Museums · 2024
The “Pushkin and Ostafyevo” exhibition
Museums / The “Pushkin and Ostafyevo” exhibition
About the project
Touch-screen software for the permanent exhibition “Pushkin and Ostafyevo”, opened on 2 June 2024 at the Ostafyevo — Russian Parnassus Museum-Reserve.
The exhibition opened on 2 June 2024, the day of the 43rd Pushkin Poetry Festival and the eve of the poet’s 225th birthday. It occupies three halls on the second floor of the manor house and tells of Pushkin’s friendship with Prince P.A. Vyazemsky, the poet’s three visits to Ostafyevo and how the estate’s owners preserved his memory.
We wrote two touch-screen programs for the exhibition — on the creative dialogue between Pushkin and Vyazemsky and on the Counts Sheremetev, the last owners of the estate — and set them up on the screens in the halls.
Year
2024
Industry
Museums
Scope of work
2 touch-screen applications
Venue
Ostafyevo — Russian Parnassus Museum-Reserve, Moscow
- 2
- touch-screen programs
- 2 of 3
- exhibition halls with our screens
- 02.06.2024
- exhibition opening
The task
Two touch-screen applications were needed, built to the same pattern: while nobody is at the screen, an animated attract loop plays; a touch opens the choice of topics; inside is a gallery of images with text, and the pictures can be enlarged. The software had to be delivered by 25 May 2024, tested on site by 30 May and supported until 1 June.
What we did
A.S. Pushkin and P.A. Vyazemsky: a creative dialogue
A framed touch screen among portraits in the hall on the poets’ youth, Romanticism and “Eugene Onegin”. The attract screen shows the title and a drawing of a muse in an arch. After a touch, a watercolour of the manor house appears with a choice of two sections: “Romanticism in Russian literature: A.S. Pushkin’s southern poems in the critical articles of P.A. Vyazemsky” and “A.S. Pushkin’s ‘Eugene Onegin’ in the responses of P.A. Vyazemsky”. The first section has tabs for the poems: “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “The Fountain of Bakhchisaray”, “The Gypsies”. Inside are engravings and portraits with full captions: title, authors, year, technique and the collection they come from. The page scrolls down, and there are “back” and “home” buttons.
The Counts Sheremetev
A framed vertical touch screen beside a bookcase and a display case, in the hall on how Pushkin’s memory was preserved at Ostafyevo. P.P. Vyazemsky’s daughter and son-in-law, Ye.P. and S.D. Sheremetev, opened a public museum on the estate. The screen invites: “Tap to find out”; then come a choice of topics and a gallery of photographs with text.
Commissioning
We launched and configured the software on the screens installed in the halls, tested how it handled the content, and supported it from 25 May to 1 June 2024.
How it is built
Both programs are written in Unity. The screens are framed on the walls of the halls; the contract specified a 22″ diagonal. The animated attract loop restarts after 60 seconds. The interface has “back” and “home” navigation, the prompts “Scroll down” and “Swipe the screen up”, and a button with a QR code. One style for both screens: a light background, a serif typeface, the drawing of a muse in an arch and the watercolour of the manor house.
Result
The exhibition opened on 2 June 2024. Both applications were running on the touch screens in its halls — as can be seen in a video about the exhibition published in August 2024.
