Dotdotdot designed the exhibition “Beyond the Finish Line. The Science that Moves Sport” at MUSE as an open, inclusive environment where accessibility becomes a design driver rather than a constraint. Universal accessibility informs spatial, formal, and narrative choices, shaping an experience that is welcoming and engaging for all visitors.
Through hands-on interactions and participatory setups, the exhibition invites audiences to explore how science and technology support athletic training and enable top-level performance, while also highlighting sport as a practice of health and wellbeing. Visitors are not just observers: they are encouraged to take part, experiment, and move within the space.
The result is a museum experience that is physical, cognitive, and relational at once—one that turns knowledge into something you can feel, test, and share.
The exhibition develops on two levels.
The first runs along the perimeter and is defined by a modular system of scissor-shaped platforms designed to display sports objects and artifacts. Their varying heights and inclinations encourage direct, non-hierarchical access, allowing visitors of different ages, heights, and abilities to explore the exhibits independently, without barriers or imposed routes.
This level brings visitors up close to the tools, materials, and technologies behind athletic performance - offering a tangible encounter with the scientific and technical innovations that have shaped the evolution of sport.
At the heart of the exhibition, the second level becomes a Playground, an informal arena dedicated to movement, play, and social interaction. Inspired by the visual language of sports fields and playgrounds, the space uses bold graphics and familiar signage to create an immediate, intuitive connection with the world of sport.
Organized into five thematic areas - dexterity, speed, strength, endurance, and sports practice, echoing the Olympic rings - the Playground invites visitors to get involved hands-on.
Through a learning-by-doing approach, complex scientific principles are explored through physical exercises and athletic gestures, turning the body itself into a tool for understanding.
Science is experienced in motion: tested, felt, and discovered through action rather than observation alone.
The design of the visual and chromatic language informs the organization of the space.
Each section is identified by a color that serves as a narrative code, ensuring consistency between graphics, surfaces, and play areas. The graphics are designed according to rigorous criteria of readability and contrast, helping to make the experience accessible even on a cognitive level. This choice promotes intuitive orientation and free use, without imposing a predefined visit route. The layout does not provide a fixed path, but, thanks also to the absence of enclosed spaces, fosters a high degree of personalization of the visit.
graphic design by Dotdotdot
Archivio MUSE - Museo delle Scienze di Trento, Michele Purin (photos 1, 2, 7, 8)
