projections on side of ancient building

Echoes of Uxmal

  • 2nd place

  • 3rd place

Project creator(s)

Entered into the following categories

Awards

  • Second place, Rise Award
  • Third place, Storytelling

Echoes of Uxmal is an immersive night walk through the archaeological site of Uxmal.

The experience merges the scenery of the ancient city with ambient lighting, projections and audio that transports the visitor back in time to listen to the citizens that built and lived within those walls. The whole experience is put together and taken down every day that the site is open to the public.

Cocolab created a nighttime walk through a city of stories. We imagined that the buildings could talk, as if the echoes of the words passed down from generation to generation were still somehow reverberating in the stone structures.

From the moment the audience steps into the site, the trees breathe with light and Mayan voices whisper out of the darkness. The visitors follow a path of light through the city, passing by different places that each tell their story, before they arrive at the main show in the Cuadrangle of the Nunnery.

All these stories are designed to educate and entertain visitors, and to gradually build connection between them and the archeological site, so that by the time they experience the main show, they have the necessary context to fully understand and enjoy it. 

The main show is a 25 minute animation with original music that is projection mapped onto three of the four walls. It begins by explaining how the ancient Mayans achieved the extraordinary feat of building this city in the jungle, as well as what the different figurative elements sculpted into the facades represent, with 3D effects highlighting the graphic architectural details.

The script for this experience was developed in collaboration with archaeologist José Huchim Herrera, Director of the Uxmal Archaeological Zone, in order to faithfully communicate the real stories of people who inhabited the city during its splendor.

We seek to present stories in a way that facilitates a connection between today’s visitors and the people who inhabited Uxmal during its splendor. 

In this nocturnal experience, buildings, structures and natural elements hide memories that are revealed as Echoes of the Past: stories about the cosmovision of the Maya and the hidden meanings of their temples that come to life in an atmosphere of intimacy and grandeur.

The tour consists of 5 stations distributed in an area of 700m2, where the visitor can enjoy projections on the Mayan architecture, ambient lighting, an immersive audio that amplifies the sounds of the forest and narrations by the inhabitants of Uxmal.

The main show is a 25 minute animation with original music that is projection mapped onto three of the four walls. It begins by explaining how the ancient Mayans achieved the extraordinary feat of building this city in the jungle, as well as what the different figurative elements sculpted into the facades represent, with 3D effects highlighting the graphic architectural details.

We created an app to accompany visitors so that they can enjoy the experience to the fullest, where they can learn more about the archaeological site and its most important landmarks with photographs of the space and maps to guide them. The app offers real time translation to non Spanish speakers of all the audio with in the experience.

The experience is complete and ready to open to the public.

More information can be found here.

Partners

In close collaboration with The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and CULTUR Yucatán

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