Monet & Venice at Brooklyn Museum | Hyperquake Immersive Exhibit Design

We brought Venice to Brooklyn to bring Monet's work to life

Monet once said Venice was “too beautiful to be painted,” yet his Venetian works capture the city’s fleeting beauty with obsessive attention to light, water, and air—a unified sensory impression he called the enveloppe.

For the largest Monet exhibition in New York in more than 25 years, Brooklyn Museum asked our team to transform the central rotunda into more than a lobby. They wanted an invitation into Monet’s Venetian light, an immersive experience that would engage visitors before they ever saw a painting.

We went beyond traditional exhibition design to bring Monet’s enveloppe to life. Using projection mapping, custom caustic lighting, an original symphony, and a signature scent, we created a 360, transportive environment that turns an artistic idea into a shared, visceral experience—showing how technology can make complex concepts in fine art instantly more accessible.

OUR ROLE

Exhibit Design

Experience Design

Physical & Digital Experience Integration

Media Production

Immersive Projection Mapping

Prototyping & Technical Integration

COLLABORATORS

Joan Porcell Studios, Videographer

Niles Luther, Composer-in-Residence

Joya Studio, Scent Company

David Freemas, Case Study Video DP

One

cohesive multisensory entry experience that deepens connection

24’+

seamless projection-mapped walls surrounding visitors

minute atmospheric day-to-night Venice sequence

100+

artworks contextualized through immersive storytelling

To reimagine the traditional gallery experience, this project creates an immersive prelude that prepares visitors before they encounter the artwork. This sensory journey provides crucial emotional and conceptual context, ensuring guests enter the exhibition space already understanding the artistic and technical innovations of Monet's Venetian paintings.

The 360-degree immersive experience transports visitors to the heart of Venice. Upon entering the space, guests encounter a panoramic projection encompassing four abstract freestanding walls and two monumental rotunda walls, completely enveloping them in the Venetian atmosphere. While caustic lighting cascades across the rotunda's dome and a rippling water floor completes the illusion of standing at a Venetian canal. In collaboration with composer Niles Luther, we layered subtle ambient soundscapes with custom Venetian fragrances by Joya Studio, creating a multisensory journey that captures the essence of Monet's "Enveloppe"— the poetic interplay of light and atmosphere.

Working with Venice based videographer, Joan Porcell, we carefully designed a 5-minute narrative that takes visitors on a journey through a Venetian day, from a tranquil blue dawn to a vibrant noon and finally a golden sunset. The lighting and scenery flow seamlessly from narrow waterways to expansive canals, creating an evolving atmospheric immersion. This carefully choreographed journey invites visitors to experience the same interplay of light and time that captivated Monet, seeing Venice's transformation through the artist's eyes.