Collage of four individuals in front of four CGI backgrounds: a Black soldier, an Indian soldier, a woman factory worker and a European soldier

Encounters

Open May 23, 2025 Main Gallery

Their words. Their stories.

 

Through cutting-edge visual storytelling, visitors meet 16 individuals and hear their intimate first-person accounts crafted from diaries, letters and photos, including:

  • Allied and Central Power combat soldiers living through the hell of the Western Front and patrolling the seas in submarines
  • British colonial Indian soldiers contemplating death and rebelling against the futility of war
  • women working in munitions factories to support the war effort
  • dissenters arrested and tried for protesting involvement in the war

Encounters invites you to hear and see real, first-hand narratives of not just the soldier, but the nurse, child, and others who were impacted by global conflict.

Museum visitor watching a large video screen showing a young Black man in WWI uniform in a European city
Museum guests watching a video screen depicting an Indian colonial soldier gesturing in despair while standing in a destroyed battlefield
Guests watching a video screen depicting a white soldier standing in a bombed-out cathedral
Guests watching a large video screen depicting a young white woman in a plain workday dress and cap standing on a factory floor

Electrosonic created the immersive technical environment used in Encounters, which features Holoplot, the audio behind the Sphere in Las Vegas, and 1.25 mm LED technology from Nanolumens. That technology makes Encounters unlike any other museum installation in the world. The exhibit is designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates with media design and production by Dot Crew. Lighting design is by Technical Artistry, electrical installation by Pro Electric and fabrication by JE Dunn Construction.

Encounters is located in the Main Gallery, adjacent to the Epilogue. It is included in a General Admission ticket.

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