SUE the T.rex Experience — LATOYA C. FLOWERS

The SUE light show is a projection mapping installation featured in the Field Museum’s permanent exhibition the SUE Experience. The multimedia installation includes; composed music and voice over narration to tell the story of SUE’s injuries, how the skeleton is 90% complete and unanswered questions about the specimen. It took 1.5 year to conceptualize, prototype and create the projection mapping for the SUE light show. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the media was created.

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SUE EXPERIENCE LIGHT SHOW

Photo by John Weinstein

PRESS REVIEWS

“A light show points out the details of SUE’s skeleton and helps visitors engage with significant scientific findings on the structure.” Manuel Martinez, WBEZ

“After learning about Sue’s beginnings, you’re then taken to another room where the dinosaur is showcased. For a neat experience, I’d suggest grabbing a seat along the wall and waiting for the narrated show. During the show, the lights are dimmed and Sue looks more ferocious than ever! Specific bones on the skeleton are then highlighted revealing healed broken ribs to a jaw infection that scientists say may have led to Sue’s death.” Cheryl Eugenio, Chicago Parent

“Are you wearing running shoes?” asks the new explanatory video projected onto and around Sue’s bones and playing every 20 or so minutes. No matter. If you were this close to the real creature, “it would be too late.” It is not too late, however, to see Sue anew, no matter how familiar Chicagoans think they may be with this dinosaur, a core point of civic pride since it was first mounted here in 1990. The Field, in its 125th anniversary year, bet that it could reinvigorate the $8.4 million skeleton, and, as a Tuesday media preview of the new exhibition showed, it has succeeded.” Steve Johnson, Chicago Tribune

BEHIND-THE-SCENES