Video description: Visitors interact with a large projection of Netherlandish artwork by walking close to it. As they approach geometric shapes reveal additional imagery and text. On one painting, a couple holds a flower that has been animated to wilt.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Flow is an immersive, interactive introduction to the reinstalled Netherlandish Art galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The room-scale installation pairs landscapes with soundscapes and uses camera sensing and projection to dynamically reveal layers of content as visitors draw near. Flow elevates the immersive beyond mere spectacle, presenting masterful works of Dutch and Flemish painters at architectural scale with presence-responsive storytelling.
Architectural storytelling
Flow surrounds visitors with high-resolution scans of in-gallery Netherlandish masterpieces, projected at architectural scale. A reactive “flow” layer sits atop 8K imagery, allowing the painted landscapes to feel alive. Visitors step into the world of Dutch and Flemish painters before entering the galleries.
Video description: Two visitors stand before a large-scale digital display in a darkened museum gallery, where an animated historic nautical map and classic landscape paintings are projected on the wall, while text prompts visitors to reflect on how travel transforms place and perspective.
Presence over touch
This room-scale installation pairs landscapes with soundscapes, using camera sensing and projections to dynamically reveal layers of content as visitors draw near.
Video description: Visitors stand before a large immersive projection of historic Dutch landscape paintings, as animated hexagonal panels float over the artwork to reveal layered contextual information — including maps, archival illustrations, and facts about immigration and trade in 17th-century Amsterdam.
Layers of meaning
Flow weaves together topics ranging from the first speculative market crash and Dutch idioms tied to the sea, to the difficult ways Netherlandish wealth was bound up with the Transatlantic slave trade.
Video description: Visitors stand before a large-scale immersive projection that cycles through Dutch Golden Age paintings — cityscapes, seascapes, and landscapes — while animated hexagonal panels overlay contextual facts about Dutch art history, immigration, and ancestry, revealing that nearly 5 million paintings were produced in 100 years and that 98% of Dutch people today have foreign ancestors.
Video description: A close-up, animated view of a Dutch Golden Age cityscape painting slowly comes to life as floating geometric panels emerge from the architecture, revealing archival illustrations and contextual details while posing the question: "How does a city become a hub of global activity?"
Video description: An animated close-up of a Dutch Golden Age maritime painting transitions into a detailed historic nautical map, with overlaid geometric panels and text exploring water as both a threat and an opportunity in Dutch history.
By pairing visual splendor with honest narrative, the installation encourages visitors to look more closely at the works in the galleries and to think critically about the histories they hold.
George Scharoun | Manager of Exhibition and Gallery MediaBluecadet’s team of technologists and storytellers were the best partners we could ask for. Flow is a case-study in elevating the immersive beyond mere spectacle.
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