From 27 April 2019, visitors to the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco — one of the two establishments of the Oceanographic Institute, Albert I Foundation, Prince of Monaco — were able to take part in a digital engagement installation built by WeChain. At the heart of the Rock, beneath the institution’s well-known whale skeleton, touchscreen kiosks let visitors choose one of six commitments proposed by the Museum: everyday actions contributing to the conservation of sea turtles. Having chosen a commitment, visitors were invited to take a selfie and publish it to a large mosaic, symbolically helping to form the image of a sea turtle.
Together, the published photographs form an interactive, evolving mosaic in the shape of a sea turtle. This emblematic ocean animal is threatened today by pollution, waste — plastic above all — industrial fishing and the shrinking of its nesting areas.
The cause matters particularly to the Albert I Foundation, which was looking for a way to raise awareness among Museum visitors, and among younger visitors in particular, through an innovative digital photo installation.
The Oceanographic Museum, whose cliffside façade overlooks the Mediterranean from a height of 85 metres, was a fitting place to launch the operation. For over a century the Museum has chosen to inspire its visitors using the most innovative awareness tools of the day.
Florent Favier, head of digital strategy at the Foundation, describes “a desire to offer something other than a parade of selfies on Instagram. We wanted visitors’ commitment to be sincere, and we also wanted it to symbolically give life to a shared work. We found the very flexible solution that WeChain could offer: they worked with us to adapt it, so as to arrive at a bespoke installation that would both animate our sea turtle exhibition and raise our visitors’ awareness in an enjoyable way.”
The installation remained in place at the Museum until February 2020, and had already passed 6,500 published photographs after two months. Among those selfies was one taken by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, who came to inaugurate the installation.
The Oceanographic Institute was also offered a web app allowing visitors to choose a commitment and send a photograph to the mosaic from home, without visiting the Museum.