Museums · 2025
Exhibition for the 100th anniversary of Artek at the Suuk-Su Palace
Museums / Exhibition for the 100th anniversary of Artek at the Suuk-Su Palace
About the project
Software for three interactive exhibits at the exhibition for the 100th anniversary of Artek at the Suuk-Su Palace: a projection book, display cases with touch-screen labels, and the map of Artek’s friends.
In 2025 the Artek International Children’s Centre turned one hundred. For the anniversary, the exhibition space “Artek, 100 per cent” opened at the Suuk-Su Palace on 5 February 2025 — seven themed zones on the century-long history of the centre, from the founders of the camp to today’s Artek children. The 136 m² exhibition was created by Reklamny Prospekt LLC under a state contract with Artek.
We wrote the software for three interactive exhibits: a projection book with the Artek chronicle, display cases with touch-screen labels, and the map of Artek’s friends, which responds to touch.
Year
2025
Industry
Museums
Scope of work
Software for 3 interactive installations
Venue
Suuk-Su Palace, Artek International Children’s Centre, Gurzuf
- 3
- interactive installations
- 105
- countries on the map of Artek’s friends
- 05.02.2025
- opening of the exhibition
The task
Under the Artek brief, the exhibition is built around interactive exhibits: visitors do not just look but choose for themselves what to learn. Three installations needed software: the book had to know which spread is open; the screen by the display case had to light up the item the visitor chose; the map on the wall had to know which country was pressed. The whole job ran from 22 November to 16 December 2024.
What we did
Projection book
The “Artek chronicle” zone. A real book lies on a stand, with a projector shining onto its pages. Each spread is a landmark event in the history of Artek, the first being “1925. The beginning of the Artek camp”. The visitor turns a page, the software recognises the spread by its barcode and changes the image on the pages. Next to it is an illuminated display case.
Display cases with touch-screen labels
In front of the display case of gifts that foreign delegations brought to Artek stands a touch screen. The visitor selects an item on the screen, that very item lights up in the case, and information about it appears on the screen. Touch-screen labels were also made for a second display case, with an interactive frame and a TV set.
Map of Artek’s friends
A world map projected onto the wall. While nobody approaches the map, markers light up one after another for the countries and cities the centre works with — 105 countries — while photographs and video clips play at the side. The visitor touches a marker, and photos and videos from that country appear on the wall. Touch works for 15 of the countries.
How it is built
Book: the pages carry barcodes, from which a reader recognises the open spread and sends a command to the computer, which changes the image the projector casts onto the pages.
Display cases: the touch screen is linked to the case lighting — the software switches on the light at the selected item.
Map: touches on the wall are detected by a laser lidar (a Hokuyo in the brief); we wrote the tracking system for it. The whole image — the map, markers, photos and videos — is cast onto the wall by a projector. Under the brief the area is about 3 m wide and 4.5 m high.
Result
We handed over the software on 16 December 2024. On the same day an Artek commission accepted the exhibition from the general contractor with no comments. The exhibition opened on 5 February 2025; the ribbon was cut by Artek children from the first session of 2025.
