Top Secret: Inside the World of Naval Intelligence

Permanently docked in San Diego Bay, the USS Midway Museum is a massive, intact aircraft carrier that invites visitors to explore decades of naval history through the spaces where people lived, worked, and served. The FELT Team (formerly Art Processors) partnered with the USS Midway Museum on Top Secret – Inside the High-Stakes World of Naval Intelligence, an immersive exhibition that reactivates the ship’s Carrier Intelligence Center (CVIC), the actual space where combat missions were planned during Operation Desert Storm. Once a highly-classified space, CVIC was reimagined to reveal the invisible intelligence work behind naval warfare. The exhibition is distinguished by an inventive reuse of authentic, retired intelligence equipment and spaces. Visitors descend through a stark “Restricted Area” entry and pass through a “time portal’ where layered sound, lighting, and archival media establishes the mounting tension of the Gulf War. The exhibition unfolds across six interconnected immersive environments that mirror the intelligence workflow. FELT embedded motion sensors and new technologies to bring defunct tools back to life, reactivating teletypes, radio receivers, weather equipment, and specialty devices such as the UPQ-5, offering both hands-on and digital interactions. Visitors lift encoded phone receivers to hear firsthand accounts of 16-hour shifts and the weight of sending pilots into combat. An optical light table lets guests analyze actual aerial reconnaissance photographs, and a Discovery Table features original artifacts donated by pilots, navigators, and intelligence analysts. Even the CVIC’s coffee machine was reactivated with sound and scent, conveying the relentless rhythm of round-the-clock operations. Throughout, digital aptitude stations, adapted from military training tools, challenge guests to test their skills to learn which intelligence role they are best suited for. The exhibition culminates in "First Strike" a multi-player game where visitors work as a team to plan and execute a mission with responsive lighting, sound and video footage from Desert Storm. One visitor shared, “The mission planning game was so much fun that we nearly ran to it trying to play one more time before we had to go.” "Top Secret" transforms a once-hidden space into a deeply immersive experience, helping visitors feel the urgency, complexity, and stakes of naval intelligence.