‘Driving curiosity, innovation’
A glimpse of Canada’s updated Science and Technology Museum
OTTAWA — The federal government’s $80-million investment in an updated Canada Science and Technology Museum is about to bear fruit, and as construction continues this week the National Post got an exclusive first look.
After nearly three years of work, the project appears on time and on budget as it barrels towards reopening in November, on the national museum’s 50th anniversary.
“First and foremost we are about driving curiosity, discovery and innovation. And then we’re about having fun, and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We want those little moments of whimsy as you’re coming through the museum,” said director general Christina Tessier.
We took a look at some of the most interesting artifacts and experiences you’ll get a glimpse of in the completely-overhauled space — from pigeon backpacks to an instrument with a 3D -printed inner ear to the world’s first synthesizer, a Canadian invention.
Sounding off
The electronic sackbut, the world’s first synthesizer, will be part of the exhibit. Curator Tom Everrett explained researchers working with the museum are trying to map out how it works so they can recreate a model visitors can play.
As part of an area focused on electronic music, there’ll be a working theremin, too — an instrument you play by hovering your hands near antenna. People’s movements around the space will also alter a soundscape playing throughout the exhibit.
An ear-y concept
Another project is attempting to build from scratch, for the first time, an early machine from Alexander Graham Bell that apparently inspired him to invent the telephone.
The ear phonautograph featured a human inner ear lodged in a microscope with a stylus that would move according to vibrations going through the ear. The new version features a 3D-printed inner ear rather than an actual human one.
‘Suffocating silence’
The museum hopes a new soundproof room, nicknamed the “quiet cube,” will become an iconic experience. Everrett described the echo-proof room as producing “suffocating silence,” and probably the quietest room visitors have ever been to in their lives.
Industrial versions of such rooms, which seal off sound in a way that’d be impossible at a museum, are so disturbing people usually can’t stand it for more than a couple of minutes, Everrett said — they start to hallucinate sound.
Backpacks for pigeons
An exhibit featuring wearable tech will challenge the assumption technologies have to be digital. It will explore Inuit technology, scuba diving equipment, pacemakers and more.
Animals’ outfits will factor in, too. Backpacks for carrier pigeon. Eyeglasses for chickens (ostensibly used to prevent chicken-on-chicken violence).
Gear for search-and-rescue dogs will be suspended from the ceiling.
Kitchens, then and now
An exhibit that looks at socioeconomic changes resulting from new tech features a tiny house built by Canadian company Lumbec. Kitchen gizmos from past and present will be featured, including an Easy-Bake Oven.
The dizziness-inducing crazy kitchen, the museum’s most famous experience and an innovative one when it was built in 1967, remains unchanged — complete with vintage appliances — but now features an exterior that’ll engage visitors with other illusions and brain tricks.
Energy and climate
The intersection of natural resources and climate change will be featured. Tessier explained there are challenges around communicating about climate change and what this means for Canada as a resource nation, and the museum is trying to strike a balance.
A glacier installation will feature stories from those directly impacted by climate change, including Inuit voices. “Versus a lot of statistics and maps and other things, people relate to other people,” Tessier said.
Indigenous perspectives are informing other exhibits too, including a look at constellations across different cultures.
Testing tech
There’s a big LED “canopy” across the front of the building, and images can be projected on the facade. Ingenium, the Crown corporation managing the renovation, is working with the National Film Board to come up with shows to project across the front.
A virtual reality booth will be set up next to two big, iconic locomotives. People will feel wind, heat, vibrations — the experience of being on a steam-powered train. The museum will also put out two apps that use augmented reality to help people learn more about artifacts.
Kidding around
A new children’s gallery includes nine activities including a climbing wall, a robot car-building station and a “wind vortex.” Tessier also hopes a big 10-acre park will eventually be built outside the museum. It’s not funded yet but is “that last piece that I’ll be really excited about,” she said.
In the meantime, parents will be able to scare their little ones by showing them what one museum official described as “terrifying dental equipment” in a medical exhibit, and gross them out by learning about a “urine wheel,” which medical professionals once used to taste pee for diagnoses.