Glacier Museum

The Norwegian Glacier Museum is an award-winning interactive museum, situated in Fjærland next to the Sognefjord. Sarner has had a long history of working with the Norwegian Glacier Museum going back some 30 years when the museum first opened to the public. Completing three substantial upgrades for the Museum over the years, Sarner helped create a dramatic and exciting educational experience about glaciers and climate change.

Location

Fjærland, Norway

Services

Creative and Technical Design - Content Development - Media and Film Production - Interactive Technologies - Sets, Scenics and Graphics - Lighting Design and Specification - Audiovisual Design and Specification - Art Direction - Show Control Specification - Show Programming - Technical Installation and Commissioning - Languages & Multinational Support - Support & Maintenance - Ongoing Upgrades and Extensions

Links

Glacier Museum

Our solution

As part of its first commission for the museum some 30 years ago, Sarner's team built a replica of a glacier that visitors walk through to experience what it is like being under a glacier.

Sarner's second commission for the museum was to create an experiential exhibit on climate change in the new purpose-built museum extension. 'Our fragile climate' exhibition delivers a highly interactive immersive experience as visitors travel in time and journey through six zones that demonstrate the past, present and future effects of climate change on our world.

The first part of the exhibition introduces the natural changes in climate. Visitors travel through time and experience the birth of our planet nearly five billion years ago, the warm climate during the Tertiary when huge mammals inhabited the Earth, and the cold climate during the last ice age. Then, the human race appeared and began to influence the climate. The second part of the exhibition deals with our future. Visitors experience different scenarios for the years 2040 and 2100, and learn about the challenges we will meet.

Our recent third commission for the Norwegian Glacier Museum was to create an outdoor exhibition 'Educational Playground' where the youngest visitors get to learn about the woolly mammoth, sea level rises and moraines.

Features

'Our fragile climate' exhibition begins in the past with EARTH CREATION. Here visitors witness the dramatic creation of the Earth over four billion years ago with meteors crashing above their heads and molten lava flowing beneath their feet. The ground shakes as an earthquake tremor is felt, and the audience sees the earth forming.

Visitors move forward in time to 40 million years ago when great mammals roamed the earth - this is the TERTIARY JUNGLE where visitors get to experience the greenhouse effect in a hot, humid jungle surrounded by strange animal sounds. Flat screen monitors continue the story using CGI animation sequences enhanced by dramatic lighting effects.

Then the Earth grows colder, as it did 20,000 years ago, and visitors walk through an air curtain to THE LAST ICE AGE. In this room lighting is key to create a shimmering luminosity that depicts ice and freezing cold temperatures, while CGI animation communicates the physics of how the orbit and tilt of the Earth created the ice age. Visitors also get to experience a real piece of glacier ice!

The last room prior to Sir David Attenborough’s narration is THE FUTURE, which is split into three areas. The first, set in 2040, shows the potential impact that man could have on Earth with a futuristic style news studio for the climate channel. The second part, a disaster scenario set in 2100, portrays what will happen if nothing is done to change the future and features a dramatic sculpture of a family of climate refugees as its centre piece. The final part depicts an uplifting scenario of how things could be in 2100 if we change for the better with an interactive floor projection of a desert that changes into water – a real hit with younger visitors. The exhibit culminates with an evocative narration by Sir David Attenborough in a powerful video production where he concludes with, “We still have time to act to make changes that will secure the life of this planet. This is the only home we have.”

Sustainability

'Our fragile climate' exhibition was designed to be fully automated. To reduce energy wastage and minimise wear and tear on the system, each of the exhibition spaces contain a movement sensor to monitor occupancy. If an area is not occupied then the control system will slowly shut down the equipment until an operator triggers the next show. In addition, LED light fittings were chosen to ensure energy consumption throughout the exhibition is kept to a minimum – effectively practicing what its content preaches.

'Sarner’s work was to their usual high standard. The attraction was extremely well received not only by the general public but also the scientists and academics who visited the museum.'

Nils Paulsen Museum Director