Folger Shakespeare Library

For the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, we collaborated with Pentagram and the Folger Shakespeare Library to create the exhibit “Shakespeare, Life of an Icon”. This exhibition kicked off “The Wonder of Will”, a yearlong celebration at the Folger commemorating Shakespeare through special events, exhibitions, performances, and other programming.

Touchscreens

For this exhibition, we created three touchscreen applications. The first is an interactive timeline of English Plays, including Shakespeare’s work. The work are displayed by year, with the participant able to dig deeper through each selection to find out more. We also created two applications that utilize half-silvered mirrors to allow participants to trace images drawn on the screen. The first of these applications walks the user through designing a coat of arms, and the second shows the user how to write using secretary hand, a sixteenth century handwriting system.

Photographs by Yassine El Mansouri

The Cloud

The Cloud is an animated projection on the ceiling of the Folger’s historic Great Hall, an expansive hallway that extends a full block with two-story ceilings. The projection is seamlessly displayed across the entirety of the ceiling by nine projectors, projecting a 40 minute animated sequence comprised of eight segments. The segments borrow from books, engravings, and woodcuts from the time of Shakespeare, including the works of Shakespeare himself.