Illusion and distraction are put to work in Tonkin Liu’s design for an exhibition on the recent past of our unfolding future

Buildings.

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Alex Peacock

A desire to lead visitors through an unfolding landscape of information while distracting them from familiar aspects of their environment was the starting point for architect Tonkin Liu’s design of the exhibition ‘AI: More than Human, at London’s Barbican Centre (16 May-26 August 2019). “The Curve gallery of the Barbican is a familiar space to London’s exhibition-visiting public”, says the architect. “A very long single sweeping curve gives the gallery its name and its strongest, most memorable characteristic. To reset the visitors’ conscious memory, the space is transformed and expanded with illusion, transporting visitors to an infinite, otherworldly place beyond the walls of The Curve”.

The exhibition tells the story of the rapidly developing field of Artificial Intelligence, exploring the evolution of the relationship between humans and technology. Its design (with graphic design by Mother and lighting by Seam) uses suspended fabric screens, mirrored walls, and floating artefact cabinets – or ‘megaliths’ – to create an immersive journey through the gallery. “To reset the visitors’ conscious memory, the space is transformed and expanded with illusion, transporting visitors to an infinite, otherworldly place beyond the walls of The Curve”, says the architect.

Ampetheatre

Diaphanous white screens, made of theatre scrim cloth, create distinct spaces tailored to particular themes within the exhibition. “Coiling, hanging, curving inwards and outwards, dynamically lit from within and from without, the screens vary in form, geometry, proportion, and transparency to create a sequence of animated spaces drawing visitors forward through the exhibition”, says the architect.

All surfaces of the existing gallery are finished in matt black, and both sides of the six-metre-high space are mirrored. At low level, a mist manifestation on the mirror obscures the visitor’s eye-level view of themselves. At high level, above the mist, “projections onto screens in the plane of the mirror create a sea of floating moving images that are reflected in the infinite blackness”, says the architect. The moving coloured light of the projected content can be seen through the mist-like full-height screens that articulate the unfolding journey into the future of AI.

Additional Images

Drawings