This exhibition is a concept for an addition onto the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Rocky Shore Gallery. This exhibition is intended to educate visitors about rocky shore ecosystems, including tidal zones and kelp forests, through a more immersive experience representing the ecosystem with easy observation of the organisms that live there.
Rather than traditional tanks and models, the Rocky Shore Gallery exhibits aquarium tanks that mimic real life tide pools spanning the floor, wall, and ceiling. This is gives visitors an indoor tide pooling experience with the ability to observe organisms how they would be in nature but with abundance and in a controlled environment.
The graphics and branding of the exhibition bring in colors and shapes taken directly from tide pools and incorporate playful illustrations to give life to the space and break up the blue.
Visitors are first met with a title wall at the entry to the exhibition. This wall gives separation between the special exhibition and the rest of the aquarium wing, but also has the important function of blocking light to create a darker atmosphere and enables the space to have unique lighting design.
Since the exhibition space is rather small, the custom wall also hides part of the exhibition so that the room isn’t seen all at once just by passing by, which will hopefully draw in more visitors. The gallery has two entry points, one is a floor to ceiling opening that is fully accessible, and one very short and tunnel-like entry meant especially for children. This will hopefully let children know they were specifically thought of and that they are welcome to explore.
Upon entering, there is a first set of educational graphics on the wall to the visitor’s left. Here there is information about the tidal ecosystem as a whole, as well as a touch activity with specimens to look at more closely on a shelf low enough for children to reach.
Next there is a second set of educational graphics talking about the flora and fauna of the ecosystem with a tank on the wall containing some of the aforementioned creatures for a closer look.
The back wall contains a larger tank with a screen behind it that loops video of the deeper shore marine environment. Just outside of the tank, hanging from the ceiling are parabolic speakers that play sounds of waves and the ocean, further immersing the visitor in the beauty of the Rocky Shore ecosystem without overwhelming the entire gallery with sound.
Immediately to the right of the entry, a path of tide pool tanks starts on the floor and leads up the wall and onto the ceiling. This is meant to mimic the experience of tide pooling as you would in nature, but with an added sense of awe and surrounding interest.
The third set of educational graphics is on the opposite side of the title wall, and provides information about how the visitor can take action to protect this environment. It is paired with a simple digital game on touch screen monitors, where the player tries to find all of the litter in the scene and pick it up before the time runs out. This is on the back wall and is the last stop so that visitors exit with a call-to-action top of mind.
The overall concept of this gallery was to create a space that gives a feeling of being inside of a tide pool while also observing and learning about them. The initial concept was to make the ceiling transition to a curved glass wall in the back that would both act as a window to the bay and have water crashing over the top, all to enhance the feeling of being in a tide pool with waves constantly crashing and abundant natural light. However, we felt like the gallery’s small size would benefit from being fully enclosed and having a screen with scenes of the expansive ocean to maximize the space with more wildlife and plants to observe. Having the back wall closed also allowed for more controlled lighting, which helps make the space more cohesive and simplifies the fairly busy and tight space.
The blue lighting in the gallery adds another layer of immersion and differentiates it from the rest of this area of the aquarium which is full of natural light. The only challenge with this lighting concept is finding a balance so that there is still depth and life in the gallery and it is not so strong that the space becomes all one note. The solution to this might be incorporating different colored lights to balance out the blue, and having light from the tanks to bring out the colors and textures within.
