Designing interactions with the moon (part 1)
Last year Fieldwork Facility was commissioned to create a series of experiential design concepts that would celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing.
We received an open brief to think about the moon through the lenses of transformation, wonder, and health. The projects were super fun and tied into our thinking around playable cities. I’d love to share with you three of our favorite concepts starting with ‘The Circle Line Orbital’,
You can read part 2 here: ‘Echoes of a Moonwalk’
You can read part 3 here: ‘This is Mission Control. Please Report…’
Concept 1: The Circle Line Orbital
What if we could inspire Londoner’s to think about the Moon and their relationship to space travel as they move around the city?
This concept is about creating a playful space to be inspired by the moon and unearthly adventures.
The sound of space travel
First, we create a series of small scale interventions at tube stations along the circle line. Ticket Halls and corridors would play a specially orchestrated piece of music that will transport commuters into the mindset of unearthly adventures.
To create this unearthly music we proposed to collaborate with a British composer. Together we would make a special composition that would be recorded in an abandoned underground station and performed by all of the official TfL buskers… The guitarists, the singers, the didgeridoo players and harpists and everyone in-between, they are all welcome.
Circle Line Orbital Posters
To support the Circle Line Orbital we proposed two series of posters that could feature on station platforms along the Circle Line Orbital. For the first series of posters, we wanted to invite inspiring Londoners to create space aphorisms that could be made into posters.
Next, we thought it would be fun to create a hero poster that could feature across all TfL sites (not just the circle line). In the tradition of TfL posters that invite people to visit a different part of London we suggested we create posters that invite people to visit the moon or another place in space.
Interventions on the tube
For the anniversary itself, we proposed that a tube on the circle line receives messages from Mission Control over the tannoy; we wanted the intermittent voiceover to create an entertaining relationship between passenger and the moon.
Moonshot
For our moonshot, we proposed to go even further. We could build on Mission Control’s announcements that come over the train's tannoy with strange happenings along the journey.
Astronauts could get on and off along the route interacting with people before getting off at different stations. Perhaps even at one or two stations, we could create a small intervention… a platform bench is mysteriously floating in the air… TfL staff in space suits come to inspect and cordon off the bench looking into gravity anomaly’s.
Watch this space (sorry) later this week, we will be sharing two other experiential concepts of how Londoners could interact with the Moon.
Read part 2 here: ‘Echoes of a Moonwalk’
Read part 3 here: ‘This is Mission Control. Please Report…’
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