Inventory

Frontline: A Year of Journalism & Conflict focused on some of the major news stories of 2011: the Egyptian revolution, Syria, the Libyan conflict and the UK riots. The exhibition held at Somerset House in London, offered a unique insight into the editorial, political and human aspects of news reporting, highlighting the dilemmas facing journalists in a world effected by social media. We curated and art directed the show and worked closely with Sky’s editorial and creative teams to present the huge variety of content in the clearest and most sensitive way possible. Dealing with the long narrow exhibition spaces, we displayed each of the key stories as annotated image timelines that ran down both sides of the room. Each stories timeline was supported by a short film summarising the story. This information was also accompanied by iPads containing a wealth of background information from reporter interviews to maps and detailed timelines. In addition to the timelines we conceived a video installation presenting the story of Gaddafi’s and the Death of Dictatorship. The installation comprised a multiscreen film, spread across 50 varying sized monitors using Brite Sign technology to sync the footage so it ran seamlessly across all screens. This allowed us to show multiple images that interacted with each other, something impossible on a traditional one screen news story. The overall effect of the installation was designed to be an analogy of the way uncontrolled and uncensored footage is released across multiple channels and how the news media is having to adapt to rise of social media. The exhibition also utilised the Aurasma application for smart phones allowing the user to access video content by simply viewing the stills displayed on the walls. Our art direction and typography was respectful to the content, and was kept neutral so that attention was rightly focused on to the content on screen.