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Powered City, Empowered Kids.

Future Energy Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry

The concept of energy is a difficult one to explain: energy is invisible, omnipresent, and complex.

Today, most people understand energy through their individual consumption habits: we know to turn off the lights, to recycle, to take public transportation. But what if we could understand energy on an aggregate level, and make informed decisions that transform the cars we drive, the homes we inhabit, and even the city we live in?

This vision of the future is exactly what the Museum of Science and Industry sought to inspire with Future Energy Chicago: an all-digital, immersive gaming environment that gives audiences control over the direction the world is moving, by offering students and citizens the tools for making smart decisions to save Chicago’s future.

Overview

Five unique energy use simulation games and a shared scoreboard

Teams work together to save energy for Chicago

Projection mapping, motion tracking, touch screens, and 3D printed sculpture

Press

Credits

  • Potion
    Concept Design & Development
    Graphic & Interactive Design
    Software Development
  • Evidence Design
    Exhibition Design
  • Chicago Scenic
    Exhibit Fabrication
  • Electrosonic
    A/V Hardware
  • Eve Weinberg
    Animation
  • Nicholas Fortugno
    Game Consultancy

We developed five custom interactive stations where visitors compete as teams, while working together to improve the room’s aggregate score. Each station highlights a different class of energy use, from car, home, and neighborhood to major infrastructure systems of transportation networks and the city’s power sources. By working together, teams make informed decisions to trigger effective, far-reaching changes for their environment.

For example, by becoming transportation engineers, visitors design transit hubs and public transportation options, resulting in less energy spent by cars. By becoming urban planners, visitors stack apartments on top of schools on top of storefronts, creating more efficient, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.

We developed five custom interactive stations where visitors compete as teams, while working together to improve the room’s aggregate score. Each station highlights a different class of energy use, from car, home, and neighborhood to major infrastructure systems of transportation networks and the city’s power sources. By working together, teams make informed decisions to trigger effective, far-reaching changes for their environment.

For example, by becoming transportation engineers, visitors design transit hubs and public transportation options, resulting in less energy spent by cars. By becoming urban planners, visitors stack apartments on top of schools on top of storefronts, creating more efficient, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.

Although the games challenge visitors to take on different personas, in each scenario they build on similar skill sets, and ultimately gain the skills to think systematically about energy in any scenario. By focusing on where energy is used, saved and generated, we created ways for visitors to think about energy at a larger scale, across all games.

Ultimately, by taking on the personas of engineers, visitors become empowered by their understanding of energy, and inspired to be thoughtful citizens, consumers, and the next generation of energy innovators, designers and inventors.

Although the games challenge visitors to take on different personas, in each scenario they build on similar skill sets, and ultimately gain the skills to think systematically about energy in any scenario. By focusing on where energy is used, saved and generated, we created ways for visitors to think about energy at a larger scale, across all games.

Ultimately, by taking on the personas of engineers, visitors become empowered by their understanding of energy, and inspired to be thoughtful citizens, consumers, and the next generation of energy innovators, designers and inventors.

Three years in the making, the exhibit is “unlike anything we’ve ever created and, for that matter, unlike anything we’ve ever seen in a museum setting.”

— David Mosena, President, Museum of Science and Industry

Three years in the making, the exhibit is “unlike anything we’ve ever created and, for that matter, unlike anything we’ve ever seen in a museum setting.”

— David Mosena, President, Museum of Science and Industry

Awards

  • 2014

    Gold Award, AAM Muse Awards

  • 2014

    Winner, ASTC Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience

  • 2013

    Winner, Event Design Awards

Press

Credits

  • Potion
    Concept Design & Development
    Graphic & Interactive Design
    Software Development
  • Evidence Design
    Exhibition Design
  • Chicago Scenic
    Exhibit Fabrication
  • Electrosonic
    A/V Hardware
  • Eve Weinberg
    Animation
  • Nicholas Fortugno
    Game Consultancy