After the Age of Dinosaurs: News Giants Projection Mapping
Immersive Gallery Experience | Field Museum
My Role
Creative Direction
Projection Mapping
Experience Design
Media Production
Cross-disciplinary Collaboration
Overview
The New Giants section of the After the Age of Dinosaurs gallery called for an immersive projection mapping experience that could communicate the emergence of massive mammals, birds, and reptiles such as Titanoboa following the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Creative Challenge
Visitors needed to understand that after the extinction of the dinosaurs, Earth wasn't empty—it became a world of extraordinary new giants. My challenge was to translate millions of years of evolutionary change into a visually immersive experience that could be understood in just a few minutes.
Rather than presenting a traditional timeline, I wanted visitors to feel as though they were stepping into a living prehistoric ecosystem. Large-scale projection, cinematic pacing, and layered environmental sound helped transform the gallery into an emotional transition from destruction to renewal.
Creative Direction & Story Development
I created the projection mapping for the installation, using Chicago artist Jay Ryan’s bold, large-scale illustrations as the visual foundation. These artworks were projection-mapped onto custom-cut forms representing mammals, birds, and Titanoboa, transforming static imagery into a dynamic, immersive environment where each species emerged with heightened presence and scale. The installation transports visitors into a vivid post-dinosaur landscape where towering new creatures feel both present and alive. Through the interplay of light, motion, and sound, the gallery immerses audiences in the scale and drama of Earth’s evolutionary transformation, making it a memorable and multi-sensory highlight of the exhibition.
Creative Direction Highlights
Directe the creative vision for a large-scale projection mapping experience.
Directed the integration of projection, animation, and original sound into a cohesive narrative.
Collaborated with illustrators, animators, composers, exhibit designers, and curators.
Translated paleontological research into an emotionally engaging visitor experience.
Soundscape Concept
To deepen the sensory impact of the experience, I collaborated with composer Jesse Solomon Clark to develop an original soundscape that layered deep melodic tones and resonant textures, evoking the scale, power, and atmosphere of Earth's emerging post-dinosaur giants. Projection mapping and sound were conceived as a unified storytelling system, working together to transform scientific research into an immersive, emotionally resonant visitor experience.
Reflection
This project reinforced my approach to creative direction as a practice of spatial storytelling—where science, environment, and narrative converge to shape how audiences experience deep time. By using projection mapping as an immersive narrative system, New Giants transforms evolutionary history into a lived environment, allowing visitors to feel the scale and momentum of life reshaping the planet after extinction.
