What would the playground of tomorrow look like?
We got a glimpse of that over the weekend at the blockbuster exhibition Interplay, currently being held at the Singapore Science Centre. Of course, it wasn’t actually a playground. On since 30 May till 16 August 2015, Interplay is a highly interactive exhibition curated by the world-renown digital media institution ARS ELECTRONICA Linz GmbH together with the Singapore Science Centre. The exhibition marries science with art, featuring a collection of contemporary and really cutting-edge installations which have been designed to reflect the interconnectedness of digital technology in our everyday lives. The result is a totally fun and extremely cool play space for both adults and children alike.
I’m just going to come right out and say that you HAVE to visit this exhibition because it is so interesting and engaging. We arrived at the exhibition around 10.30am and I only managed to get the kids to leave at 4.30pm (with a lunch break in between) because they enjoyed themselves so much. These were some of their favourite exhibits:
Digital Puppetry
A digital dress-up installation, it’s probably no surprise that this was one of Mei’s favourites. Grab a pink post-it and stand in front of a big screen where your image is projected. Use the post-it to “grab” items moving across the top of the screen paste them to yourself to dress up your image. The kids had their favourites, and the one that kept them laughing were the… underpants! (Yes, my kids and their low-brow humour.)
Trying to pick accessories off with their pink post-its.
Mei and her Underpants! The sensor responds to pink/red colours so my bag got its own rib cage too.
Game Border
If you’ve ever played handheld or console games, this one’s for you. Game Border is a game where you start at the handheld game on the left and move your character across the border to the next one till you reach the end. Intriguingly, the game consoles are arranged in a line in chronological order and it brought a big smile to my face to see that the first game was a Nintendo Game & Watch, one of those 2D black and white handheld games that I really hankered after as a child! Game Border continues on through a Nintendo Entertainment System, a Nintendo Game Boy, a Sony PSP all the way to the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 so you journey through time and the development of video game technology while playing this game. It was very cool and one of Noey’s top picks.
Noey working his way through Game Border, on stage 3 operating the Nintendo Game Boy. The are 10 stages (and 10 different machines) altogether.
Shadowgram
Playing with shadows has been a favourite pastime since time immemorial. Shadow gram here is a social sculpture that grows as visiting to the installation contribute their shadows to the scene. First you get to pose for a shadow picture against an illuminated background. Your shadow image is then printed out as stickers that can be added to the installation, which is an outline of the Singapore city skyline. Get creative and have fun! There were lots of funny silhouettes and we happily added a number to the mix. There are speech bubble stickers for you to leave a message too.
Posing for her own shadow image!
Can you spot us on the installation of an outline of the city skyline? Hint: Noey is posing in a similar position!
Kinetic Light Sculpture
It is hard not to be drawn to this eye-catching display in the middle of the hall when you first walk in. This sculpture piece is a visual treat comprising simply of a rapidly rotating piece of rope attached a two fixed points As light shines on it, the vibrating rope becomes invisible to the human eye, creating in its wake a sculpture of light. Mei was particularly fascinated by this and spent a lot of time trying to select colours that she liked seeing in the piece from the touch screen control.
Left: At low speeds you can see that it is really only one piece of rope. This was shortly after they stopped it to show the kids it was exactly that.
Right: When rotating quickly, you can see a kaleidoscope of colours!
Sandbox Ocean
The Sandbox Ocean is exactly that — an ocean in a sandbox! Only this one is without water, and animated, thanks to technology that allows you to shape the topography of the sandbox. The landscape transforms as you dig and pile the sand up. The higher areas are lighted in green, representing vegetation, with the blue ocean in the valleys. And in the ocean, there are little sea creatures! Direct their paths by changing the landscape or even stretch out your hands to catch them!
Digging in! Can you spy the ocean with sea creatures swimming around in it?
Noey’s “caught” a fish! The technology is clever enough that the fish will not just swim over your hands but will recognise that its been caught and wriggle around before disappearing.
Recollection Six
This was a big hit with the kids as they could run around and see their silhouettes projected on screen, huge and in multicolours! As they move, their image is recorded, the outline extracted, then assigned a colour based on the instant it was recorded, and projected on screen. The images change as you move presenting an ever-living real time animation.
Shadows! Fall in line!
Temporal Distortion
This was another popular one with my children, featuring a series of digital distorting mirrors. Like those carnival mirrors of old that distort your images, making you look taller/short/thinner/fatter than you really are, these screen “mirrors” also change your image, using time-based effects. Liquefy yourself, or see yourself move at lightning speed or super slowly, discover the effects of these mirrors yourself. It’s guaranteed to bring on the laughs!
Deep Space
In the middle of a room is a big black box that houses Deep Space, a multidimensional space that you can get into and experience. This is open as part of a show at fixed timings so do check the time slots listed on the door to plan your visit. Right outside by the door you will also find a screen on which you can put together your own sea creatures — choose which kind of fish you would like and add its eyes, fins, etc. When you later get into Deep Space, you can put on your 3D glasses and go walking in an undersea ocean filled with the sea creatures you created. See if you can spot your own swimming around you!
Exploring the ocean with 3D glasses on.
Noey spots his fish!
We were also shown images of Earth and the different planets and had a field day walking among them too!
Exploring the solar system and studying an orbit.
Walking on Saturn’s rings.
You also get to go skiing down a hill in 3D, and watch two 2D animated clips. The clips were quite a hoot!
Earth Patrol
I can’t end this post without mentioning Earth Patrol, only one of the coolest video games I’ve played! Mainly because of this:
Yup, that’s the dome in which you play the game, lying on your backs, holding guns and shooting aliens, with a 360 degree view of the screen. Think video game meets Omnimax and you’ve pretty much got the picture! It’s a multiplayer shooting game that lasts 10 minutes so it’s really great when you’re shooting, though not so cool when you’re waiting in line for your turn. That said, Noey and Mei merrily entertained themselves watching the games of the players before us. We had two tries at this (lining up twice) and I must say I enjoyed it as much as Noey did!
Zero in on the targets and fire!
Are you convinced to visit yet? Interplay will be at the Singapore Science Centre till 16 August 2015. This exhibition is ticketed separately from the Science Centre and costs $13/adult and $9/child (3 to 12 years), or $36 for a family package of two adults and two children. You don’t have to get admission to the Science Centre to go for Interplay. It is pricier than the Science Centre itself but I think it’s well worth the money. Don’t forget to check it out before it ends!
While you’re at the Science Centre, you can also check out the ongoing events for the Singapore Science Festival 2015, including Brain Fest, which is on this weekend too!
* We were invited by the Singapore Science Centre to experience Interplay. All opinions are, as always, our own.
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