The exhibition
opens in the dark.
A lighting design proposal for the new galleries at the Merrow Museum of Science, from Lumen & Lathe.
Light that tells the story, and never harms it.
Three lines from Merrow's brief for the east wing, and how we answer each one.
Fourteen galleries, one route, one story.
We light the route as a sequence. Each gallery's light is written from your interpretation plan, so brightness rises and falls with the story and every visitor's eyes are ready for the next room before they reach it.
Brief, section 4.1No object above its conservation limit, at any time, in any scene.
All 380 fixtures are aimed against the lux budgets your conservation team set. Cleaning and night scenes are counted too. Priya signs off every reading before a scene goes live.
Brief, section 4.3Open to the public on Saturday 13 February.
Eleven weeks from the first survey to opening night, at a fixed price, with a late clause that pays the museum if we slip.
Brief, section 2.2Fourteen galleries, lit in the order visitors walk them.
The east wing, ground floor, in route order. Pick a gallery to read its light, or switch the scene to see the whole wing change.
The Herbarium
Gallery 2. Phase 1. 22 fixtures at 2700K.
Key object Pressed plants on rag paper, 1871
Move the light. See what the object can take.
One object from three galleries. Drag the pool of light, change the beam angle and the colour, and the conservation meter tells you whether the object is safe.
Drag the light anywhere on the wall
Herbarium sheet
The Lathe 40
Our own museum spot, turned in brass and aluminium in our workshop. All 380 fixtures in the east wing are this one body, with the optics changed to suit each object.
Four signatures, four questions.
Each chapter answers one person at Merrow without a call.
Will the wing open on the day we've announced?
Ingrid, Museum Director
Yes, on Saturday 13 February. The eleven weeks already include the holidays, three install phases that overlap, and two full weeks of aiming at night.
The price is fixed. If we're late for any reason on our side, we pay the museum $9,000 for every day the doors stay shut, which is roughly what the east wing takes in tickets.
Visitors won't name the lighting, but they'll stay longer. At the last science centre we lit, average time in the galleries went from 41 minutes to 58.
Will the light follow the story we wrote?
Tomas, Chief Curator
We start from your interpretation plan and write a lighting script for each gallery before we choose a single fixture. Every gallery gets three beats.
Your curators are in the room for every aiming session. If a beam doesn't tell the story, we move it that night, and the script is updated before morning.
Threshold
The corridor steps down to twenty lux, so eyes have adjusted before the room starts.
Reveal
One object takes the light the room is about. In gallery 3 it's the orrery, at 180 lux.
Linger
A bench, an even light and labels that read at arm's length, so people stay with the object.
Will any object get more light than it can take?
Priya, Head of Conservation
No. Every fixture is set against the lux budgets in your collection survey, and we've counted the hours, cleaning and night openings included. The LEDs emit no UV.
Every reading is logged, and no scene goes live until you've signed it off. If a reading ever goes over budget, we fix it within 48 hours at our cost, for as long as the warranty runs.
A year of light, object by object, against the budget your team set.
Annual lux-hours at ten to six, every day, with cleaning and night openings counted.
What does it cost to run, and who fixes it?
Malcolm, Head of Operations
Very little, and we do, for the first two years. The Lathe 40 draws 14 watts where the west wing's halogen spots draw 75, and it's rated for fifty thousand hours.
We leave sixteen spares on site, train your building team in two sessions, and answer any fault within four hours. One control system runs the whole wing from a single tablet.
One price, line by line.
Switch any line off and it says what changes. The design fee is the same in every configuration.
Lighting design, all fourteen galleries
Included in every configuration
Survey, test bay, a lighting script for each gallery, aiming schedules, drawings and every conservation reading.
Phase 1 install, galleries 1 to 6
166 fixtures, weeks 3 to 6
Deep Time, the Herbarium, Instruments of the Sky, Light Itself, the Moth Room and Engines.
Drop it and galleries 1 to 6 open under the existing track lights, with the herbarium kept in store. The design is still yours to build later.
Phase 2 install, galleries 7 to 10
108 fixtures, weeks 5 to 8
The Body, Weather and Water, the Archive of Maps and Flight.
Drop it and galleries 7 to 10 wait for a second order. Nothing else on this page changes.
Phase 3 install, galleries 11 to 14
106 fixtures, weeks 7 to 9
Meteorites, the Loans Gallery, Small Worlds and the Atrium.
Drop it and galleries 11 to 14 wait for a second order, including the Loans Gallery and its first lender.
Fixture package
380 fixtures at $1,150 more each
Tunable lets curators warm or cool any object without a ladder, and lets the Loans Gallery meet each lender's conditions without new stock.
Choose fixed white and a change of colour later means new optics, about $180 a fixture each time.
Controls and scenes
$29,700 for each of 14 galleries
One control system for the wing, a tablet for the curators and a logged exposure record for every sensitive object.
Drop it and each gallery runs on wall dimmers. No scenes, no night opening, no exposure log.
Night-opening scenes
Needs controls and scenes
A late-opening look for every gallery, with the atrium set for events and the key objects left glowing.
Drop it and night openings run on the evening scene. The wiring is in either way, so these cost the same to add in year two.
Conservation monitoring, twelve months
40 loggers at sensitive objects
Lux and UV loggers in every paper, specimen and wax case, reported to conservation each month.
Drop it and we hand over the sign-off readings and your team takes them from there.
Eleven weeks, and the best of it happens at night.
Week one starts Monday 30 November. The holidays are already counted. Open any row for what happens in it.
We survey every ceiling and build a test bay in gallery 3 with real fixtures on real objects. Curators and conservation approve the look there before anything is installed.
All 380 Lathe 40s are turned in our workshop and arrive in three drops, one ahead of each install phase. The November 20 signing date is what holds this slot.
Track, wiring and 166 fixtures. Two crews, daytime, while the galleries are still closed to the public.
108 fixtures, including the floor uplights under the glider in Flight. Galleries 9 and 10 depend on the ceiling survey in week 2.
106 fixtures, with the atrium last because it needs the tallest access tower.
Aiming only works in a dark building, so it runs from seven in the evening to two in the morning, one gallery a night, with a curator in the room.
We meter every sensitive object in every scene and hand the readings to Priya. Nothing goes live until she signs.
Scenes programmed, the building team trained in two sessions, spares on the shelf. Doors open Saturday 13 February.
The terms, in plain words.
The price is fixed
The total you configure is the total you pay. It moves only if the museum changes the scope in writing, and we price any change before anyone starts on it.
How payment works
20 percent on signing, which covers the design. Each install phase is paid when that phase is complete. We hold back 10 percent of the total until conservation signs off every reading.
If we're late
$9,000 for each day past Saturday 13 February that the doors stay shut because of us. Delays caused by the building, the museum or a lender aren't counted, and we'll flag any risk the week we see it.
Conservation has the last word
No scene goes live without the Head of Conservation's sign-off, and any reading over budget is fixed within 48 hours at our cost, for the life of the warranty.
Warranty
Seven years on fixtures, five on drivers, two on workmanship. Faults answered within four hours for the first two years.
Who owns what
The drawings, lighting scripts and scene settings belong to the museum from the day they're paid for. Anyone can maintain the system after us.
What we don't know yet.
Four things still open, and when each one gets settled.
Can the track run where we've drawn it in galleries 9 and 10?
The ceiling voids were sealed for the asbestos survey when we visited. If ducting sits where our track goes, we lose up to three days. We'll know in week 2 and tell you that day.
What will the Loans Gallery lenders ask for?
The loan agreements haven't arrived. We've designed to 50 lux with tunable fixtures, which meets every lender condition we've seen. With fixed white, a strict lender could mean new optics.
Will Merrow run night openings in year one?
If not, the night-opening scenes can wait and the total drops by $128,000. The wiring goes in either way.
Who changes a scene after handover?
We'd suggest curators ask, conservation approves and the building team presses the button. You'll know better than we do, and we'll set the permissions to match.
Sign by November 20 and the lights are yours.
That date holds our workshop slot for 380 fixtures and puts the test bay up in gallery 3 the week of 30 November. Accept below, or send us the one question standing in the way.