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By Hugh Jordan. Past future. Forget dusty rooms and dull exhibits, London’s Imperial War Museum is actively embracing the latest technology and making the past, well… modern.
“New online offers are crucial to the future development of the Imperial War Museum,” says Dan Phillips, project director at the IWM. “The digital revolution has changed the world and how people behave and respond to information. As an institution for whom information is a paramount concern, we in turn need to respond to these changes and challenges.”
The museum’s latest project, What Lies Beneath, is an interactive website exploring how the Cold War affected life in Britain. Launched to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the site is part of the museum’s overarching programme Their Past Your Future, supported by the BIG lottery fund and headed up by Phillips.
“We have been very fortunate in that we have been encouraged at all stages of the programme – by the museum and the Lottery themselves – to be innovative and to try to develop models and approaches to learning that can then be embedded into the museum’s wider offer, thus ensuring a sustainable legacy for this funding,” Phillips explains.
What Lies Beneath may have been primarily designed as a resource and learning tool for schools, but he still expects the site to appeal to a wide demographic.
Visitors can read about Communist ideology, the science going on behind the scenes, and the legacy the Cold War has left. One section, Hot Wars, discusses various campaigns Britain was involved in throughout the stand-off with Russia, such as Korea, Vietnam and Rhodesia.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of What Lies Beneath, though, is the personal stories, recounted by those who lived through the experience. Recognisable names include Alexai Sayle, reminiscing about family holidays behind the Iron Curtain, and Sir Kenneth Adam – set designer for many of the early Bond films – recalling his inspiration for the classic film Dr Strangelove.
According to Phillips, this focus on the personal is part and parcel of the IWM’s approach to all projects under the Their Past Your Future banner.
“The illustration of larger themes with personal testimony has always been central to the Imperial War Museum’s remit, purpose and approach to interpretation,” Phillips explains. “We know that personal stories provide the connection to the often huge and quite intimidating subjects we deal with. It is the human impact that helps visitors to make meaning.”
And meaning runs deep in What Lies Beneath.
The name of the exhibition relates partly to the ever present subterfuge of the era but also neatly describes what Phillips and his team have achieved in putting this exhibition online.
“It is important to recognise that visitors, especially in online exhibitions, need to feel able to dip in and out of content to differing depths, and navigate around the content in numerous ways, but still have a sense of coherence to their experience,” he says. “We wanted to challenge users with the exhibition design itself to discover what lies beneath this fascinating period of history.”