A TOTAL BODY EXPERIENCE
The Health Museum’s new “Biorhythm: Music and the Body” exhibit isn’t just hands-on, it’s “total body-on.”
This is the word from Dr. Melanie Johnson, president and CEO of the museum, who’s excited about the interactive nature of the exhibit, which was conceived by a team of scientists, composers and musicians in Dublin, Ireland.
In one portion of the exhibit, visitors lie in a sonic bed. As they get comfortable, the vibrations through sounds are elevated, Johnson says. “You can literally hear the sound of your relaxation.”
Nearby, inside a shell-like cocoon, tactile sound is explored when frequencies from the floor convert sound into vibrations you’ll feel through your entire body.
Using earphones, heart-rate monitors and skin detectors at another station, guests will see a visualization in real time of their physical response, either favorable or unfavorable, to various samples of music.
And another piece of equipment creates a song based on your own heartbeat.
“We’re trying to express that music is not only intended to de-stress mentally, but it really does impact your back and your ears and your vertebrae” and all parts of your body, Johnson says.
Throughout the exhibit, quotes from famous artists with a connection to Houston are painted on the wall, including personal mantras from Beyoncé and Bun B. On one wall, “Sounds like the blues are composed of feeling, finesse and fear,” is attributed to ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.
There also are special community events that connect museum visitors with local artists and DJs through live music.
Some of the stations require multiple people to engage together. At “Chains of Emotion,” users touch chains grounded to the floor. Only when all the chains have been grasped, forming a circle of people, does the music begin playing. Others allow a group to take turns singing, talking, clapping or making other sounds that is then synthesized into a single harmony.
One of the most popular elements, for children, is an oversized sculpture of an ear with a working microphone inside. When you speak into the microphone, across the room another replica — this one of the inner ear — shows what happens when your ear receives noise. Children can learn how the tiny hairs inside their ears protect them from hearing too much sound and understand more about the flow of vibration, Johnson says.
She describes the exhibit as “a beautiful fusion between works of art and technology, science and engineering.”
Stacy Anderson, a mom of two, visited the exhibit by herself and plans to bring her children back during spring break. She thinks they’ll have “a blast,” through interactive touching and manipulating, especially in the outer ear and inner ear portion, where objects on view (a duck, a tea kettle, a guitar) mimic the shape of the ear’s bones. “They can’t see their inner ear but you can show them, ‘This is how the ear works when we hear something,’ ” she says.
In high school, Anderson was in the band and choir and she has a background in dance.
“I love music in all forms,” she says. “A good beat can’t stop my foot from tapping.”
And now she knows the reasons why.
Allison Bagley is a writer in Houston.