Dream Machines at the Ontario Science Center
You know what gets me every time? Museums actually advertise holidays as a good time to visit. The time when crowds are at their peak, when it’s almost impossible to enjoy an exhibit to your satisfaction, when random children will push your buttons and pull your strings and mess up with your experience because kids are kids and the museum management is UX-indifferent, is the exposure you’re explicitly invited to get.
I try to steer clear of Ontario Science Center during the winter break. However, there are certain things they only have on display during the X-mas season, like the Dream Machines exhibition, and the Emett’s Whimsical Workshop. I love Dream Machines and I wanted to attend the workshop with my son. So, we unleashed our mad skillz and tackled the visit like a couple of museum ninjas.
The Dream Machines are the creations of Rowland Emett - a set of kinetic sculptures designed purely to entertain. They huff and puff and whistle and buzz. The pieces move back and forth, connecting and disconnecting, each telling their own story. My favourite exhibit is the Little Dragon Carpet Cleaner which cleans carpets and occasionally chews them up.
My other favorite is a mechanical rocking chair with slippers attached. I wouldn't mind having it at home!
My son and I came in after 2 pm, to avoid the noon crowds, but to still overlap with the Emett’s workshop (it closes at around 3:30). I knew exactly where to go, so we managed to slip right in. It helped that we met a familiar assistant who recognized us and let us join, even though the workshop was already full. The other good thing is that they only let so many people in at any given time, so there was no competition for resources. Everyone had enough materials to work with.
The workshop has two parts. In the prep room, one plays with various hooks and tubes trying their own whimsical designs. It is supposed to help with the next part, although I, having tried both parts, fail to see the connection. Still, the prep room was fun. Aleron and I tried connecting weirdly shaped metal pieces and cardboard tubes, ending up with a very fragile installation with no particular purpose but to confuse and entertain the viewer.
After that, we were ushered into the next room, where we were asked to design a machine out of provided materials. Aleron got enamoured by a wooden mannequin, and spent most of the time twisting and turning its appendages. I was working on an apparatus that would provide exercise for lazy birds. At some point Aleron hooked the mannequin upside down, and I connected the twisted thing to my bird fitness machine. The result looked surprisingly wholesome, at least to Rowland Emmet’s standards. We called the installation “Extreme Bird-Feeding”, the name Aleron remains exceedingly proud of.
After that, we visited the KidSpark. It was crowded beyond belief. Aleron decided he only wanted to check the bird-watching window and see if the red-tailed hawk was there. So, we went around the line and into the terrace door. Outside, we could watch the birds for as long as we wanted in complete solitude.
Aleron asked for pizza. The cafeteria was predictably full. However, in the faraway corner adjacent to the Science Arcade we discovered a new exhibit: a puzzle asking to move the rope from the utmost right peg to the utmost left. It took Aleron some time to figure it out, and, more importantly, made him forget about pizza.
We checked “The Indigenous Ingenuity” and were not very surprised to find it packed. After some amount of waiting in line Aleron managed to get a spot at the salmon-hunting station. He was in the middle of his hunt when some woman started asking me to let other kids have a turn. I said they can have their turn when my son’s turn is over. I see no point of using the exhibit if you cannot do the full round of experience. I don’t blame the woman but I do wish people would bring their UX complaints to the staff and not other visitors.
On the way back downstairs I noticed that the radio station was open and not crowded. We stopped there. Aleron got to try his hand at the Morse code. His task was to code his name in dots and dashes, while the radio worker would decode it and read it back. The man ended up with ILERON, which is pretty darn close.
All in all, we had a fun visit despite the horribly bad UX of the place. I’m looking forward to the end of the winter break, so that we can resume our regular Saturday visits. Navigating the holiday crowds takes too much effort that I would rather spend in a more productive way.
I try to steer clear of Ontario Science Center during the winter break. However, there are certain things they only have on display during the X-mas season, like the Dream Machines exhibition, and the Emett’s Whimsical Workshop. I love Dream Machines and I wanted to attend the workshop with my son. So, we unleashed our mad skillz and tackled the visit like a couple of museum ninjas.
The Dream Machines are the creations of Rowland Emett - a set of kinetic sculptures designed purely to entertain. They huff and puff and whistle and buzz. The pieces move back and forth, connecting and disconnecting, each telling their own story. My favourite exhibit is the Little Dragon Carpet Cleaner which cleans carpets and occasionally chews them up.
My other favorite is a mechanical rocking chair with slippers attached. I wouldn't mind having it at home!
My son and I came in after 2 pm, to avoid the noon crowds, but to still overlap with the Emett’s workshop (it closes at around 3:30). I knew exactly where to go, so we managed to slip right in. It helped that we met a familiar assistant who recognized us and let us join, even though the workshop was already full. The other good thing is that they only let so many people in at any given time, so there was no competition for resources. Everyone had enough materials to work with.
The workshop has two parts. In the prep room, one plays with various hooks and tubes trying their own whimsical designs. It is supposed to help with the next part, although I, having tried both parts, fail to see the connection. Still, the prep room was fun. Aleron and I tried connecting weirdly shaped metal pieces and cardboard tubes, ending up with a very fragile installation with no particular purpose but to confuse and entertain the viewer.
After that, we were ushered into the next room, where we were asked to design a machine out of provided materials. Aleron got enamoured by a wooden mannequin, and spent most of the time twisting and turning its appendages. I was working on an apparatus that would provide exercise for lazy birds. At some point Aleron hooked the mannequin upside down, and I connected the twisted thing to my bird fitness machine. The result looked surprisingly wholesome, at least to Rowland Emmet’s standards. We called the installation “Extreme Bird-Feeding”, the name Aleron remains exceedingly proud of.
After that, we visited the KidSpark. It was crowded beyond belief. Aleron decided he only wanted to check the bird-watching window and see if the red-tailed hawk was there. So, we went around the line and into the terrace door. Outside, we could watch the birds for as long as we wanted in complete solitude.
Aleron asked for pizza. The cafeteria was predictably full. However, in the faraway corner adjacent to the Science Arcade we discovered a new exhibit: a puzzle asking to move the rope from the utmost right peg to the utmost left. It took Aleron some time to figure it out, and, more importantly, made him forget about pizza.
We checked “The Indigenous Ingenuity” and were not very surprised to find it packed. After some amount of waiting in line Aleron managed to get a spot at the salmon-hunting station. He was in the middle of his hunt when some woman started asking me to let other kids have a turn. I said they can have their turn when my son’s turn is over. I see no point of using the exhibit if you cannot do the full round of experience. I don’t blame the woman but I do wish people would bring their UX complaints to the staff and not other visitors.
On the way back downstairs I noticed that the radio station was open and not crowded. We stopped there. Aleron got to try his hand at the Morse code. His task was to code his name in dots and dashes, while the radio worker would decode it and read it back. The man ended up with ILERON, which is pretty darn close.
All in all, we had a fun visit despite the horribly bad UX of the place. I’m looking forward to the end of the winter break, so that we can resume our regular Saturday visits. Navigating the holiday crowds takes too much effort that I would rather spend in a more productive way.