What do Darth Vader, neural plasticity and vocational choices have in common? Everything, if you follow the logic of Star Wars Identities, a high-profile global touring show that landed at London’s O2 just before Christmas.
Powered by Star Wars creator George Lucas’s outstanding collection of original costumes, props and models from the film series, the exhibition prompts you to think about your own identity, propelled by an odd mix of contemporary science and movie clips. It’s a combination that works unevenly, but might give contemporary museums more to think about than a glance would suggest.
When Lucas sold the sprawling Star Wars world of films, games, comics, television and toys to Disney, he held on to his collections, and his interest in displaying them. Star Wars objects, alongside his movie ephemera and art collections, will form the core of his proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a populist take on the public art museum. It will be built in Los Angeles, California.
While architects and approval are being sorted out in the US, the cream of the Star Wars collections is being put to work in a pair of global touring exhibitions: one that concentrates on the films’ elaborate costumes; and Star Wars Identities.
This show has a different feel to recent Star Wars output – it’s less gritty than the latest movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and heavily dependent on the (much derided) prequel trilogy. Using the question of identity as its central conceit, it also attempts to lift the Star Wars concept on to higher ground than a show of memorabilia.
Foregrounding the characters of Luke and Anakin Skywalker – the hero who resisted the Dark Side and the villain who fell for it – the show explores what forces shaped their personalities and, by extension, shape ours.
Enough space?
To do this, Star Wars Identities weaves together three strands. It tells a science-based story about the formation of identity, using Luke and Anakin as examples; it offers an interactive pathway for visitors to develop their own identity within the Star Wars universe; and it displays some stunning objects and concept art from the Star Wars films.
You don’t have to be a big fan of the franchise to find these impressive: standouts are the original droid costumes from the first film, and a jaw-dropping case of spaceship models. Side panels showing how the fictional characters were developed will appeal more to the serious fans, with Yoda’s original gnome-like form, and the female prototype of Luke Skywalker.
The interactives are slick, and well-suited to a high volume of visitors, though bottlenecks form at the touchscreens when the O2 is busy. You are asked to choose a race, a gender, a home planet and your genetic inheritance, and then develop your character as you progress through the exhibition.
At the end, a composite avatar of your character is thrown up on to an impressive high-definition screen, and you can in theory email yourself the character you have created (although both times I tried, the email failed to arrive).
In the third strand, short videos explain scientific theories of character (in the sense of personality) development. A mix of high-end animation and clips from the movies illustrate theories of genetics, parenting, personality components and even vocational choice. Some of this is genuinely fresh and interesting, other parts are oddly deterministic and old- fashioned, and the relevance of the film clips mostly feels forced.
Embattled content
It’s more of a problem that the three strands often fail to cohere. Marvelling at the actual models and costumes used to achieve the movies’ effects is undermined by the way the interactives reinforce the Star Wars storyworld as “real”. The storyworld itself is weakened by the ability of visitors to create new characters, and the interactive journey isn’t always well-served by the placement of the objects.
Needless to say, the exhibition is also a straightforward celebration of the films: there is no critical distance to help us think about the meaning of the Star Wars phenomenon. The separation of the strands can be an enjoyable intergenerational experience – dads marvel at Han Solo frozen in carbonite while the kids get on with punching screens.
But more often the experience fails to gel, and the interactive and scientific context detracts from, rather than enriches, visitors’ experience of the objects. It’s certainly absorbing, however: my five-year- old son and I happily spent over an hour there, not counting the inevitably pricey gift shop.
The show is supported by two simple pieces of technology: a Fitbit-like wristband with which you touch the interactives to develop your character, and a receiver on a lanyard that connects to an earpiece for listening to the videos’ soundtracks and other audio. They’re curiously unimpressive – unbranded and not totemic, no mini-lightsabers or gimmicks to draw your attention to the technology.
Most of the time this transparency works, though the audio receiver is a little clunky and highly directional, prone to cutting out if you accidentally pass your hand over it. With high production values and expensive tickets, Star Wars Identities is a very commercial exhibition, perhaps of the kind that you used to see more often as buy-ins at science museums.
The London leg of the exhibition is housed in the former Millennium Dome, at the O2 on Greenwich Peninsula, a rather cold and unwelcoming venue. It is tempting to contrast this show with the purposeful and community-focused exhibitions that UK museums are getting better at making, and to conclude as a result that it has little to offer us by way of learning. Nevertheless, this exhibition raises three key questions that most contemporary museums still have to deal with.
Firstly, the lack of critical content in Star Wars Identities suggests that there’s a job for museums to do in making sense of recent popular culture – but it would be a complicated job, which would have to take into account both existing fandoms and the entertainment giants who own the rights to the works.
Secondly, the odd relationship the exhibition has with theories of personality reminds us to pay as much attention to the rigour of the science itself as we do to the relevance and context that it provides.
And lastly, as ever, we need to think very carefully about how interactive technology both enhances and detracts from the presence of objects. Like the question of our identities, these are problems for us all.
Danny Birchall is the digital manager of the Wellcome Collection in London
Cost Undisclosed
Main funder X3 Productions Exhibition design GSM Interpretation X3 Productions Graphic design GSM
Display cases GSM
Installation GSM; The O2 (for the London leg)
Contractors GSM
Lighting GSM
Exhibition ends 3 September 2017 Admission £25, Adult; £15, Child; Free for under 5
Powered by Star Wars creator George Lucas’s outstanding collection of original costumes, props and models from the film series, the exhibition prompts you to think about your own identity, propelled by an odd mix of contemporary science and movie clips. It’s a combination that works unevenly, but might give contemporary museums more to think about than a glance would suggest.
When Lucas sold the sprawling Star Wars world of films, games, comics, television and toys to Disney, he held on to his collections, and his interest in displaying them. Star Wars objects, alongside his movie ephemera and art collections, will form the core of his proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a populist take on the public art museum. It will be built in Los Angeles, California.
While architects and approval are being sorted out in the US, the cream of the Star Wars collections is being put to work in a pair of global touring exhibitions: one that concentrates on the films’ elaborate costumes; and Star Wars Identities.
This show has a different feel to recent Star Wars output – it’s less gritty than the latest movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and heavily dependent on the (much derided) prequel trilogy. Using the question of identity as its central conceit, it also attempts to lift the Star Wars concept on to higher ground than a show of memorabilia.
Foregrounding the characters of Luke and Anakin Skywalker – the hero who resisted the Dark Side and the villain who fell for it – the show explores what forces shaped their personalities and, by extension, shape ours.
Enough space?
To do this, Star Wars Identities weaves together three strands. It tells a science-based story about the formation of identity, using Luke and Anakin as examples; it offers an interactive pathway for visitors to develop their own identity within the Star Wars universe; and it displays some stunning objects and concept art from the Star Wars films.
You don’t have to be a big fan of the franchise to find these impressive: standouts are the original droid costumes from the first film, and a jaw-dropping case of spaceship models. Side panels showing how the fictional characters were developed will appeal more to the serious fans, with Yoda’s original gnome-like form, and the female prototype of Luke Skywalker.
The interactives are slick, and well-suited to a high volume of visitors, though bottlenecks form at the touchscreens when the O2 is busy. You are asked to choose a race, a gender, a home planet and your genetic inheritance, and then develop your character as you progress through the exhibition.
At the end, a composite avatar of your character is thrown up on to an impressive high-definition screen, and you can in theory email yourself the character you have created (although both times I tried, the email failed to arrive).
In the third strand, short videos explain scientific theories of character (in the sense of personality) development. A mix of high-end animation and clips from the movies illustrate theories of genetics, parenting, personality components and even vocational choice. Some of this is genuinely fresh and interesting, other parts are oddly deterministic and old- fashioned, and the relevance of the film clips mostly feels forced.
Embattled content
It’s more of a problem that the three strands often fail to cohere. Marvelling at the actual models and costumes used to achieve the movies’ effects is undermined by the way the interactives reinforce the Star Wars storyworld as “real”. The storyworld itself is weakened by the ability of visitors to create new characters, and the interactive journey isn’t always well-served by the placement of the objects.
Needless to say, the exhibition is also a straightforward celebration of the films: there is no critical distance to help us think about the meaning of the Star Wars phenomenon. The separation of the strands can be an enjoyable intergenerational experience – dads marvel at Han Solo frozen in carbonite while the kids get on with punching screens.
But more often the experience fails to gel, and the interactive and scientific context detracts from, rather than enriches, visitors’ experience of the objects. It’s certainly absorbing, however: my five-year- old son and I happily spent over an hour there, not counting the inevitably pricey gift shop.
The show is supported by two simple pieces of technology: a Fitbit-like wristband with which you touch the interactives to develop your character, and a receiver on a lanyard that connects to an earpiece for listening to the videos’ soundtracks and other audio. They’re curiously unimpressive – unbranded and not totemic, no mini-lightsabers or gimmicks to draw your attention to the technology.
Most of the time this transparency works, though the audio receiver is a little clunky and highly directional, prone to cutting out if you accidentally pass your hand over it. With high production values and expensive tickets, Star Wars Identities is a very commercial exhibition, perhaps of the kind that you used to see more often as buy-ins at science museums.
The London leg of the exhibition is housed in the former Millennium Dome, at the O2 on Greenwich Peninsula, a rather cold and unwelcoming venue. It is tempting to contrast this show with the purposeful and community-focused exhibitions that UK museums are getting better at making, and to conclude as a result that it has little to offer us by way of learning. Nevertheless, this exhibition raises three key questions that most contemporary museums still have to deal with.
Firstly, the lack of critical content in Star Wars Identities suggests that there’s a job for museums to do in making sense of recent popular culture – but it would be a complicated job, which would have to take into account both existing fandoms and the entertainment giants who own the rights to the works.
Secondly, the odd relationship the exhibition has with theories of personality reminds us to pay as much attention to the rigour of the science itself as we do to the relevance and context that it provides.
And lastly, as ever, we need to think very carefully about how interactive technology both enhances and detracts from the presence of objects. Like the question of our identities, these are problems for us all.
Danny Birchall is the digital manager of the Wellcome Collection in London
Project Data
Cost Undisclosed
Main funder X3 Productions Exhibition design GSM Interpretation X3 Productions Graphic design GSM
Display cases GSM
Installation GSM; The O2 (for the London leg)
Contractors GSM
Lighting GSM
Exhibition ends 3 September 2017 Admission £25, Adult; £15, Child; Free for under 5