North Holland Energised
Energy from the past and for the future
The travelling exhibition “North Holland Energised! Energy from the past and for the future” takes you back in time. Energy generation goes back for centuries and has altered the landscape in North Holland. We still generate energy today. What do you think of when talking about energy?
The province of North Holland wanted to develop an educative exhibition about energy based on its own historic image collection. The archival pictures are an excellent source for viewing the changes in landscape, made for example by retrieving peat. Maps and plans show the changes in the land throughout the centuries.
The provinces plans resulted in an interactive, hands-on exhibition. The exhibition consists of five large cubes that each represent a cubic meter of a specific energy source. The cubes are compared and their impact on the landscape is discussed. Peat is, for example, an efficient energy source but there is not a lot of it, wood isn’t always sustainable and burning coal emits a lot of CO2. Solar panels deliver clean energy, but are at this time quite expensive and not yet very efficient.
In addition to the cubes that each discuss one energy sources, the exhibition also provides information about energy generation and use throughout recent history on large display panels. The cubes each feature an interactive element that demonstrates how energy from its specific source is harvested. The final cube dares visitors to make an ideal mix of energy sources which will sustain us until the year 2050.
CLIENT
NORTH HOLLAND ARCHIVE, HAARLEM
PROVINCE OF NORTH HOLLAND
Term: 1 – 30 September 2017
Location: Landschapstriënnale 2017, Nieuw-Vennep
Term: 8 December 2017 – 1 February 2018
Location: Kweekcafé, Haarlem
Term: 1 Februari – 31 March 2018
Location: City hall Heerhugowaard
Term: 4 – 30 June 2018
Location: Grote Kerk Edam
Photography: Mike Bink
“Synergique, for me, represents flexibility. It’s the way they handle challenges during development, installation and even after completion.”
Michael Braam-Scholten –
Staff member Heritage Province of North Holland
Wooden elements can be slid, rotated and lifted. The hands-on exhibits accompanied by short texts explain in a simplified manner how energy has been produced in the past and how it’s done today.
De efficiency and energy density of the energy sources is translated to modern day life.
How often can you charge your smartphone with one cubic meter of peat? What distance can a train travel with the energy of one square meter of solar panels?
Final element of the exhibition is an animated summary, in which the differences between all of the energy sources are illustrated. The monitor in the last exhibition element shows additional images from the provincial archives.
