AN interactive exhibition that reimagines South Cumbria as a post-apocalyptic world opened this week at Cooke's Studios on Abbey Road.

'Time Back Way Back' is the work of North West-based artist and videosmith Sam Meech, and is presented as part of Signal Media and Film's 'Lost Stations' digital arts programme.

Completely free-to-enter, the exhibition specially commissioned interactive exhibition launched on Wednesday November 22 and runs until Saturday December 9.

The work draws inspiration from a masterpiece of science fiction: the novel Riddley Walker by author Russell Hoban.

The novel is set after a nuclear war has devastated world civilizations. The main action of the story begins when the young narrator, Riddley, stumbles upon efforts to recreate a weapon of the ancient world.

During 'Time Back Way Back' visitors will be immersed in a futuristic set and encounter performance, phosphorescent concrete forms, virtual reality and interactive projection mapping.

Audiences can don protective headgear to excavate artefacts from a past society, before virtual reality allows them to uncover writings from Cumbria’s ‘past’.

Drawing on the way young people see the world, the items uncovered include a giant steel fidget spinner that weights 47kg and is 50cm wide.

Describing the exhibition, artist Sam Meech said: “Think of it not as a historical document of Barrow, but an absurd imaginary leap into a future world, in which the technology of today, both digital and mechanical, leaves unusual traces that require our own interpretation to understand ‘what we ben’.

“A giant fidget spinner unearthed as part of the show is just one of a number of interactive pieces that will draw on the way young people see the world, and ask us to think about what we leave behind.”

Meech is an artist based in the North West who combines digital image making, projection design, community engagement, and machine knitting.

He has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including in London, Bilbao and Montreal, and earlier this year he led Signal Film & Media’s digital artist development programme.

'Time Back Way Back' is the climax to the year-long Lost Stations programme which has opened up a world of digital art for participants and audiences in Barrow-in-Furness and Cumbria.

Loren Slater, co-director of Signal Film & Media said: “The Lost Stations programme has brought world class artists to Cumbria to explore new creative processes.

"These amazing artists have worked with communities in Barrow and beyond on ground-breaking contemporary digital art projects.

"We are excited to open Time Back Way Back with Sam Meech and want people to experience something immersive, atmospheric, interactive and fun.”

Drawing on the themes of Lost Stations in reference to the traces of railway networks and lines surrounding Barrow-in-Furness, the exhibition sets out to examine the idea of past technologies and societies, through placing visitors in the future.

Just as the town’s railway traces a past of industrialisation, the show uses interactive artworks to envisage a future that will unearth the traces of relics and railway networks that present civilisation will leave behind.

Previous Lost Stations instalments have seen public talks and masterclasses with respected and innovative world-class artists such as Felicity Hammond, Mishka Henner, Henry Iddon, Chris Bucklow and Marshmallow Laser Feast.

The programme has also worked with 12 emerging creative people from Cumbria in developing new digital skills and their professional practise.

Time Back Way Back runs Wednesdays to Saturdays, from 10.30am until 5.30pm until Saturday 9th December.

Late-night openings will be held on Thursdays until 7pm.