A national icon, transformed
National Portrait Gallery
Interpretive films and interactive exhibits
London, UK
Overview
The renowned National Portrait Gallery, London, closed its doors in the spring of 2020 and embarked on a complete rethink of how to display their collection. The renovation included the 200-year-old museum’s first foray to incorporate digital media and interpretation in their galleries. And that’s when ngx arrived.
ngx was brought in with a tight timeline of nine months to plan, design, create, and execute. We collaborated on 50 multimedia exhibits, including AI-powered “living” portraits, interactive touchscreens, documentary films, and a massive, animated projection wall that feature some of the Gallery's most recognizable portraits.
Central image on the right: Gillian Wearing ('Me as Julia Margaret Cameron and two muses') © Gillian Wearing, courtesy Maureen Paley, London.
Beautiful animations, crisp documentary films, and evocative interactives invite visitors to engage with the collection in a new light. We worked with NPG staff to build trust, establish shared foundations, involve key stakeholders in the process, and deliver experiences that meet the diverse requirements of curators, board members, and experts from a range of fields.
Fresh Experiential Opportunities
Massive, animated projections of some of the Gallery’s most famous portraits greet visitors as they enter and ascend to the first floor. As these portraits come to life, they set the tone for the visitors’ entire visit.
Top left image: Demonstration of Anti-Racist Committee of Asians in East London (including Mala Sen and Chomok Ali Noor) © Paul Trevor.
The ambitious interactive—“Playful Portraits”—allows visitors to manipulate a portrait with their facial gestures. Our solution-integrated, AI-supported camera tracks visitors’ facial expressions and map them onto the portrait.
