Museums · 2022
Zavetam Verny
Museums / Zavetam Verny
About the project
Two interactive applications for the “Zavetam Verny” exhibition at the Victory Museum: a database of heroes of the special military operation and the Great Patriotic War, and a stand with videos in which the face of a 1940s soldier turns into the face of a special military operation serviceman.
On 9 December 2022, Heroes of the Fatherland Day, the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Hill opened “Zavetam Verny”, a multimedia exhibition project about modern-day Heroes of Russia — participants in the special military operation. Its 250 square metres hold about a thousand stories, parallels with heroes of the Great Patriotic War, materials by war correspondents, a copy of the bas-relief of the Saur-Mogila memorial and the “Letter to a soldier” area. The exhibition was prepared by the Victory Museum.
For the exhibition we made two interactive applications on the parallels between generations: “Parallels”, a search for a hero and their counterpart from another era, and “Parallels morphing”, where the visitor chooses a pair of heroes and watches a video in which the face of a hero of the Great Patriotic War turns into the face of a hero of the special military operation. Less than three weeks passed from the start of work to the opening.
Year
2022
Industry
Museums
Scope of work
2 interactive applications: “Parallels” and “Parallels morphing”
Venue
Victory Museum, Moscow, the “Zavetam Verny” exhibition
- 2
- interactive applications
- 18
- pairs of heroes in “Parallels morphing”
- 09.12.2022
- exhibition opens on Heroes of the Fatherland Day
The task
As the museum conceived it, the key section of the exhibition is the unity of the feat of the country's defenders in the years of the Great Patriotic War and today. It needed two applications.
A database of heroes: the visitor finds a person, reads their story and, if the hero has a “parallel” from another era, sees it alongside; filters cover branches of the armed forces, blood kinship and unity of the feat. The museum kept adding to the database right up to the opening.
A stand with videos: the visitor chooses a pair of heroes and starts a video on the projection in which the face of a Great Patriotic War soldier transforms into the face of a special military operation serviceman, with ranks, awards and the feat shown as text.
What we did
“Parallels”
An application for vertical touch screens built into walls with red light zigzags. The idle screen shows a hero's portrait and a “Start” button. Inside are search by surname, filters by branch of the armed forces (Ground Forces, Aerospace Forces, Navy) and hero cards with the story of the feat and the awards; next to a hero who has a pair, their “parallel” appears. The original database from the technical specification contains 49 pairs of heroes of the special military operation and the Great Patriotic War.
“Parallels morphing”
A touch stand in front of a wall projection. The panel shows pairs of portraits marked “Great Patriotic War” and “Special military operation”. The visitor chooses a pair, and a video starts on the wall: the face of the Great Patriotic War hero turns into the face of the special military operation hero, alongside the name, rank, awards and feat. There are 18 pairs in all, among them Guards Captain Vladimir Bakhirev and Guards Senior Lieutenant Nurmagomed Gadzhimagomedov, medical service lieutenants Fedora Pushina and Mariya Miroshnichenko, Air Marshal Alexander Pokryshkin and fighter pilot Major Viktor Dudin.
How it is built
Both applications are designed for a resolution of 1920×1080 or 1920×1200: “Parallels” runs on touch screens, while in “Parallels morphing” a touch panel controls the projection on the wall.
Our work on “Parallels” covered the interface of the control module, building and testing the application, and installation on site.
Timeline: work began on 20 November 2022, on-site testing took place on 5 December and the opening on 9 December, and post-opening fixes based on feedback were completed by 14 December.
Result
In the first two months the exhibition had more than 150,000 visitors, and in the first year almost a million. The museum extended it from 26 February to 28 May 2023, and again in autumn 2023. In May 2024, while the exhibition was still running, we refined its software: sorting and filtering by month and year were replaced with folders.
