People and the Planet, Wildwalk At-Bristol
From the Kyoto Treaty to the preservation of hedgerows, environmental issues are high on many agendas. Bristol's new Wildwalk exhibition is trying to keep abreast of the situation.
It has just renewed the People and the Planet gallery where it presents four topics on our treatment of the environment. It's an ambitious task for such a small space, and it doesn't quite pull it off, for the exhibition lacks depth and sends out conflicting messages.
People and the Planet is the final gallery of Wildwalk, a journey through the natural world from simple single-celled creatures to more complex organisms, a trail through evolution. Unlike many natural history exhibitions, however, at Wildwalk you actually pick your way through the wild, albeit one that is imported.
At the side of the main building is a botanical house that visitors enter twice on their route through the exhibition. The first time is to view simple plants such as mosses and ferns, and the second time is to see the tropical rainforest exhibits.
This section of the botanical house is filled with exotic plants and trees, beautiful, brightly coloured birds and extraordinary insects. It is from here that visitors enter People and the Planet.
The first thing to hit you as you enter the new gallery is the sound of chainsaws: the tropical forest has segued nicely into an area on humans' destruction of habitat. Here there are exhibits that show some astonishing statistics. One enables visitors to explore the extent of deforestation since 1800; it is a grim picture.
Another computer interactive shows the variety of habitats that are being destroyed, which range from hedgerows to kelp forests. It should be enough to make anyone concerned.
But there is only a handful of exhibits here, and while the points made are serious and important there is very little context. Why is this happening? What, if anything, is being done about it?
The next area of the exhibition looks at humans' treatment of wildlife, but shows a surprising lack of reflection. The first part tells us that 'taking animals and plants from their natural habitat is the third greatest cause of all known extinction'. But hold on a minute... haven't we just walked through a gallery containing plants, birds and insects from other countries? What is going on?
Further down the text panel there is a brief mention of conservation, but there is nothing to say whether At-Bristol is part of a conservation programme. So what should visitors take from this? How should we consider the animals on display here, or in any other museum for that matter? The messages are contradictory.
There is more contradiction in the adjacent section where again the text seems to conflict with the exhibits. A panel explains how hunting is leading to the extinction of many animals. Next to it is an interactive similar to a 'shoot the duck' fairground game in which visitors can try out their hunting prowess by opening fire on a series of moving targets. If ever there was a case of mixed messages this is it.
From here visitors go on to see more wildlife as they walk under 'Europe's first ever walk-through, living tropical coral reef tank'. Coral reefs are endangered, but there is no obvious message here about why, how or what we should do about it, or indeed about how this reef is helping to preserve others.
And the environmental issue that dominates debate at the moment is global warming - what to do about it, what its effects will be and, for some people, even its very existence. What a shame then, that a topic considered so important that it makes the headlines and is high up the global political agenda is relegated to one touchscreen interactive.
Finally we are advised on how we can do our bit. Recycle more, buy local produce, put on an extra layer instead of turning up the heating. This is old advice, but the links to the previous exhibits are not clear. How will this prevent deforestation? Will this protect tigers from hunters?
The lack of clarity and depth in the exhibition is not helped by some rather clunky exhibits. There are many touchscreen computers, but the software is very slow and often there is a long delay between touching the screen and the computer's response.
Consequently many of the exhibits were passed over by visitors who thought they were broken. As some of the exhibition's key messages are conveyed only through the interactives, that could mean quite a lot of information is passed by.
There is a vague sense throughout People and the Planet that there was an obligation to present something on environmental issues and so it was bundled in here. This uneasiness comes mainly from the lack of context given to the very points the exhibition is trying to make.
There is very little background information, no sense of why these various situations have occurred, what controls, if any, have been put in place, or who the key players are. In many cases there are political, cultural and economic barriers to preventing, say, deforestation or hunting of endangered species, but these are not mentioned anywhere.
At this level, science becomes highly politicised. Perhaps At-Bristol wants to keep science politics-free. But this is unrealistic and assumes that visitors are unaware of the debates surrounding many of these issues.
People and the Planet has a difficult job to do. It is a tiny space for a huge subject, and it has to continue the fixed walk-through approach of the rest of Wildwalk and use the same exhibit format.
Nevertheless it could at least have been consistent and more reflective in its approach; and perhaps with better quality software and a little more ambition it could have cracked the subject.
Rachel Souhami is a freelance curator and lecturer in science communication at Imperial College London
Project data
Cost: £1.2m
Main funders: The ReDiscover fund, a joint venture between the Millenium Commission, the Wellcome Trust and the Wolfson Foundation
Other supporters: SITA Trust (sustainable development section), Wildscreen (ARKive project)
Exhibition design: At-Bristol
Graphic design: Enigma Creative Solutions
From the Kyoto Treaty to the preservation of hedgerows, environmental issues are high on many agendas. Bristol's new Wildwalk exhibition is trying to keep abreast of the situation.
It has just renewed the People and the Planet gallery where it presents four topics on our treatment of the environment. It's an ambitious task for such a small space, and it doesn't quite pull it off, for the exhibition lacks depth and sends out conflicting messages.
People and the Planet is the final gallery of Wildwalk, a journey through the natural world from simple single-celled creatures to more complex organisms, a trail through evolution. Unlike many natural history exhibitions, however, at Wildwalk you actually pick your way through the wild, albeit one that is imported.
At the side of the main building is a botanical house that visitors enter twice on their route through the exhibition. The first time is to view simple plants such as mosses and ferns, and the second time is to see the tropical rainforest exhibits.
This section of the botanical house is filled with exotic plants and trees, beautiful, brightly coloured birds and extraordinary insects. It is from here that visitors enter People and the Planet.
The first thing to hit you as you enter the new gallery is the sound of chainsaws: the tropical forest has segued nicely into an area on humans' destruction of habitat. Here there are exhibits that show some astonishing statistics. One enables visitors to explore the extent of deforestation since 1800; it is a grim picture.
Another computer interactive shows the variety of habitats that are being destroyed, which range from hedgerows to kelp forests. It should be enough to make anyone concerned.
But there is only a handful of exhibits here, and while the points made are serious and important there is very little context. Why is this happening? What, if anything, is being done about it?
The next area of the exhibition looks at humans' treatment of wildlife, but shows a surprising lack of reflection. The first part tells us that 'taking animals and plants from their natural habitat is the third greatest cause of all known extinction'. But hold on a minute... haven't we just walked through a gallery containing plants, birds and insects from other countries? What is going on?
Further down the text panel there is a brief mention of conservation, but there is nothing to say whether At-Bristol is part of a conservation programme. So what should visitors take from this? How should we consider the animals on display here, or in any other museum for that matter? The messages are contradictory.
There is more contradiction in the adjacent section where again the text seems to conflict with the exhibits. A panel explains how hunting is leading to the extinction of many animals. Next to it is an interactive similar to a 'shoot the duck' fairground game in which visitors can try out their hunting prowess by opening fire on a series of moving targets. If ever there was a case of mixed messages this is it.
From here visitors go on to see more wildlife as they walk under 'Europe's first ever walk-through, living tropical coral reef tank'. Coral reefs are endangered, but there is no obvious message here about why, how or what we should do about it, or indeed about how this reef is helping to preserve others.
And the environmental issue that dominates debate at the moment is global warming - what to do about it, what its effects will be and, for some people, even its very existence. What a shame then, that a topic considered so important that it makes the headlines and is high up the global political agenda is relegated to one touchscreen interactive.
Finally we are advised on how we can do our bit. Recycle more, buy local produce, put on an extra layer instead of turning up the heating. This is old advice, but the links to the previous exhibits are not clear. How will this prevent deforestation? Will this protect tigers from hunters?
The lack of clarity and depth in the exhibition is not helped by some rather clunky exhibits. There are many touchscreen computers, but the software is very slow and often there is a long delay between touching the screen and the computer's response.
Consequently many of the exhibits were passed over by visitors who thought they were broken. As some of the exhibition's key messages are conveyed only through the interactives, that could mean quite a lot of information is passed by.
There is a vague sense throughout People and the Planet that there was an obligation to present something on environmental issues and so it was bundled in here. This uneasiness comes mainly from the lack of context given to the very points the exhibition is trying to make.
There is very little background information, no sense of why these various situations have occurred, what controls, if any, have been put in place, or who the key players are. In many cases there are political, cultural and economic barriers to preventing, say, deforestation or hunting of endangered species, but these are not mentioned anywhere.
At this level, science becomes highly politicised. Perhaps At-Bristol wants to keep science politics-free. But this is unrealistic and assumes that visitors are unaware of the debates surrounding many of these issues.
People and the Planet has a difficult job to do. It is a tiny space for a huge subject, and it has to continue the fixed walk-through approach of the rest of Wildwalk and use the same exhibit format.
Nevertheless it could at least have been consistent and more reflective in its approach; and perhaps with better quality software and a little more ambition it could have cracked the subject.
Rachel Souhami is a freelance curator and lecturer in science communication at Imperial College London
Project data
Cost: £1.2m
Main funders: The ReDiscover fund, a joint venture between the Millenium Commission, the Wellcome Trust and the Wolfson Foundation
Other supporters: SITA Trust (sustainable development section), Wildscreen (ARKive project)
Exhibition design: At-Bristol
Graphic design: Enigma Creative Solutions
