What it had to solve
OMSI's renovated Nancy Stueber Natural Sciences Hall needed a permanent centerpiece for its Climate of Change exhibition that made ecological relationships tangible.
The idea
A five-scene Pacific Northwest projection loop where movement stirs the surface, but standing still is the interaction: the longer you wait, the more the forest reveals.
How it works
Tellart hiked Oregon's forests, coast and mountains and interviewed Indigenous and academic voices, then built floor and ceiling projections cycling through forest, mountain, ocean, desert and city in a ten-minute loop, with generative particles and sound responding to visitor movement.
What it did
The installation anchors the hall that reopened in April 2026, covered by The Oregonian, Willamette Week and Here is Oregon; OMSI's VP of Learning Experiences credited it with helping visitors 'universally connect to the place we call home'.
Background
When the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry renovated its Nancy Stueber Natural Sciences Hall around the new permanent Climate of Change exhibition, it commissioned Amsterdam experience-design studio Tellart to make ecological interdependence feel physical. The result is Sit Spot – Reconnecting with the Living World, an immersive media installation inspired by the landscapes and ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest.
The design principle is counterintuitive for a museum: stillness. Floor and ceiling projections cycle through five environments — forest, mountain, ocean, desert and urban — in a continuous ten-minute loop visitors can join at any moment. Movement activates the environment and stirs its surface, but when guests slow down, deeper responses emerge: hidden structures brighten, subtle motions become visible, and the landscape gathers around them. When several guests pause together, connections appear between them, making interdependence literally visible.
The content is rooted in place. The team traveled to Oregon to hike forests, coast and mountains, and engaged Indigenous cultural advisors — Judy Bluehorse Skelton (Nez Perce/Cherokee), Jeremy FiveCrows (Nez Perce) and Daniel Guilfoyle (Seneca) — alongside OMSI's research team. The piece takes its name from the Sit Spot practice of returning to the same place over time to observe and build relationship with the land.
A shared particle language — mist, rain, snow and currents — threads the five scenes together: fog through Douglas-fir canopies with luminous mycelium below, storm systems over snowpack, bull kelp swaying over phytoplankton-like upwelling, constellations over desert, and salmon beneath Portland's Broadway Bridge.
Why it lands
Museums are built around movement, so the team designed against the momentum — making waiting the input echoes the Indigenous Sit Spot practice the piece is named for.
Place-rooted research came first: field immersion in Oregon plus open-end interviews with Indigenous advisors and academics grounded every scene in real ecosystems.
A shared particle language lets mist, rain, snow and currents carry one visual grammar across five environments joined in a single loop.
Stillness was made communal, so the shared act of attention between visitors becomes part of the artwork itself.
What you can take
Attention is the interaction: designing an exhibit that rewards stillness turns a museum's worst habit — rushing past screens — into the very act that makes the piece work.
Since then
The installation opened as a permanent part of Climate of Change / Clima de Cambio when OMSI's renovated Nancy Stueber Natural Sciences Hall reopened in April 2026, drawing coverage from The Oregonian, Willamette Week and Here is Oregon. OMSI's Jeff Duncan described it as 'a technological artwork that expresses belonging and emotion that connects with visitors in a way that feels distinctly human'.
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