SUE the T. rex Experience: Projection Mapping

Temporary Exhibition | Field Museum

My Role

• Creative Direction

• Story Development

• Media Production

• Projection Mapping

• Cross-disciplinary Collaboration

Overview

SUE the T. rex Experience is the Field Museum's permanent exhibition centered around SUE, the world's most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. To deepen visitors' connection with this iconic fossil, I led the creative development of the SUE Light Show—an immersive projection mapping experience that combined theatrical lighting, animation, sound, and narration to transform scientific research into a cinematic storytelling experience. Later, I collaborated with exhibit developers and lighting designers to adapt the experience for the SUE the T. rex Experience Traveling Exhibition, reimagining the original show using portable theatrical lighting while preserving its educational and emotional impact.

Creative Direction

The goal of the SUE Light Show was to transform the world's most complete T. rex skeleton from a static fossil display into a living story. Rather than simply presenting scientific facts, I wanted visitors to experience SUE as an individual animal whose injuries, survival, and mysteries could be revealed through light, sound, and cinematic storytelling.

My process began with extensive research into SUE's paleontological history, exploring not only the skeleton's remarkable 90% completeness but also the visible injuries and unanswered scientific questions that continue to fascinate researchers. Working closely with curators and exhibit developers, I distilled complex scientific content into a narrative that was both scientifically accurate and emotionally engaging for visitors of all ages.

The creative direction centered on using projection mapping, theatrical lighting, sound, and narration as a unified storytelling language. Every projected sequence, lighting transition, and audio cue was designed to guide visitors through key moments in SUE's life while emphasizing the fossil's scientific significance. Throughout production, I collaborated with museum staff to refine the pacing, visuals, and storytelling, ensuring the experience balanced educational content with moments of discovery and wonder.

Challenge

Creating the SUE Light Show required balancing storytelling, technology, and scientific interpretation within one of the Field Museum's most iconic spaces. Unlike a traditional projection surface, SUE's fossil skeleton presented a highly irregular three-dimensional form, making projection mapping onto the specimen a meticulous and technically demanding process that required months of testing, alignment, and refinement.

The experience also needed to seamlessly integrate multiple storytelling elements—including projection mapping, theatrical lighting, voiceover narration, and an original musical score—into a cohesive narrative. Every visual cue, lighting transition, and audio beat had to work together to guide visitors through SUE's story while maintaining scientific accuracy and emotional impact. Adding another layer of complexity, the installation operated within a continuous 20-minute gallery loop. The experience had to capture visitors entering at different moments, communicate a complete story without disrupting gallery flow, and transition naturally back to the beginning so it could run continuously throughout the day.

These creative and technical constraints required close collaboration across exhibit development, scientific content, media production, and lighting design to ensure the final experience felt seamless, immersive, and accessible to a broad audience.

Adapting the Experience for a Traveling Exhibition

When the exhibition was adapted into a traveling experience, we faced a new creative challenge: recreate the emotional impact of the original installation without projection mapping. Working alongside exhibit developers and lighting designers, I helped reimagine the show using portable theatrical lighting and a replicated SUE skeleton. I collaborated on rewriting the narration to fit the new format and produced an animatic with synchronized lighting cues that served as a creative blueprint for the lighting team.

To establish the visual language, I designed atmospheric lighting concepts in After Effects—including forest environments and the asteroid impact sequence—that informed the look, timing, and emotional rhythm of the final installation. Together with the lighting designers, we translated these digital concepts into theatrical lighting effects that could travel between venues.

Because projected imagery was no longer available, we explored new techniques to tell SUE's story. Using UV lighting and carefully placed painted details, we highlighted the fossil's injuries—including the holes in the jaw, broken ribs, injured leg, arthritis, and fused tail vertebrae—allowing narration and lighting to reveal scientific discoveries in a dramatic and accessible way. Through ongoing collaboration with the lighting team and exhibit developers, we refined each sequence to preserve the storytelling intent and scientific accuracy of the original experience while meeting the practical demands of a touring exhibition.

Outcome

The resulting traveling exhibition successfully translated the immersive storytelling of the Field Museum's permanent installation into a flexible touring format. By reimagining projection mapping as a theatrical lighting experience, the exhibition preserved the emotional impact of SUE's story while making it possible for audiences around the world to experience the life and legacy of one of the most iconic dinosaurs ever discovered.

Following its opening, the experience received consistently strong audience responses across venues, reflecting high levels of visitor engagement and the effectiveness of the storytelling approach in creating an accessible and emotionally resonant experience within the gallery space.

Industry Recognition & Documentation

The SUE Light Show has been recognized and documented through industry-facing platforms highlighting its creative and technical approach to immersive exhibition design. At Half Rez, I presented the development of the project, focusing on the creative direction and technical execution behind the projection mapping system. The talk explored how narrative structure, lighting design, sound, and animation were integrated to transform a static fossil display into a cinematic visitor experience.

The project was also featured in an official Sharp/NEC case study, which documents the projection mapping system developed for SUE the T. rex Experience at the Field Museum. The case study highlights the collaborative process between creative, technical, and exhibit teams in translating complex scientific content into an immersive, spatial storytelling environment. Together, these features reflect the project’s impact beyond the museum gallery, positioning it within broader conversations around experiential media, projection mapping, and exhibition storytelling.

Reflection

This was my first projection mapping project, marking a significant expansion of my practice into spatial and immersive storytelling. While I had not previously worked in projection mapping, I drew on my background in filmmaking, narrative design, and exhibition media to shape the visual language and storytelling structure of the experience. Working on SUE the T. rex Experience sparked a deeper interest in designing fully immersive environments that integrate multiple disciplines. It became a turning point in my practice, expanding how I think about the relationship between narrative, space, and audience engagement.

Since then, it has informed my continued focus on developing integrated storytelling systems that bring together creative direction, interpretive planning, soundscapes, and cinematic media within physical environments.