When it was opened, the Wild Reef Exhibition at the John G Shedd Aquarium was installed in a new wing of the building designed by the architects EHDD specifically for this permanent exhibit.

The exhibit interprets the broad diversity of Indo-Pacific marine life and highlights complex ecological challenges facing the Philippines coral reefs in particular. The exhibit was designed by the in-house Exhibit Design team at the Shedd. Magian worked with Aquarium designers and education staff to refine the conceptual ideas for multimedia design. Magian was responsible for design and production of all media for the exhibit, as well as the technical infrastructure design and specification.

The suite of electronic species identification delivered in Amazon Rising prior to the development of Wild Reef was designed to also work within this new exhibition. A number of other specialist multimedia programs were also designed including:

• the 'build a shark' touchscreen program
• a touchscreen operated underwater camera
• programs to describe human impact on coral reefs
• multi-screen video showing microscopic coral life
• a projected video about the marine food-web
• diver/educator talkback audio systems
• sensor-controlled soundscapes

The Magian MMaP System is used to enable updating and refreshing of content to all of the multimedia programs. The Magian DiAC System is used for the soundscapes.

Magian's Scope:

• project management
• design and production
• technical infrastructure design and implementation
• numerous innovative touchscreen programs
• content development and production
• graphic interface multimedia design
• dynamic soundscapes in all galleries
• species identification touchscreens
• on-site implementation and commissioning of all works

Awards

The Wild Reef media programs were awarded a Silver MUSE Award in 2003 by the American Association of Museums and in the same year were also awarded Best Multimedia Production by the Telenatura Environmental and Conservation Television Festival in Spain. In early 2004 Wild Reef also won the Gold World Medal for International New Media at the New York Festivals.

Project:

Wild Reef
John G Shedd Aquarium

Location

Chicago, USA