Musiquest, Techniquest, Cardiff Bay
How can we make science interesting? This is THE question that has been worrying science museums and centres for the past 20 years, since the onset of the public understanding of science movement.
Techniquest has tried to answer this question with its new exhibition, Musiquest, which combines science and music. It may make for a amusing afternoon, but the science isn't memorable.
The gleaming purple and orange Musiquest exhibits take up the second floor of Techniquest. It is the biggest project the science centre has undertaken in the past ten years, and to research, develop and make 30 exhibits in two years is a very impressive feat.
The exhibits follow the standard science centre format with a musical twist. Each exhibit has something 'hands on' to do - or 'voice on' in some cases - and some explanatory text to tell you about its relevance to science and music. There is no predetermined route through the exhibits, so visitors can try out whichever one takes their eye.
There are some really fun exhibits here. One that is still being trialled comprises a video showing 180-degree view of an orchestra playing. You can conduct by tapping a button to the time you want the musicians to play, and the film and sound speed up and slow down accordingly.
The musicians look hilarious playing at high speed. There is a range of music-making exhibits, from xylophones and panpipes to music technology exhibits where you can try DJ-ing or feed your voice through a vocoder. Other exhibits require bravery on the part of the visitor: can you sing in tune, and can you match the pitch of the notes being played?
The potential embarrassment factor is high, though fortunately the exhibits are designed to minimise your exposure to the rest of the gallery.
But in all this playing, science and music theory are lost. This is partly because of an ambitious agenda to explain the science and the music relating to each exhibit, but is also because of the exhibition design.
Each exhibit is operated through a panel comprising of a very small screen and a series of push buttons. For each exhibit there is one button labelled 'why science?' and another labelled 'why music?' These give the justification for the exhibit's inclusion by providing information about relevant science and music theories.
But you can't fit a lot of text on such a small screen, so visitors have to scroll through as many as seven pages. It would be interesting to know how many visitors actually persevere to the end of this tedious act.
Those that do so will realise that Techniquest has run into the communication conundrum: you can't assume a level of knowledge that will alienate most visitors, but sometimes you can't avoid using technical vocabulary because it is integral to the subject.
Many exhibitions overcome this by having an introductory section, but if your exhibits are designed to stand alone, as they are at Techniquest, this is impossible. The consequence is that some of the explanations are tortuous, and some require quite specialised knowledge.
There is no example of written music in the exhibition, and nothing that explains tempo or written notation, yet there are explanations that talk in terms of staves, crotchets, and 3/4 time.
A xylophone made from rock core samples has text that tries to explain the pitch of note produced by each core in terms of mass and stiffness; the writer has tried to avoid using an equation but the result is convoluted.
Science and music are both complex subjects and while it is admirable that Techniquest has chosen to give equal weighting to both, perhaps this is too tall an order. The most interesting exhibits are those solely about music, with no attempt at crossover.
World Music allows visitors to hear sounds from around the world. Visitors put on a kind of electronic stethoscope - a pair of headphones attached to a 'puck'. As you move the puck over a map, it picks up songs from different countries, 63 in all. A nearby screen tells you who and what you're listening to, and the instruments being played.
Music Wall is a timeline that uses the same headsets as World Music to explore the history of western music from Henry Purcell to Public Enemy. Along the way the dates of significant scientists and scientific events are given, but no one seemed to be paying attention; they were too busy listening to the music and comparing their favourite composers.
This is a fun exhibition, but not one that will direct visitors towards science. In an attempt to make science appealing, it has chosen to piggyback on an equally complex subject.
By keeping to the traditional science centre style of design, the exhibits are trying too hard to transfer information about both subjects and be fun at the same time. The result is that neither subject gains.
Rachel Souhami is a freelance curator and lecturer in science communication at Imperial College London
Project data
Cost: £1.2m
Funder: Millennium Commission, Techniquest Concept drawings: Razorbite, Porthcawl
Exhibition design: in house
Exhibition ends: 2015
How can we make science interesting? This is THE question that has been worrying science museums and centres for the past 20 years, since the onset of the public understanding of science movement.
Techniquest has tried to answer this question with its new exhibition, Musiquest, which combines science and music. It may make for a amusing afternoon, but the science isn't memorable.
The gleaming purple and orange Musiquest exhibits take up the second floor of Techniquest. It is the biggest project the science centre has undertaken in the past ten years, and to research, develop and make 30 exhibits in two years is a very impressive feat.
The exhibits follow the standard science centre format with a musical twist. Each exhibit has something 'hands on' to do - or 'voice on' in some cases - and some explanatory text to tell you about its relevance to science and music. There is no predetermined route through the exhibits, so visitors can try out whichever one takes their eye.
There are some really fun exhibits here. One that is still being trialled comprises a video showing 180-degree view of an orchestra playing. You can conduct by tapping a button to the time you want the musicians to play, and the film and sound speed up and slow down accordingly.
The musicians look hilarious playing at high speed. There is a range of music-making exhibits, from xylophones and panpipes to music technology exhibits where you can try DJ-ing or feed your voice through a vocoder. Other exhibits require bravery on the part of the visitor: can you sing in tune, and can you match the pitch of the notes being played?
The potential embarrassment factor is high, though fortunately the exhibits are designed to minimise your exposure to the rest of the gallery.
But in all this playing, science and music theory are lost. This is partly because of an ambitious agenda to explain the science and the music relating to each exhibit, but is also because of the exhibition design.
Each exhibit is operated through a panel comprising of a very small screen and a series of push buttons. For each exhibit there is one button labelled 'why science?' and another labelled 'why music?' These give the justification for the exhibit's inclusion by providing information about relevant science and music theories.
But you can't fit a lot of text on such a small screen, so visitors have to scroll through as many as seven pages. It would be interesting to know how many visitors actually persevere to the end of this tedious act.
Those that do so will realise that Techniquest has run into the communication conundrum: you can't assume a level of knowledge that will alienate most visitors, but sometimes you can't avoid using technical vocabulary because it is integral to the subject.
Many exhibitions overcome this by having an introductory section, but if your exhibits are designed to stand alone, as they are at Techniquest, this is impossible. The consequence is that some of the explanations are tortuous, and some require quite specialised knowledge.
There is no example of written music in the exhibition, and nothing that explains tempo or written notation, yet there are explanations that talk in terms of staves, crotchets, and 3/4 time.
A xylophone made from rock core samples has text that tries to explain the pitch of note produced by each core in terms of mass and stiffness; the writer has tried to avoid using an equation but the result is convoluted.
Science and music are both complex subjects and while it is admirable that Techniquest has chosen to give equal weighting to both, perhaps this is too tall an order. The most interesting exhibits are those solely about music, with no attempt at crossover.
World Music allows visitors to hear sounds from around the world. Visitors put on a kind of electronic stethoscope - a pair of headphones attached to a 'puck'. As you move the puck over a map, it picks up songs from different countries, 63 in all. A nearby screen tells you who and what you're listening to, and the instruments being played.
Music Wall is a timeline that uses the same headsets as World Music to explore the history of western music from Henry Purcell to Public Enemy. Along the way the dates of significant scientists and scientific events are given, but no one seemed to be paying attention; they were too busy listening to the music and comparing their favourite composers.
This is a fun exhibition, but not one that will direct visitors towards science. In an attempt to make science appealing, it has chosen to piggyback on an equally complex subject.
By keeping to the traditional science centre style of design, the exhibits are trying too hard to transfer information about both subjects and be fun at the same time. The result is that neither subject gains.
Rachel Souhami is a freelance curator and lecturer in science communication at Imperial College London
Project data
Cost: £1.2m
Funder: Millennium Commission, Techniquest Concept drawings: Razorbite, Porthcawl
Exhibition design: in house
Exhibition ends: 2015
