The Story of Revolution Earth

This article was written for Uncover magazine – From Global to Ground (10th edition). You can read the full magazine here. 

Authors: Moniek Hover is Professor of Storytelling; Niels Wittkampf, Juriaan van Waalwijk and Wesley Put are part of the research and development team of the professorship in Storytelling.

Discovery Museum connects people, science, technology, sustainability, heritage and society. The Earth Theatre (Aarde Theater) in the museum is the place where visitors can experience the overview effect. ‘Revolution Earth’, the new interactive and immersive walk-through experience was opened in 2023 and is about earth and the role of human beings in its own future. The professorship in Storytelling of Breda University of Applied Sciences worked with the programme development team of Discovery Museum on the development of this new experience.

Storytelling as a design tool
The team of the museum had a picture of the spatial layout of the experience, but sought support in the area of storytelling: for the story, the script and the characters. The professorship in Storytelling did not only put in theoretical knowledge, but also practical experience with developing stories in various contexts, from meaningful experiences to socially charged projects about sustainability and the future of our planet.

What made the project special right from the start was the way storytelling was used: not as an end product, but as a design tool. Instead of designing everything first and then linking a story to it afterwards, the story was developed in parallel with and in interaction with the spatial design. This requires a shared language between the designers and storytellers of the professorship. Three joint sessions formed the basis for this collaboration between BUas’ professorship in Storytelling and Discovery Museum.

Building a shared picture in Kerkrade
The first session took place in Kerkrade, so the storytelling team could experience the halls where the experience had to be given a home. The Discovery Museum’s team was challenged to describe the experience in what is named an ‘experience logline’. This is an exercise during which the nucleus of the experience needs to be told according to a fixed format. A simple tool, but surprisingly powerful. If the story cannot be told in one sentence, there is a good chance that it is not clear enough yet.

The Discovery Museum’s development team as a team was therefore given the homework assignment to work out this experience logline into a story in one sentence and work it out into five steps at a later stage. “During this exercise we realised as a team that we were not quite on the same page yet. Drawing up the experience logline helped us understand each other’s point of view and refine our story”, said Mischa Horninge, Programme Development Coordinator at the museum. The experience logline they created is as follows:

In this story you find out how four pupils living in the future interrupt the museum presentation with the aid of a time machine, aiming to inform and inspire visitors to make different choices, so that a sustainability revolution can be started and the earth will also be more liveable for mankind in the future.

To work out the story, the five-step model of storytelling (Hover, 2013) was used. The set-up, the motoric moment, the turning points, the climax and the resolution provide a first sketch of a story and of the experience.

The hero/heroine in the story is you 
For the second session, the team of Discovery Museum set off for Breda. The experience logline already created was the starting point for the classic, yet essential question: who is the hero/heroine in this story?

With the aid of the LEGO® Serious Play® method, colleagues of the professorship in  Storytelling guided the development team in exploring the several issues. LEGO bricks served as a means of communication, making abstract ideas tangible. In this way, the concept of time travel was explored in greater depth, and the four characters in the story – the four pupils – were given a clearer profile.

This greater depth aligns with the character of an immersive experience such as Revolution Earth, during which visitors are no passive onlookers, but essential elements of the story. This calls for a story that leaves room for personal interpretation, encourages people to make choices, and appeals to a variety of target groups. Layering is the key here.

At the same time, the theme of the experience makes this more complicated: the quality of life on earth does not hinge on a single choice, but on many choices that occur simultaneously and in parallel, with branching effects. Interactivity is therefore not a playful bonus, but a dramatic necessity. That insight naturally led the discussion to the story conflict: what is at stake, and who ultimately determines the outcome?

Storytelling in action
The third session, in Breda too, integrated the story and physical halls into an immersive walk-through experience. In this session, the five-step model was worked out in great detail: visitors move through a building, encountering opposing forces and building towards a climax. Each hall forms its own episode within the overarching story.

During the session, the central question was about how the story, halls and interactivity could reinforce one another. Extensive research was carried out into how visitors can engage with the story at different levels and how diverse target groups can be involved in a way that reinforces rather than excludes one another.

Based on these starting points, the walk-through experience was given a concrete spatial form in four adjacent halls. A short impression of this spatial form based on the press release about the expo opening in December 2023:

In the first hall, the story is told of the four industrial revolutions. Visitors realise how our society has drastically changed in the past few centuries, while catching a glimpse of the future at the same time.

In the second hall participants take on the role of astronauts and, standing on glass rings, they get a panoramic view of a cylinder-shaped screen measuring 16 by 13 metres. They are travelling around the world along the earth’s beauty, including snow-capped mountain peaks, thundering waterfalls, and vast oceans; yet, they see the other side too: plastic pollution, deforestation and drought.

The third hall is a futuristic discovery landscape in which participants are actively facing climate change. These challenges are depicted in colourful, interactive games on wall-to-wall projections that are performed using the whole body. The better the participants work together as a group, the more the landscape comes to life.

The last hall is dedicated to tranquillity and reflection.Catchy texts and film footage bring the walk-through experience to a close, giving visitors the chance to allow the emotional understanding of this complex subject matter to sink in. 

Revolution Earth: an impactful experience
The experience is accessible to a wide audience, and strikes an emotional chord with visitors. In the several halls they gain an accurate picture of the Earth’s current state and a glimpse of the future. There are no passive onlookers here: the experience encourages reflection and invites them to contribute to a better world themselves.

Visitors take up the challenge and literally bring the future to life; the choices you make as a visitor really do matter. At the same time, the experience provides parents with tools to discuss this complex topic with their children, something that visitors appreciate. This is beautifully illustrated by a conversation between a child and his mother: “I think we should  live on Mars later on, mummy.” “Well, if we look after the earth properly, there’s no need for that at all, you know, son.”

The benefits of the collaboration go beyond a fully developed story or a film synopsis. It demonstrates what happens when storytelling is incorporated early on in the design process: it refines ambitions, brings implicit choices explicit, and makes a complex topic tangible, open to discussion and something visitors can experience.

For the professorship in Storytelling, this project is a concrete application of current research into telling stories about sustainability in a leisure context. 

Photography
Discovery Museum

Sources
- Hover, M. (2013). De Efteling als 'Verteller' van Sprookjes [Doctoral dissertation, Tilburg University].
- https://www.discoverymuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Persbericht_-Revolutie-Aarde-staat-op-uitbreken-in-Discovery-Museum.pdf