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	*iSCAN* Newsletter Vol. 2 February 1997 *First iSCAN* AGM The main item of news concerns the first AGM of iSCAN which will be held by kind invitation at Exploris in Portaferry, Co. Down on Sunday, 23rd March. The morning session will start with tea/coffee at 10.45 a.m. followed by several 20-minute presentations and a business meeting. After lunch there will be a tour of Exploris and a visit to the nearby Mount Stewart National Trust Property. The registration fee of £7 includes a light lunch and is payable in advance (deadline:7 March). The business meeting will include reports from the provisional committee and election of a new committee of ten members. All paid-up members are eligible to stand for election. Each candidate must have a proposer and seconder and be willing to stand. The new committee will elect its own officers. AGM Timetable 10.30 Ferry from Strangford to Portaferry 10.45 Tea/coffee 11.00 Presentations 12.00 Business meting 13.00 Lunch 14.00 Tour of Exploris including Marine Discovery lab, Touch Tank and Explore It 16.00 Visit to the National Trust Property at Mount Stewart. 18.00 Meeting ends Gillian Thomas gets the top job in Bristol Gillian Thomas, the assistant director of the London Science Museum, has been appointed Chief Executive of the Bristol 2000 millennium project. The £82 million scheme will incorporate a new Exploratory and a new centre to be called Wildscreen World. Gillian began her science centre career at La Villette in Paris, then moved to Eureka in Halifax and has been at the Science Museum for the last three years. She participated in the RDS Science Centres Conference last June. For IMPULS read newMetropolis The Dutch national science centre, formerly called 'IMPULS' has been renamed 'new Metropolis'. The centre will open next June at the close of the Dutch EU Presidency. VAANI in Draperstown The second annual conference of the Visitor Attractions Association of Northern Ireland met in Draperstown, Co. Londonderry, 5-6 December 1996. Invited speakers included Bryn Jones, Head of Visitor Services at the London Science Museum, Selina Fellows, M.D. of Sebastian Conran Product Identity Design in London, Dr Simon Thurley, Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces in London and Larry Bell, Vice-President of the Boston Museum of Science. The Wellcome Wing at the Science Museum by Aisling Byrne Lottery fever has just hit the UK, a few years after it hit in Ireland, and it's a different strain of the disease. It's not the long queues to fill out your numbers and hand over your cash, but rather a rush to benefit from some of the profits. Science museums and centres have been particularly active in seeking out and receiving some of this windfall with large-scale projects planned in Bristol, Newcastle and Birmingham, to name a few. The Science Museum in London has also benefited receiving £23 million. This, along with sponsorship from the Wellcome Trust, the UK's largest medical charity, will allow us to pursue a long-awaited project-the creation of the Wellcome Wing, devoted to the presentation of contemporary science. The Wellcome Wing is the most exciting undertaking in the Science Museum's 140-year history. When the Wing opens in the year 2000, its facilities will enable the Museum to establish itself as one of the world's leading centres for the presentation of modern science and technology to the public. The exhibitions New and exciting areas of contemporary science and technology will be explored in ways that make them attractive and interesting to non-specialists. Visitors will enjoy a range of hands-on and object-related displays which will concentrate on many of the key scientific achievements which will shape our lives in the next millennium. Through these displays, visitors will be able to make up their own minds about the associated social and ethical issues that will affect them and their families. Three strategically important areas of contemporary science and technology will be addressed in the Wellcome Wing - the new genetics, brain science and artificial intelligence, as well as information technology which is revolutionising the world of science research. Each area has been chosen because it is fast changing, because of its wide public interest, and because it will have far-reaching social implications. The Science Museum will break new ground by tackling each of these areas through innovative presentations that feature hands-on displays together with unique objects in its collection, such as Crick and Watson's original DNA model. There will also be a continuous programme of public events, lectures and workshops based around the topics of the exhibitions. The building This will be the first new building project at the Science Museum for 30 years. The building will accommodate four major exhibitions and a wide-screen 3D IMAX science film theatre. Linked developments will provide visitors with a scientific garden, a new lecture theatre complex, and new catering and retail facilities. The spectacular design for the Wellcome Wing building will make it a unique theatre of science. Architects MacCormac, Jamieson and Prichard have created a dramatic environment in which the main exhibition floors and the IMAX cinema appear to float in space. Large steel beams and cantilevers create a striking framework from which the floors and cinema are suspended. Coming full circle In the 1850s, the founding purpose of the Science Museum was to present contemporary science and technology, reflecting their importance to our national wealth. The Wellcome Wing will enable the Museum to sustain this vision by providing a focus for the Museum's presentation of contemporary science and technology. Aisling Byrne is a science graduate of TCD and has worked at the Science Museum for over five years. She is currently leading the team developing the biomedical gallery for the Wellcome Wing. The Science Roadshow Last November part of the Tralee Science Works went on a four-week whirlwind tour of Galway, Dublin, Waterford and Cork. The Roadshow was sponsored by Forfás, the Irish Research Scientists' Association and The Science Works itself. Each show lasted an hour with 30 minutes in the inflatable planetarium and 30 minutes with the interactive exhibits. The target audience was groups from primary schools. The Roadshow was run by two staff members of The Science Works and a teacher from each locality with an interest in science who was seconded by the INTO. The demand was such that the staff had no time for lunch breaks and some evenings the shows went on until 8 p.m. During the four weeks over 4000 people visited 162 shows and an equal number could not be accommodated. The reception was particularly enthusiastic in Cork where the chosen venue was the public library in Mayfield. One morning 93 pupils visited the show; the same evening 60 of them returned with their parents. Tadhg Condon, the inspiration behind The Science Works, was interviewed by Keelin Shanley for the RTE programme Spectrum; Tadhg maintains that four buses operating for 30 weeks of the year could bring the show to every school in Ireland at a cost of £180,000. This newsletter includes two articles from the newsletter of the British Interactive Group reproduced by kind permission of the BIG editor, Martin Glancy and others. Contributions for the next newsletter should be sent to: Carol Power iSCAN, c/o RDS Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 by 2 April. - VIEWPOINT from BIG Newsletter - Winter 1966. Reproduced by kind permission. Talking 'bout third generation A personal view of third generation possibilities Ian Simmons** Much of the talk about the future, in the rest of Europe as well as in Britain, revolves around the idea of the "Third Generation" of museums and science centres, a completely new kind of centre. Following from first generation museums, static and object centred, and second generation ones, interactive places where the exhibits do something, the third generation will be yet different again. This sounds great, but it begs the questions - is this really a step forward? And, crucially, will it work? The third generation idea represents, as expressed recently, a significant change in cultural direction for science centres. Up to now, centres that have worked have worked basically because they have good content, and the technology used has been subordinated to that purpose. But the Third Generation concept moves away from this in two significant directions. Firstly, there is actually very little talk abut the content of the centres in terms of what sort of science will be communicated, all the talk relates to the sort of hardware that will do the communication - cutting edge high tech. This is new. To date, all successful centres have been content driven, and the technology used to do the communication has been chosen to meet the communicative needs of the science in question. The second departure embodied in the Third Generation concept is in terms of what people can actually do in them. Being digital, they rely on allowing users to explore only what is programmed into them, essentially removing the element of surprise discovery inherent in today's centres, however well this might be disguised. It removes much of the actual physical involvement with phenomena, and returns people to the remote manipulation of images and information. When Richard Gregory launched the Exploratory, he was emphatic that it should contain only real phenomena which people could explore for themselves, but this is no longer the case with the digital centre, here the phenomena are behind a screen and not in the users hands, which is a step away from hands-on as we know it. A key problem in the vision of new technologies taking museums and science centres into a new generation is that it is just that, a vision. In all the articles I have read and discussions I have heard, which talk of freeing museums from the constraints of geography, ownership etc., giving access to huge tranches of knowledge etc., and of using new technology to do this, none have actually linked the two in anything but the vaguest way. Exactly what technology is going to do which part of the vision, how will it do it and what will the cost be to the centre? These are the problems at the core of making a third generation happen, and I have yet to see them addressed. I have worked extensively with VR, the Internet, CD-ROMs and other relevant technologies and while I find them exciting and of vast potential it is also clear to me that there is a huge amount of work to be done to make visions work in a high throughput public environment, and that cutting edge technology is a tool not a panacea. So far the Third Generation concept is much like Flash Gordon era expectations of personal autogyros for everyone by 1990, a dream, or as the computer industry describes fancy boxes previewed with no working content - vapourware. New IT developments will be a vital part of the new generation of science centres, but cannot be employed complacently. There are real practical issues to be addressed in making the technology serve our needs. Firstly -should we commit to CD-ROM in a big way? Signs are that it is on the way out due to disc cost and inflexibility. There are increasing numbers of things like Encarta and Britannica which were CD-ROM and are now web sites. If much of the links to things outside the centre are by Internet, how are we going to deal with the problem of speed? No matter how good our technology is, we are at the mercy of the rest of the net for the speed things load at - how many children will hang around for more than a few seconds of "Host contacted: Waiting for reply", or for a picture to crawl onto the page? Intranet technologies will make flexible fast delivery in-house possible, but not links to the rest of the world. Then there is the cost of all those data connections to consider, a potentially heavy hidden cost. Then there is VR, the hardware is still expensive, can only handle limited numbers of users at a. time, so that even if you limit people to the recommended four minutes, beyond which you still risk adverse reactions, you get less than 100 people through each unit in an average day. Some projects have promoted desktop or sit-in simulator systems as VR - but the public is not fooled - tell them it's VR and they expect the headset. If we do not take account of these issues before we make these technologies and others the core of our future vision, we will fail to deliver a satisfactory experience to our public, which will be a serious blow to the well being of science centres. Science centres have always been good at grabbing technology and making it work for them - we must do this with the new IT opportunities, not just assume that buying in the latest hyped stuff will do the job for us. What will make a new generation of science centres is imagination. People need the imagination to take things a step further to use new approaches to bring museums and science centres to life and to use VR, the Internet and everything else they can get including objects, ordinary science centre exhibits, and even just people who talk to visitors, to serve the ideas they want to convey. Stuart Brand once made an excellent point about installations which rely on cutting edge technology, he said "[they are] ...fine the first year, out of date the second, and embarrassing forever afterwards". Technology stopped being interesting in its own right many years ago; it is what you do with it that matters. Third Generation science centres will only achieve success if they are driven by content and imagination - not hardware, that is the tool to bring the imagination to life...but you have to be damn sure it'll do the job you want it to first! Ian Simmons is Director of Inspire, Norwich The Questacon Gypsies Experience of outreach downunder Michael Gore (Michael Gore started the southern hemisphere's first interactive science centre - Questacon - in 1980. This transformed itself into Australia's national science centre in 1988. He became its Foundation Director and is currently also Chairman of ASTEN - the downunder version of ECSITE or ASTC and Adjunct Professor at the ANU in CPAS -The Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. He still actively treads the boards with popular science presentations. -Ed.) Shortly after Questacon opened in 1980 the practice of presenting short science demonstration sessions was begun. Initially I did them all myself until the load became too much. Then I recruited some of the undergraduate Explainers to help and by 1983 there were a dozen spruikers learning their communication skills by trial and error. Within months I observed a remarkable change in their presentations skills and also in the confidence they displayed when "working" a public audience. It was this bunch of part time undergraduate Explainer/spruikers who formed the first Questacon Science Circus team that took to the road in 1985. The success of the Circus attracted major sponsorship from Shell Australia in 1988 and that same year the Australian National University (ANU) decided to establish a one-year postgraduate diploma course in science communication. The Science Circus comprised the laboratory component of the course enabling scholars practise their communication skills on the public from one end of the Australia to the other. Each year the ANU offers 15 post graduate scholarships in science communication. Applicants must have a good science degree and they must also submit themselves to an audition. The course is a sort of scientific RADA. The Science Communication Scholars are on the road with the Circus about five months of the year and the rest of the time they spend working at ANU in Canberra. While on the road they work as a team. Everybody must pitch in and help with all aspects of running the Circus. This demands people who are able to get on well and relate to others. They unload the pantechnicon and bump in the interactive exhibits at every venue. They collect the money on the door, run the small science shop that travels with the Circus, act as explainers, give regular science demonstrations an a wide range of topics, go out to local schools and give presentations and they get involved with all branches of the local media. On certain trips they take off into the bush sometimes by Landrover sometimes by light aircraft and spend time working with children in isolated aboriginal communities. They also run sessions on School of the Air. The students they broadcast to live on farms hundreds of miles from even small centres of population. A week or so before the broadcast they are sent a package of materials. These are then used by the students following directions they are given over the radio. The Scholars also visit hospitals, retirement homes and speak at service club meetings. As part of their course they must carry out a short research project that has relevance to science communicating. These often relate to aspects of interactive science centres. In another part of the course they form into teams and work to produce the design for an interactive exhibition. This requires them to design exhibits, prepare sketches, locate possible sponsors, identify target audiences and finally make a public presentation of their work and ideas. They are required to demonstrate that they can "sell" an idea. Scholars spend short (3-4 week) internships with a range of organisations. Radio and television are common locations as are public relations sections of large companies. Some work with science writers on major newspapers and magazines. Last year several of their articles got into the big-time print. As a standard part of their course they are introduced to good public speaking practices and they have almost non-stop opportunities to hone this skill during the year. But most importantly they have a very wide practical background in communicating science to the public. In the last few years many of the scholars have embarked on working trips to America and Europe. They have often picked up casual employment with science centres. Their value is that they can "hit the ground running." These Questacon Gypsies have made their mark not only in science centres but also in design companies and organisations like the Edinburgh Science Festival. The Graduate Diploma Program in Science Communication from which the Questacon Gypsies emerge is conducted by CPAS in concert with Questacon - The (Australian) National Science & Technology Centre. Professor Chris Bryant heads up the ANU's Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS) and is assisted by the ANU's first Lecturer in Science Communication Dr Susan Stocklmayer. If you would like further information about the ANU's Graduate Diploma Program in Science Communication; information as to how to get in contact with a Questacon Gypsy who is currently on the road; or a reference on one who applies to you then contact: Professor Chris Bryant e-mail: chris.bryant at anu.edu.au Mike Gore e-mail: mike.gore at questacon.edu.au [ vol.1 ] [ vol.2 ] [ vol.3 ] [ vol.4 ] [ vol.5 ] [ vol.6 ] [ vol.7 ] [ vol.8 ] [ vol.9 ] [ vol.10 ] [ vol.11 ] [ vol.12 ] [ vol.13 ]