
"The goal of the exhibition design was to create an illusion of movement in a stationary space," said Inguna Elere, Creative Lead of H2E. "The virtual journey tells the story about the history of the railway and its technical aspects, which would highlight the importance of local industrial heritage in the context of broader transport history. However, the most pressing concern was to achieve a balance between the use of digital and analogue communication media, in order to make it easier for visitors to perceive the overall message."
Photography: Ansis Starks