American Enterprise is a new permanent exhibition in the new Innovation Wing at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Cortina Productions’ work for the museum included 17 interactives, 17 online mobile-friendly interactives, and nine videos. We worked collaboratively with the curatorial team and exhibit designers to create unique, yet cohesive, ways to help illustrate the role of business in shaping the American experience. Our work spans all four “eras” of the exhibition starting in the Merchant Era in the 1770s, through the Corporate and Consumer Eras, to the Global Era of the present day.
Featured experiences begin with the six-screen interactive “Intro Wall” situated at the entrance to the exhibition, which serves to entice visitors into the exhibition with fun and surprising interactions with featured objects. The Exchange features two signature media interactives including “Farming Challenge,” where visitors can take a seat in a mock tractor and see if they have what it takes to be a farmer, and the Kinect-based “Triple Bottom Line,” where visitors work as a group to run a fictional cat food company and try to balance the triple bottom line.
TEAM
Media Design & Production by Cortina Productions
Exhibit Design by Haley Sharpe Design
Exhibit Fabrication and AV Systems by D&P