Glasgow Science centre had appointed the dutch Design compan Northern Lights to design and
build a gallery about ' Science and Society'. They decided to use a UK sub-contractor to
build the mini-theatre as there was some concern that the dutch humour might not
translate. We took on the commisssion on condition that we could write our own script and
ignore the one they were proposing. In particular we persuaded them to include historical
ethical issues as well as current ones - though they insisted that Dolly the sheep, as a
local celebrity, should still be included. We ended up with two other stories -
Laika the Space dog (animal rights) and Christiaan Barnard's first heart transplant (organ
transplants). Both these stories got us back in our home territory of the history of
technology.
.
GLASGOW SCIENCE CENTRE
The Science centre is in the middle,
with a viewing tower on the left and
an imax theatre on the right.
THE MINITHEATRE AUDITORIUM
We built the set and animatronics for each
story on a cart (moveable for easy maintainance). We had one extra cart, dressed as a
living room TV set, to introduce and link the stories.
THE MINITHEATRE STAGE
THE FIRST HEART
TRANSPLANT
.
Each story is told with a mixture of animated 3D puppets and video projections. The video
projector is mounted on a pan and tilt mechanism (intended for a security camera) so it
can move to different positions in the theatre. The video is played on a domestic DVD
player and the animatronics are controlled by Programmable Logic Controllers - Having no
computer involved has made it amazingly reliable
IAN WILMUT THINKING
LAIKA THE SPACE DOG
IAN WILMUT AND DOLLY
THE GALLERY MASCOTS
2007 update
Everything
else in the gallery has been scrapped but Science in the Dock was
miraculously saved. It now looks very different. The technical problems
have been sorted (abandoning the RC servos and the data projector) which
is great. The new look isn't exactly my taste, but its wonderful that new
people have 'taken ownership' of it.
