Imprints of History - The Fossile Box
Physical-digital installation with a wooden box, information cards, tactile elements, and QR codes.
The Fossil Box is an interactive installation that makes fossils, habitats, and geological timescales tangible through physical and digital elements. Visitors pull out wooden cards to discover content, explore materials by touch, and access digital extensions through QR codes.
The project combines tactile interaction with clear guidance and creates an accessible entry point to scientific content.
Overview
Research and Objective
Early research synthesis and concept framing
Research: Each team member researched different organisms (mammoth, ammonite, Archaeopteryx, fern) using consistent categories: time period, habitat, characteristics, and significance. We gathered and compared this information on mind maps before finalizing our selection.
Objective: Our key goal was to create a multi-layered, multisensory learning experience for visitors, making a topic that is inherently difficult to grasp due to its vast timescale feel immediate, tangible, and engaging. We achieved this through diverse approaches tailored to different learning aspects, connecting sight, touch, and digital content while enabling self-directed exploration without rigid sequences and building a physical-digital bridge through QR codes that link tangible objects with interactive media.
Knowledge is not just conveyed; it is constructed as an experience, step-by-step, playfully, and at each visitor's own pace.
Process
Structure and Implementation
From sketches and prototypes to the final Fossil Box architecture
Before finalizing form, we defined clear process goals: make geological timescales understandable, keep interaction self-directed, and ensure every content layer could be accessed through more than one sensory channel.
Another predefined objective was feasibility under real exhibition conditions. The concept had to be robust, intuitive for first-time users, and structured so that physical interaction, visual guidance, and digital deep dives supported one another instead of competing.
A core challenge in this phase was preserving complexity without overloading visitors. We therefore treated clarity and accessibility as fixed success criteria for every decision.
Outcome
Physical Build, Tactile Learning, and Digital Extension
1. Build: The box consists of a wooden drawer base, pull-out information cards, LED feedback with reed-switch triggers, and a structured top layer designed for open exploration rather than step-by-step guidance.
Box architecture with drawer mechanics and non-linear, self-directed handling
Final assembled build with integrated physical interaction layers
2. Tactile components: The 3D-printed fossils are arranged chronologically by age: the oldest specimen (fern, left) is placed at the lowest stratigraphic level, while the youngest (mammoth, right) sits highest within the fossil-bearing layers, above the other three species. In addition, habitat references and touchable species-specific materials such as fur, feathers, leaves, and shells are provided so visitors can experience each organism up close.
Chronological 3D fossil placement in foam for tactile comparison
Texture elements that make geological differences physically tangible
3. Digital component: QR codes connect each organism to Figma-animated Blender renderings that explain different fossilization processes, including permafrost, sedimentary, and terrestrial pathways. The arrangement groups each species' appearance, habitat, living environment, and fossilization process as one coherent visual unit.
QR-linked digital narratives with animated Blender-based fossilization sequences
Species-specific QR access points connecting physical cards to digital fossilization stories
Together, these layers create one coherent outcome: a robust installation that turns abstract deep-time knowledge into an interactive and memorable learning experience.