Empire & Liberty Project

Producer, director, and editor. Special visual effects by Blue Cadet. Winner Honorable Mention, Western Museums Association’s Charles Redd Award for Use of Technology.

The Autry exhibition Empire and Liberty: The Civil War and the West was the first major museum exhibition to illuminate the causes and legacies of the American Civil War from the vantage point of American westward expansion. The exhibition makes two intertwined arguments: that you cannot understand the Civil War without addressing the significance of the West, and you cannot understand the West without taking into account the causes, contingencies, and consequences of the Civil War.

Visitors chose to follow one or all four composite characters whose lives and choices explore what it means to be free. The Autry design and curatorial team worked closely with southern Californian artists, including writers, theater directors, actors, and musicians, to develop the content for each character and his or her dramatic presentation in order to bring the four individual stories to life.

The interactive experience requires the visitor to trigger projected video stories that are embedded throughout the exhibit. We have organized the stories by creating four fictional characters, each with their own beginning, middle and end videos (12 total). Visitors can choose to follow one or all four characters whose lives and choices explore what it means to be a slave or to be free.

Visitors enter a story by touching a daguerreotype imprinted with a character’s image. When the photographic plate is touched a small, intimate projection begins and visitors must continue to maintain contact (30-45 seconds) with the daguerreotype to experience the entire story.

The goal of these stories is to add a layer of empathy by giving visitors an opportunity to connect on a personal level to an exhibit narrative that is broad and historical.