timhunkin/science in the dock

SCIENCE IN THE DOCK OBJECT THEATRE
A Mongrel Media project for Glasgow Science Centre
(in collaboration with Will Jackson and Sarah Angliss, 2000)

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.
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The seating area	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.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 stage, with the 3 sets

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.