Rolls Royce is opening its doors, or rather the large front doors of the Saatchi Gallery in London, as part of a public exhibition to showcase what is a de-constructed, lateral look at how a Rolls is made.
Inside Rolls Royce is the first time ever the luxury brand has held a public exhibition event, the press were given a preview the day before the doors opened to the public.
The exhibition is a condensed walk-through of what makes up a modern-day Rolls-Royce and visitors will be treated to what Rolls refers to as a multi-sensory and interactive journey.
The assembled press were each given iPads to act as an interactive guide, loan devices will be available although visitors with smartphones and tablets will have the same interactive guide beamed to their devices.
All nine rooms of the Saatchi Gallery were bestowed with a display of the company’s marquetry, leather, colour palettes, engineering combined with state of the art digital interactive features.
One such interaction was the sound wall where visitors can interact with the wall by pushing upon the surface to create electronic-synth music. Wasn’t really sure how it related to Rolls but it was fun.
Another interactive example in room 1 displays a palette of 44,000 paint colours which is seen through an innovative digital display. Visitors can select an item of their choice, place it onto the colour activation table and watch as the room changes hue to match.
The standout, showstopping interactive display allows visitors to become the company’s signature emblem, the Spirit of Ecstasy, albeit in digital form.
In what the company calls “Be The Spirit” the user stands in a pre-defined area facing a giant screen with a digital Spirit of Ecstasy looking on.
Video capture technology then transfers the movement of the user and digitally replicates the interaction onto the screen in a spectacular shower of digital glitter.
There are also traditional displays of the skilled craftsmanship that goes into making a Rolls Royce, some of the marquetry on display was of breathtaking expertise and could quite easily command an exhibition of its own.
The craftsmen and women behind these bespoke creations will be on hand to explain to visitors what it takes to create such unique and labor-intensive, handmade creations.
For younger visitors attending over the weekend there is a children’s workshop, essentially a paint and colour room, where kids can scrawl away to their heart’s content, but I reckon they will be too engrossed with the “Be The Spirit” and interactive sound wall to bother.
The Inside Rolls Royce is a free exhibition and is being held at the Saatchi Gallery in London from Thursday 13th until Sunday 16th November 2014 only. Hurry along as it’s the only time Rolls Royce will give anything away for free.
