Printed Space: Interactive Museum Floor

The most famous ship in the world, the RMS Titanic, pulled away from White Star Dock in Southampton at the start of her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. Five days later in the early hours of April 15 she sank with great loss of life after striking an iceberg. The disaster made headlines across the world. However, the impact of the tragedy was felt no more so than in Southampton. Most of the crew of the Titanic lived in the city and more than 500 households in Southampton lost at least one family member. 538 of the 714 crew members who gave a Southampton address were lost, the city was devastated.

Fast-forward 100 years. On April 10, 2012, exactly a century after the famous ship departed from the city, Southampton City Council opened SeaCity Museum.

The museum has used the floor space to create large interactive displays for visitors to walk on. The “Southampton Gateway to the World” and the “Southampton Titanic Story” exhibitions have utilized Floorink’s capabilities with Printed Space having printed and installed nearly 300sqm of vintage and Ordnance Survey mapping of the local area.

The black and white historical map is littered with red dots – indicating homes that lost a loved one in the disaster.

As Floorink is fully customizable, it is an ideal flooring solution for exhibition floors such as this one. Several artwork elements can be layered and then printed as one floor product – rather than having to have additional stickers or vinyl graphics applied on top of a standard floor finish. In this case, the vintage map was scaled up to fit the room dimensions, and then using Photoshop, the red markers were put in their appropriate position to create a print file for production to work with.

The floor space around the one tonne model of the RMS Queen Mary features a printed map of Southampton Docks and its surrounding sea.

Dan Matthews from the museums curatorial team said: “The museum brings Southampton’s exciting maritime history to life through a series of interactive spaces designed to help visitors of all ages discover our city’s remarkable links to the sea. History is brought to life by focusing on specific characters and telling their stories using the latest technology, like touch screens and innovative museum interactions. We’ve worked with a number of experts to provide the most exciting experience possible for visitors of all ages.

There is some really fun stuff to do in the new museum, like steering the Titanic out of Southampton Water using brand new video technology. Or kids can have a race to see who can shovel coal fastest in the stoker’s game. Also, in the Marconi Room you can pretend to be a wireless operator and have a go at Morse code. In the Inquiry Room visitors can see the drama of the British Inquiry re-enacted, set in a fully restored historical courtroom. It’s all about bringing our amazing history to life.

Some of the exhibits are huge in scale, The Queen Mary model weighs over one tonne and is seven metres in length, it had to be moved from Southampton’s Maritime Museum, after it closed and taken to its new permanent home in SeaCity Museum. The model made a modest exit from its home of (over 20 years) through the top window at the front of building. It was then craned in to its new home at SeaCity Museum through a large opening with only 5mm clearance!

If you get chance to visit SeaCity over the coming months - please let us know what you think of our Floorink!

Sea City Museum, Havelock Road, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 7FY

http://www.seacitymuseum.co.uk/