An honest story, not always a comfortable one.

Bristol Dockyards set out to tell the SS Great Britain’s full story, not just the engineering marvel, but the “warts and all” version: the wonder of what Brunel built, alongside its part in empire, migration and conflict. Our media work carries that ambition through the exhibition, giving voice to the shipbuilders, emigrants, crew and passengers whose lives the ship shaped, for better and for worse - as well as those impacted by its legacy.

Co-created, not performed at.

Working with the institution’s Community Advisory and Research Group, we cast local Bristol performers — many stepping in front of a camera for the first time — and built scripts alongside them, so that the words and the delivery carried real, lived authenticity rather than a best guess at someone else's history. It's the difference between a museum recounting a community's story and a community telling its own.

Bristol Harbour: where it began.

The opening exhibit anchors the ship in its economic and engineering context — the challenges, the environment, the shipyards, the ambition, the sheer scale of building the world's largest ship in a Bristol dry dock. Through a 3D crafted, projection mapped model of the Bristol Harbour landscape, we help visitors to understand why, when and how the SS Great Britain was built.

Liverpool Harbour: the crossing that changed what was possible.

From Bristol, visitors step into a spatial audio environment recreating the noise and motion of a working transatlantic dock at Liverpool, as the ship is readied for departure. For many passengers, this was the first realistic chance to cross the Atlantic at all — to reach family, chase business, or start a honeymoon in a country most people could previously only imagine. For many of the dockers, this was another day busy day at work . We put visitors inside that moment of departure, at the heart of the crowd and the noise, transitioning with the ship.

New York Harbor: an artwork brought to life.

In the New York area, a single historic artwork of the ship becomes the starting point for a large-format, subtly animated cinemagraph, layered with spatial audio and motion-triggered sequences. The animation carries a character-led narrative of arrival — the voices of the people stepping off the ship into a new life. For those who just want to enjoy the artwork, simple animated textures and movement loop with the audio to provide a relaxing, immersive space.

A Day in the Life: history you can explore.

For younger visitors especially, we built a playful animated infographic mapping a full 24 hours aboard the ship — visitors can zoom into each deck and department to see how the crew and passengers actually lived, worked and slept, hour by hour. It turns the ship's daily routine into something to discover rather than read; playful animations showing cats, rats, crew and passengers throughout the day.

Key People: voices old and new.

The exhibition's "Key People" framework carries the human story of the ship. Our historical figures plot the ship’s life, from the optimism and pride of young shipbuilder James Johnson, to passenger and diarist Allan Gilmour, as well as crew members Barber Jones and George Moses. We also produced a video installation in the same style with Melbourne-based First Nations artist Fiona Clarke, exploring her personal connection to the ship's story: her great-great-grandfather and great-great-uncle were both part of the First Nations cricket team that traveled on the SS Great Britain. The film sits alongside Clarke's own artwork in the gallery, bringing a present-day, first-hand perspective to a story that's still being told. Finally, Community Researcher Tarjinder Kaur explores how the ship impacted those across the British Empire, an ongoing research project for the institution.

Experience design

Bristol Dockyards (formerly Brunel's SS Great Britain) reopened its museum on 18 July 2026 after a major redevelopment led by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. The Trust deliberately moved away from an engineering-first retelling of the ship's story, choosing instead to confront its full history — including the ship's role in Empire, conflict and migration — alongside the ingenuity of its design. As the museum's own project team have put it, the aim was a "warts and all" account: a rounded picture of history, not just its most flattering chapters.

We were brought in to build the media backbone that carries that ambition through the whole visitor journey — not just the character galleries, but the scene-setting, the soundscapes and the interactive moments that connect them. From the economic story of Bristol Harbour, through the spatial audio of Liverpool and the animated arrival at New York, to the playful daily-life interactive infographic and the contemporary voices woven through Key People, our work threads through the experience - culminating for visitors in a visit onboard the ship itself.

Central to all of it was community collaboration. Working with the institution's Community Advisory and Research Group, we cast local performers — many with no prior acting experience — and co-created scripts with them rather than for them, making sure the stories on screen were told with the authenticity only the people connected to them could bring.

Visit Bristol Dockyards to plan your visit to the SS Great Britain Experience.

Developed for Ralph Appelbaum Associates, The Story Engineers created the technical environment, lighting design by Record Lighting, and fabrication by The Workhaus.

Media credits: © 2026 Lost Shtetl Museum, RAA, Andrew Lee, Dot Crew Digital Ltd.