Usain Bolt Museum Experience, Jamaica

I worked with the team to develop the experience concept, integrating artefacts and media and proposing interactive experiences to tell nuanced stories about people, places and achievements. The project catered for a very diverse audience of tourists, arriving by cruise ship for a one-off visit, and local people from the town and countryside revisiting many times. The experience responded to and was integrated into two 18^th century historic houses in Falmouth, Jamaica, in the parish where Usain Bolt was born and brought up. The Moulton Barret House was built as a home and place of business and originally owned by Rebecca Lake, a free woman of colour. The neighbouring building was built as a masonic lodge but became the Manse of the Baptist Church, where the anti-slavery campaigner William Knibb lived and worked.

The project wove together stories of the life and achievements of Usain Bolt in the context of Jamaican history and culture, modern athletics and the physiology and psychology of speed. Audio visuals were incorporated on both intimate and grand scales. In places AV animated stories around historic interiors and artefacts or explored the biology of a sprinter’ body. A signature immersive AV space took visitors on an emotional journey from the tense concentration in the build up to a race, through the explosive release of power to compete over 100 meters, to the relief and celebration of victory. Unfortunately, Covid put a stop to the project and it is currently still on hold.