Ancient Seas

Imagine being transported 400 million years into the past… to the Paleozoic Era, where Indiana was an ancient sea teeming with delicate creatures and massive, fearsome life forms. As time unfolds, the landscape transforms: you enter the lush, swampy forests of the Mississippian Period, home to gigantic insects and amphibians, leaving behind fossilized traces that scientists study today.

This is the Indiana State Museum’s new premier exhibit—Ancient Seas.

In collaboration with exhibit designer Split Rock Studios, BPI brought this journey to life with jaw-dropping, projection-mapped media, featuring vibrant 3-D animations and sweeping environmental visuals. Visitors are drawn to a central structure with a unique amoeba-shaped ceiling and integrated seating, creating an inviting destination. As they approach, projections fill the floor and ceiling with scenes of Indiana—birds soaring above, creatures swimming below—immersing them in sights and sounds that captivate visitors from all angles.

After the immersive theater experience, an interactive journey begins. Overhead and floor projections, combined with LEAP hand gesture recognition and AR, allow visitors to engage with creatures they’ve just encountered, taking control to explore Indiana’s prehistoric world.

BPI also developed additional AR experiences for deeper dives into the astonishing creatures that once inhabited Indiana’s ancient oceans.