Lundin is one of Europe’s leading independent oil and gas exploration and production companies with operations focused in Norway. They are a new company taking on the bigger players with innovative thought and engineering. Lundin came to us because they wanted to create something that represented and celebrated their 10-year anniversary while acting as a vehicle to drive them into their next decade. With a relatively brief history, we saw that Lundin needed to make some bold brand statements and expressions to be better heard in the industry and wider world. “Breaking the Surface” is a conceptual interactive installation created to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Norwegian oil company, Lundin Norway. Drawing many admirers, it was first exhibited as a central part of the company’s pavilion at the ONS energy convention in Stavanger, Norway, and later mounted by us as a permanent installation in the company’s headquarters at Lysaker, Bærum, Norway.

Pushing design and technological boundaries, "Breaking the Surface", in many ways, reflects Lundin Norway's pioneering and innovative spirit. The installation draws inspiration from how their geologists and geophysicists study, learn and create reconstructions of subsea landscapes from seismic imaging and drill samples.

We designed an abstract representation of this landscape, created from a matrix of 529 acrylic pipes piercing the ceiling between two floors at Lundin´s HQ, creating organic rock-like formations on the first floor that reflected as an ocean surface on the second. Six crystals, that hold samples of actual oil from Lundin´s most important discoveries, hang within a forest of moving golden acrylic tubes.

The sophisticated technology used in the installation includes a series of sensors able to track the movements of visitors, adjusting to their movement at they walk beside and underneath the piece – making the piece feel both interactive and organic at the same time. This inherently interactive experience, with the tubes dodging the heads of passers-by, echoes the graceful movements of ocean tides, and has resulted in a brand experience felt in a manner that could never be achieved through other mediums.