Rumbo
al Cosmos
A
set of eleven "space-travel" interactives
I installed these exhibits for Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe
Felipe, Ciutat de les Arts I les Ciencies, Valencia, Spain, in December
2001. They were designed and fabricated in seven weeks between receiving
the order and loading the crates onto the lorry that carried them to Valencia.
All are working well, with no maintenance problems.
Having recommended a list of suitable interactives to the client, I personally
supervised the design and construction of most of them (the eight largest
items). The remaining three were low-maintenance, "off the shelf"
designs I selected from EDM and Techniquest and modified slightly to match
the rest of my own designs.
Phases
of the moon (Fases de la Luna)
A simple idea, but I think my design is original. However simple,
it is still surprising how many details need to be considered.
Inside the table is a rotary damper mechanism, to prevent children from
moving the moon dangerously fast. The rotating assembly is strongly engineered
in welded, stainless steel. The red handle makes it immediately obvious
which part to touch, and what to do with it. The moon has a special, non-shiny
surface finish in just the right shade of grey. (In fact the moon actually
is a dirty grey colour!) The lamp unit is symbolically stylised to represent
the sun and designed to avoid overheating, despite being very bright.
The interpretive label, in Spanish and English, is positioned to make
users stand in the best position to see the effect.
Galaxy
(Galaxia)
This is an example of what I call a "hearts-on"
exhibit. There are only four buttons to press, so it is not especially
"hands-on". It conveys just four simple pieces of information,
so it is not really "minds-on". However, it is designed to trigger
a powerful emotional effect.
I offered to design an exhibit about galaxies because they are probably
the most awesome things in the universe. But I wanted to convey much more
than facts about galaxies. I wanted to produce a personal, emotional response
to the unimaginable size of a galaxy, the
number of stars in a galaxy, the vast distances
between galaxies, and finally, the mind-boggling number of galaxies.
Leaving the bright sunlight of the main exhibition area, you push through
a black curtain and stand inside a dark space. Powerful, awe-inspiring
music plays softly from concealed, stereo speakers at head-level. In front
of you, a beautiful image of the Andromeda galaxy floats in a two-metres-wide
black void. There is a subtle, three-dimensional effect, because the glowing
image is tilted backwards in the same orientation as the galaxy, yet the
tilt is disguised by a near-vertical black guaze screen in front of it.
On the handrail are four simple questions, each with an illuminated pushbutton.
For example, "How big is the Andromeda galaxy?"
(¿Cómo es de grande la galaxia de Andrómeda?)
Each answer is revealed, floating above the galaxy. Lighboxes that merely
blinked on and blinked off again would have been far too crude. Special
circuitry makes the words quickly grow in brightness then gently fade
back into darkness. "Light takes two hundred thousand years
to travel from one side to the other." (La luz tarda 200.000
años en viajar de un lado a otro.)
Multiple
orbits (Órbitas múltiples)
Flared "gravity hollows" around each of three model planets
challenge you to aim a steel ball so that it rolls around more than one
planet in a single mission.
The planets are under an acrylic dome and the balls are held captive
inside the three launching ramps.. You raise each ball with your finger-tip,
sliding it up to the top of a ramp. Then you turn the ramp carefully to
take aim before releasing the ball.
I drafted the initial design specification for a similar exhibit at the
National Space Centre, Leicester. Being aware of the excellent final result,
I specified a couple of small improvements and cosmetic changes and comissioned
EDM, the original fabricators, to build me another.
There's no point in trying to re-invent the wheel!
Solar
System (Sistema Solar)
I really like seeing interactive video and computer graphics projected
onto a table-top, around which a group of participants can stand. I worked
out the geometry for this innovative design very carefully and am delighted
with the result. The data-projector is enclosed at the right side of the
picture and the image reflects down from the overhead mirror.
In operation, this exhibit stands in semi-darkness. An animated computer-model
of the sun and planets contrasts with the apparent blackness of the grey
table-top. Twelve illuminated blue push-buttons are labelled with the
names of the planets, plus sun, asteroides and comet.
A speaker provides feedback sound-effects.
The most striking feature of any scale model of the solar system is how
relatively close the inner planets seem to the sun (even though the actual
distances are huge), and how loosely associated are the outer plantes
in comparison. So the computer model zooms in and out appropriately when
each planet-button is presses, while the Spanish name of that planet briefly
appears beside it.
Pressing the appropriate button causes a comet to sweep into view and
loop quickly around the sun with its tail pointing outwards. The effect
was so wonderfully cool that we programmed additional timed visitations
to occur every few minutes.
When the mains electricity is cut off each evening, the PC and the video
projector are automatically powered down correctly by an Uninterruptible
Power Supply unit (UPS).
Atmospheric Circulation Patterns (Trayectorias de circulación atmosférica)
The suspended particles in a "flow-tracing fluid" reveal
every detail of the turbulent patterns when you grab the rim of the table
and spin it round.
This exhibit is one of the few, good, classical, "off the shelf"
exhibit designs that I prefer to buy from fabricators who have made them
before. Techniquest built it for me. Apart from modifying the external
finish slightly to match the rest of the set, my main contribution here
was sourcing it as a relevant, effective, low-maintenance
exhibit.
Make a Telescope (Haz un telescopio)
This exhibition is on the 3rd floor of a huge and awesome, glass-sided
building. You slide the large lens backwards and forwards to focus an
upside-down image of the outside world, onto an opal acrylc screen.
You can examine the image on the screen through the smaller magnifying
lens. While doing this, you can tilt the screen forwards, out of the way,
using the red lever. Now you can still see the magnified image, even more
clearly than before.
You have just assembled the components of an astronomical telescope...
The
silence of space (El silencio del Espacio)
This is a toughened, hands-on adaptation of the classical "bell
in a vacuum-jar" experiment.
It is not easy to design something like this so that it will function
reliably despite all kinds of rough treatment from crowds of young museum
visitors.
One illuminated button starts the vacuum pump, also starting a switch-off
timer. The middle button makes a solenoid strike the bell. (You can see
it striking the bell.) The third button opens a valve to let air back
into the vacuum chamber, at the same time switching off the pump. A vacuum
gauge is also visible.
Constellation
Quiz (Inventa tu constelación)
Blue fibre-optic stars twinkle and pulsate brilliantly against a black
background.
Four illuminated buttons are each labelled with a constellation name.
If you press the correct button, the outline of that constellation-picture
appears. Until then, it is completely invisible.
The lower picture shows Taurus, the bull.
Newton's Laws (Leyes de Newton)
Coloured plastic discs float frictionlessly above the perforated steel
surface of an "air-table". Set in motion, they continue to spin
and collide for a surprising length of time. This is an irresistible plaything!
This is an excellent example of a truly exploratory exhibit.
It instantly produces investigative, collaborative behaviour, motivated
by pure curiosity. People are fascinated to discover, for example, that
the discs will roll round and round the edge of the table.
The discs are deliberately marked to make it apparent when they are spinning.
This is another exhibit for which I drafted the initial design specification
for the National Space Centre, Leicester. For this project I simplified
the design, made some cosmetic changes, and comissioned EDM, the original
fabricators, to build it.
Orbits (Órbitas)
Objects roll around the black funnel increasing in speed and angular
velocity as they approach the centre. An unexpectedly long time elapses
before they drop out through the bottom.
This is a truly classical interactive exhibit, seen in many different
forms all over the world. I have simplified the design and added coin-launching
ramps, to get around the universal maintenance problem of disappearing
balls...
While installing these exhibits on site in Valencia, I was amused by
three Spanish exhibition fitters who seemed unable to concentrate on their
work when they were anywhere near this one! (Click here
to see them.)
Rocket
(Cohete)
I am especially proud of this invention. My air-powered, bolt-action
rocket-launcher makes an impressive bang as it blasts a two-litre plastic
bottle skywards.
This picture was taken during some test flights outside on the balcony,
but this is actually an indoor activity in Museo de las
Ciencias Príncipe Felipe! (Well, their 3rd floor ceiling is exceptionally
high...) This is a popular demonstration rather than an interactive exhibit,
with carefully supervised visitors working the foot-pump.
Even greater velocity and altitude can be achieved by putting several
cupsful of water into the bottle to increase the mass of the propellant.
But not indoors...
Loading
the lorry
Crated-up, this exhibit-set completely filled a 12 metres articulated
lorry-trailer.
What
amazing architecture!
Ciutat de les Arts I les Ciencies is a truly impressive sight
and reports very high visitor numbers. The recently-opened science centre
(Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe) is in the centre,
flanked by an eyeball-shaped, large-format cinema and a large new theatre
on one side, and an extensive oceanarium park on the other side.
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