Glasnevin Trust Museum; first Cemetery Museum in the World

From an empty basement to an immersive, interactive and award winning Heritage Centre, the Glasnevin Museum is the first cemetery museum in the world. Visitors are invited to discover the social, historical, political and artistic development of modern Ireland through the lives of the generations buried in the Cemetery.

By using ten DisplayLite 40” interactive touch-screen displays, the Milestone Timeline enables the public to discover the relationships, influences and sometimes heart-wrenching stories of the generations that are buried there.

From the early stages the Trust approached internationally-renowned exhibition specialists Martello Media to create the Museums exhibits. From their brief and taking in the layout of the building, their concepts and theories took on two main aspects. The basement would focus on the funerals, burial practices, spiritual beliefs and even stories around grave diggers and body snatchers. The first floor on the other hand, with a stunning view of the Cemetery and surrounding landscape, would celebrate their lives and how they have shaped Ireland today.

Rob Reid, Director of New Media at Martello Media explains, “Glasnevin’s meticulous record-keeping of the 1.5 million lives gave us a vast amount of information with which to work. We selected some of the most interesting and relevant stories, and chose to build a 10m-long interactive table using full-HD DisplayLite touch-screen displays to tell the stories of these people, and to show the connections between them.”

Martello Media developed the program though a Quartz Composer application. It contains details of over 200 people, ranging from artists, politicians, and revolutionaries to the ordinary man. Each person has connections to other people that are shown as ‘links’ that stretch across all the tables, encouraging visitors to explore these relationships.

Martello sourced the touch screens from NEC-approved touch screen integration specialists DisplayLite, as they were experiencing some problems with the touch technology they originally selected. DisplayLite have provided interactive digital signage solutions for Martello on other projects in Ireland and came up with the solution.

Simon Perry, Marketing Director for DisplayLite says, “During our meeting it quickly became clear to us that the touch technology they were using wasn’t suitable in this particular application due to interference caused by the very close proximity of the touch sensors to each other. Having established this, and with a clearer understanding of the application, we recommended 3M™ MicroTouch™ Dispersive Signal Technology (DST) and integrated them into ten 40” NEC P401 professional displays.” These were supplied to Martello via DisplayLite’s distribution partner, Square One in Ireland.

Fusing these sleek, high-tech displays into a 10m-long beautiful custom-made table, Martello Media created the perfect housing for the systems, including the computers that were mounted to the underside of each screen and networked together.

Alison Crinion, Group Commercial and Marketing Manager for the Glasnevin Trust, worked closely with Martello and DisplayLite as the task of accurately embedding 200 lives in ten screens was a vast project.

Alison says, “Once the details and stories have been researched, fact-checked, proofed and linked to each other, the result is a combination of literal yet charming timelines taking you through history. The multimedia display also ensures that it appeals to a broad range of ages, engaging them in a way that will make it more memorable.

The screens also have room to fit more lives now and one of our ongoing projects is to ensure all future records are computerised and searchable online. As a sustainable project we needed to set ourselves apart from other heritage sites to attract more visitors, and we feel this can be achieved by using the digital technology in the Milestone Timeline.”

Delivering an immersive and integrated exhibition, Martello Media’s vision for the Glasnevin Museum has won them numerous prestigious awards in the short time it has been opened. They are the first Irish Museum to receive the THEA Awards (Themed Entertainment Association) for Outstanding Achievement and this year won two categories in the Digital Media Awards 2011: Winner of Best Digital Design and Grand Prix Winner.

The integration of traditional and digital media design throughout the museum and the subsequent awards have catapulted the Glasnevin Museum into a world-class visitor attraction. More importantly however, from the Trust’s point of view, it has secured a promising future for the Cemetery and will enable the Trust to continue its work on preserving the heritage of past generations of Irish men, women and children.

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Glasnevin Trust Museum; first Cemetery Museum in the World