01
Year 3, Oct 2026
Spatial research and 3D exhibition
MAP, Reimagined Experience
I studied how a museum paces people, then built my own.
When
Year 3, Oct 2026
What
Spatial research and 3D exhibition
Tools
Blender
My part
The museum visit was with teammates. In the gallery, the curation, space and lighting are mine, the comic pages are by other artists.
I mapped a visit to the Museum of Art and Photography as a journey, then built a virtual comics gallery from what I learned: two halls joined by a glass bridge lit like a comic gutter, eight named sections, about 40 lights. The comic pages are by other artists. My part is the curation, the space and the lighting.
Why I made it
I went to the Museum of Art and Photography with teammates for a college assignment, and I chose it to study how a museum manages the way people move, and how it uses technology to make traditional art feel immersive.
The art was only half of what I was looking at. My main focus was how each piece was positioned, how much space it was given and how it was lit. I mapped how long I stayed in each zone, where I backtracked and where I hurried.
Reading a space felt incomplete without trying to make one, so I built my own gallery around comic pages, using what the museum had done to me.
Two halls and the bridge between them.
Plan with the visitor route drawn in light.
One corner of the gallery from above.
Arriving at the bridge.
The model, before lighting.
Only the lamps.
The Messenger hall, finished.
Heroes.
Transformations.
Cities.
Inner Worlds.
Room B.
Looking back through Room B.
The point was to learn that an exhibition is more than the objects in it, and to practise designing the rest.
The pacing, the sightlines, the light, the walk between one room and the next. The bridge is lit like the gutter between comic panels, so crossing it works like turning to the next panel.
How it moved
The visit
Visible/Invisible, on the 4th floor at MAP. Three zones, over about an hour and a half.
The map
A journey map in Blender, coloured by how long I stayed: over three minutes, one to two, or straight through.
The finding
A narrow spotlit corridor slowed us down. A warmer room around a glass centrepiece opened us up.
The gallery
Two halls, a bridge, eight named sections and about 40 lights.
The work
Learning
Museums are designed, and I learned to read that design. At MAP, a narrow, spotlit corridor slowed us down and a warm room with a glass centrepiece opened us up. I also thought the minimal lighting was style. It protects the works. I should research before I assume.
Design
I observed, mapped, researched, compared what the museum intended with what I experienced, then built my own. My view moved from “make it beautiful” to “space is a pacing tool”.
Experience
You enter, cross the bridge and move from Cities to Inner Worlds under warm and cool light, like walking through comic panels in 3D. I haven’t tested it with visitors. I’d want to watch where they stop and where they hurry, and compare that with what I intended.
What others showed me
At MAP, the curators and artists did most of the teaching. Reading how they planned the galleries, I kept thinking, how did they come up with that, and why couldn't I?
Strongest at
Spatial narrative: pacing, sightlines, lighting, labels.
Still growing
Real-scale architecture and exhibition logistics.
Next
An exhibition at real scale, with a floor plan, a lighting plot, a visitor-flow test and accessibility, working with a curator.