If you’ve ever wondered what kind of character you might be if you lived in the galaxy far, far away then wonder no more – head to the the Star Wars Identities exhibition at the 02 London to find out.
I’ve been to many Star Wars exhibitions over the years, and they take a familiar form. Most offer the same mixture of displaying memorabilia, props, artwork, and interactive elements to make it more of an experience. Full marks to Star Wars Identities for trying to make the interactive part the crux of the exhibition.
The exhibition contains over 200 original items from the Lucasfilm vaults, including costumes for Stormtroopers, Luke, Leia, Lando, Boba Fett, and Darth Vader – as well as the likes of R2D2 and C-3PO.
But it also explores the nature of human identity through the Star Wars universe. Like many exhibitions these days, it is a linear experience with a definitive start and end. However, it turns this limitation to its advantage by giving you a task to perform while you are perusing the Star Wars treasures.
You will be invited to create a Star Wars character, by making a series of choices along the way – such as species, home planet, position – even style of parenting when growing up. There are video tutorials along the way to help guide you – all from a Star Wars perspective of course. Your progress is saved on an electronic wristband, and your finished creation is revealed at the end (which you can also get emailed to you).
As to the exhibition part of this, while you may think it’s cool and all the see these iconic objects in real life, I’m going to be honest. Displays of movie props etc. usually leaves me cold. I know many like to marvel at seeing the iconic outfits and models up close, but to me it diminishes the power they have within the movies. These objects are not designed to look good in real life, especially up close – they were made to look the part on camera. It is something I have felt since childhood, and to be honest I could sense that apathy from my daughter.
But we are likely in the minority on this, so if you are a Star Wars fan eager to see these creations up close – this exhibition is unlikely to dissapoint from that angle.
But to me the power of this exhibition is the way it uses the narrative arc of the Skywalkers across episodes I-VI to help us understand the forces that make us who we are. This was kinda cool to me as an adult, but enthralling for our daughter.
After we had finished, I asked her what her favourite part was and she instantly answered “Making your own character”. All the way through, she’d speed past the props to get to the next character building stage, and the video displays relating that to the saga.
So it’s Star Wars AND educational – win win really 🙂
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STAR WARS Identities will be at The O2 until 3 September 2017.
For complete schedule and ticket information, visit, www.theo2.co.uk/starwars or www.starwarsidentities.com.
Disclosure: We were given free tickets for the purposes of this review.
It sounds like even the meekest of Starwars fans would enjoy this exhibition. Do you think it was appropriate for a young audience?
Well, my daughter is 5 and that was a good age. I reckon even a year a go she should have enjoyed it in a similar manner.