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Home > Projects > Recent Projects
Nearlife has created a wide variety of educational and entertainment
projects for notable museums and entertainment centers around the world.
¡MuchaLucha! (KidsWB and your personal computer)
On Saturday, August 17th, 2002, the KidsWB network launched a new cartoon that premiered a new interactive television technology developed by Nearlife. The show is called "Mucha Lucha", and is a very funny take-off on the tradition of Mexican masked wrestling, otherwise known as Lucha Libra. 
The first thing you can to do is go to the Mucha Lucha website and register to build your own masked wrestler (developed by Nearlife). You'll have a blast creating a wrestler and can email it to your friends (please do this -- it is key to our viral marketing strategy!). Then, your wrestler can be automatically entered into a pool from which 5 wrestlers are picked at random (almost) to appear in the opening scene of the TV show on Saturday morning. Nearlife's technology, used in the show, automatically inserts user-created characters into the television program.
VirtualFishtank.com (Personal computers, everywhere)
Nearlife recently launched www.VirtualFishtank.com to expand the interactive
experience of the original Virtual Fishtank(TM) beyond the walls of the museum into schools and
homes everywhere. Now, anyone with an Internet connection can experience this Living
 Entertainment experience. Internet visitors can build their own fish online and save them. They
can recall their fish later and, from their home computers, release their fish into the Museum of
Science Virtual Fishtank(TM). They can even go to the Museum of Science and recall their saved
fish to release them into the Museum tank.
NetWorld (Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago)
NetWorld reveals the inner secrets of the Internet at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. 
In a new exhibit opening in early 2001, Nearlife demystifies the complexities of computer networking through dynamic and innovative interactions within a virtual world. Visitors will be able to use entire walls as interactive surfaces, manipulate virtual objects, and be immersed in the traffic of the Internet. Using the latest sensing and tracking technologies, the exhibit will personalize the visitor's experience based upon their movement through the space and their actions in it.
NetWorld blends the best of artistically immersive experiences with the latest in technology, bringing to life a world that knows no shape or boundary.
Nearlife adds the Internet to its toolbox to produce a new genre of entertainment.
The Internet presents the opportunity to extend an entertainment experience beyond that of a "live experience" like a theme park activity, a "canned experience" such as TV and film, and even beyond an "interactive experience" as with CD-ROMs and video games. We call this new genre a "living experience," one that continues forward in time and "grows" like a living organism as people participate in the experience.
Virtual Fishtank (Museum of Science, Boston and St. Louis Science Center)
The Virtual Fishtank(TM) is an innovative, immersive, and artfully-produced permanent exhibit of the Museum of Science, Boston.
Simulating fish schooling behavior, it entertains while also demonstrating how individuals following simple rules can lead to complex group behavior. 
The Virtual Fishtank(TM) was developed by Nearlife with The Computer Museum (now part of the Museum of Science, Boston) and the MIT Media Lab. From conceptualization to implementation, Nearlife provided all aspects of exhibit design, including art direction, visuals, user interfaces and character design, and implemented all software using its Directable Characters(TM) technology.
Museum visitors have some control over the fish behavior parameters by selecting rules that guide them at specially designed interactive stations. However, the actual patterns of the fish behaviors are governed by the interactions amongst the characters.
Nearlife not only produced the design for the Fishtank, but also the look and traits of the fish, the user interfaces, and the exhibition space itself.
KidsRoom2 (Millennium Dome, UK)
Nearlife designed & developed KidsRoom2, a revolutionary, near-to-life entertainment experience that is one of the leading attractions at The Millennium Dome in Greenwich, England, open to the public throughout 2000. A dramatic breakthrough in entertainment, KidsRoom2 launches the bold, new genre of "living entertainment". 
Children entering KidsRoom2 are transported into a fully immersive, real-time, three-dimensional environment. KidsRoom2 is a child's fantasy bedroom where a virtual songbird comes to life and takes flight, a boat navigates raging rivers, and dancing monkeys lead children on grand adventures.
Utilizing Nearlife's proprietary Directable Characters(TM) technology and Immersive Tracking System, the children travel in a team on an entertaining quest within this magical and colorful realm. They learn the importance of teamwork, dealing with surprises and the consequences of their actions.
This exhibit won a Silver Award in the prestigious I.D. Magazine 2000 Interactive Media Design Review.
The Un-Private House (Museum of Modern Art, NY)
This Museum of Modern Art (NY) architecture exhibit examined the changing definition of the private residence via an international array of 26 recent building projects. MoMA, the MIT Media Lab and Nearlife collaborated to create a welcome mat and an interactive dining room table that were part of the home-themed style of the exhibit. The table, complete with Lazy Susan and "smart" coasters, displays the floor plans of the house chosen by the visitor, as if on a "digital place mat." 
Nearlife provided interaction design consultation, content preparation, programming, and technical support for the table, and for the exhibition's web pages. The website enabled Internet visitors to view the exhibit content and to submit comments that were displayed on the table in the exhibition.
This exhibit won a Silver Award in the prestigious I.D. Magazine 2000 Interactive Media Design Review.
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