Smart Wall — making the collection explorable at scale.
An interactive installation for the grand opening of Museum Barberini, Potsdam, built on the largest 4K LCD available at the time, with an iPad Pro as the remote. Three ways into the Impressionist collection. One feature that went beyond what any physical hanging could offer.
A technology given.
An opportunity earned.
The team inherited a fixed constraint: the largest 4K LCD available at the time, paired with an iPad Pro. No flexibility on hardware. The design challenge was making that combination feel inevitable. Museum Barberini’s strong corporate identity gave us a visual foundation. The brief: be ready for the grand opening.
The Smart Wall had to work for every visitor without instruction: art historians, families, first-timers, VIPs at the gala. Compelling enough to stop someone mid-step, simple enough that they’d know what to do the moment they stopped.
Four ways in. One feature only a screen could offer.
Browse by artist, by geographic location, by theme, or along a timeline. Each mode for a different kind of curiosity. All four share the same dark visual language: built for the brightness of a museum entrance, legible at distance, immediate up close.
The standout feature came from the subject matter. Impressionist painting is inseparable from place: the cliffs at Étretat, the harbours of Normandy, the Seine. A photographer visited every location to document how it looks today. On the wall, a swipe reveals the contemporary photograph alongside the painting: same geography, a century apart. A layer of meaning no physical exhibition could add.
The iPad was a remote, not a second screen. No content duplication, keeping the visitor’s attention on the wall. Navigate on the device, experience on the display. The same logic as the iPhone Remote app for Apple TV.
January 23, 2017.
Crafted to last the night.
Months of user research, usability testing and technical calibration went into the installation before a single visitor arrived. The opening was a confident public debut, the result of maniacal precision, not a gamble. Visitors arrived, stood in front of the wall, and started exploring without guidance. By the end of the evening it had become the gravitational centre of the entrance hall.
