The Overview Effect - Orleans House Gallery

The Overview Effect is the term used for the sense of awe, peace, unity with nature, and overall emotional wellbeing that astronauts describe experiencing when viewing the earth from space. 

 

This 4 month long interactive exhibition sought to inspire a similar feeling of peace and unity with nature via immersive eco dome sanctuaries. The sanctuaries used soundscapes, as well as natural and living materials to evoke the landscapes of Earth and Mars.

 

Visitors were encouraged to water & prune the plants, add notes to the scientific log and support the imagined scientific study by building prototype dens from natural materials. 

 

As Project Manager for the exhibition I recruited, commissioned and supported emerging artists Abby & Alice who created the exhibition working from the brief of grottos / sanctuaries. This included building interactive evaluation into the project plan.

 

Evaluation was both digital and physical, with visitors encouraged to interact via Instagram, sharing their thoughts and images of their prototype dens via the specific exhibition hashtag, and also leaving thoughts and feedback about how the sanctuaries made them feel via luggage tags which built up over time so that the evaluation itself became part of the growing exhibition / ecosystem.