Site-specific conversational heritage installations

Echoes

Echoes is the studio's line of public installations. Each installation houses a holographic figure within a fabricated object, often a monolith of regional stone, brick, or wood, placed at a museum, visitor center, or civic space. Visitors speak with the figure face to face; the replies are live and unscripted. Kindred Spirits is devoted to a single individual; Echoes presents a roster drawn from the region: documented historical people, invented composites, and figures of local lore.

An Echoes demonstration on a seven-foot holographic display, London, 2025.

The installation

A curated interpretive experience, grounded in primary texts and scholarship, in which visitors explore ideas through dialogue. Each roster is researched from archives and reviewed with community partners.

When not in use for conversation, the installation displays abstract animations, ranging from dot matrices to atmospheric effects, depending on the context. Every installation is planned with a fallback; prepared modes run whenever the live system is unavailable.

Echoes of Indiana is the first commissioned work, slated for the Trades District in Bloomington with collaboration and sponsorship from Indiana University. A second installation is in development with the French Lick West Baden Museum.

A person at night looking at a glowing portrait set into a rough-hewn stone monolith in a plaza. — Concept render. A stone monolith with an embedded presence at night.

Concept visualization. In its idle state, the monolith displays abstract motion between conversations.

Ways it appears

The form ranges from a standing display in an atrium to an object in regional stone. PastPresence works with the venue to determine the nature of the installation: whether a hololuminescent display embedded in a monolith, a transparent OLED monitor, or a volumetric display inside a glass vitrine.

Foyer display: A standing presence in an atrium — Foyer display A standing presence in an atrium

Regional monolith: Stone, brick, or wood — Regional monolith Stone, brick, or wood

Built to the site

Each monolith is drawn up for its location: material, scale, and mounting matched to the architecture and the climate of the site. Stone, brick, and wood are specified per location, with a fabrication and installation plan behind each.

The presence is authored once; the enclosure is engineered for the place where the monolith stands.

A rough stone monolith with a warm illuminated frame standing on a city street at night. — Monolith studies: street view, rear service access and ventilation, illuminated studio view.

Rear view of the monolith showing service access, ventilation, and a removable back panel. — Monolith studies: street view, rear service access and ventilation, illuminated studio view.

A fabrication board for the Indiana monolith: an exploded technical drawing beside an installed-view render with people for scale. — Fabrication drawing and installed view, side by side.

The voices

The Echoes of Indiana menu of voices: portraits of Mabel, James Whitcomb Riley, a Brown County legend, and others, with the prompt to touch a portrait to begin. — A visitor touches a portrait to begin. The portraits are drawn from the region: representations of historical figures and personalities from local lore.

In use

Concept visualization. A Mark Twain figure within a stone monolith.

A tester in conversation with a figure, browser preview.

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