For the second consecutive year, the automotive brand CUPRA (SEAT Group) trusted Reality is__ to excite their audience with an experiential project at Milan Design Week 2022. The result was ANOTHER WAY: an installation created inside a 12-metre long shipping container.

The creative idea of “Human Impulse” was built upon the brand’s passionate community: the “CUPRA Tribe”. The “CUPRA Tribe” built the brand in the past, and drives the brand into the future, and ANOTHER WAY aimed to translate this into a vision of future-focussed thinking. Manifesting as a “gateway” into the future, the installation was located in Piazza XXV Aprile, beside Porta Garibaldi, one of the historic doorways into Milan. The container provided a new doorway in itself, into a future inspired by CUPRA and influenced by the visitors. Inside the container, through an entrance consisting of a series of luminous archways, was a dynamic audio-visual experience with which the visitor could interact using their body movements. The constantly changing content was displayed on a 7-metre LED wall.

“Human Impulse” was further expressed on the opposite wall, where a screen of scrolling text, borrowed from digital signage used in public transport, led the visitor from the entrance to the exit of the installation. The text was updated in real time with answers given by visitors in the nearby CUPRA Garage when posed the question: “What’s your Impulse?” eg. music, design, sport, creativity, etc. The installation’s proximity to the client’s retail space, along with the strategic interactive element linking the experience to the shop, ensured the event was kept constantly busy and encouraged visitors to visit both the installation and the retail space.

CUPRA’s values and ambitions of sustainability, collaboration and an electric future were conveyed both visually and through a bespoke soundtrack. To create a multi-sensory and accessible experience, Reality is__ also developed the creative concept for the audio. Starting from the word CUPRA and digitising the letters, natural and electronic sounds formed part of the interactivity of the space resulting in a more immersive storytelling element, and making the installation accessible through multiple senses.

Reality is__ designed the experience to tell a story through play. Visitors were drawn in by the prospect of playful engagement, allowing both adults and children to equally enjoy the environment. The overall spectacle emphasised how individual actions can create a “snowball effect”, empowering visitors to visualise how their own impulses were brought to life in the surrounding space.

The use of a shipping container to house the exhibition allowed it to live beyond the duration of the event. Once the rented digital hardware was removed from inside the container, the container was returned to the original owner to be reused.