Dinosaurs and Hydraulophones

In this post I will be covering everything from the prehistoric age to the post-cyborg age. Once again, my IMM class at Sheridan College took a field trip to Toronto. Our first stop was the Royal Ontario Museum where we were guided through some of their interactive displays by the Director of New Media, Brian Porter.

We spent the first part of the tour in the digital gallery where we were able to sit at interactive computer stations equiped with touch screens. We could view either the Ancient Egypt exhibit or the Canadian Heritage exhibit. You could surf through different artifacts from the selected exhibit and then read a blurb of info about them and zoom in, pan, turn on each object. I can see it being quite enjoyable for kids! Also, in the digital gallery there was a large film screen which had a three-camera projector and we got to watch the beginning of an educational film about Canadian Heritage that was made entirely by staff at the ROM. I was quite professional and had some interesting transitions due to the ability to edit film differently for each camera.

Next we moved to the Dinosaur Exhibit which was really quite stunning. Although the intention was for us to examine the interactive computer screens, which displayed video and fun dinosaur facts – personally I found the real bones and carcasses that were on display to be far more interesting and awe-inspiring. There were no major problems with the interactive screens, but we’re used to seeing dinosaurs digitally, we’re just not used to seeing their real (though dead) physical presence, which has much more impact.

After the dinos, we proceeded to check out the office of New Media staff member Zack. He has the coolest job in the world, he gets to make/record music, do a little actionscript, edit films all in one cozy little office.

After the ROM we went on a slushy walk through the streets of the University of Toronto campus, to meet Professor Steve Mann, this man defines the term “mad scientist” – he’s got the workspace of a mad inventor with all kinds of random stuff cluttered everywhere, including a baby stroller equipped with an eject button! He is well known for being the world’s first cyborg – because of the strange eyepiece he wears (see photo below) which allows him to experience computer mediated reality.

Steve Mann had some pretty interesting things to say about water, he has built a musical instrument called the hydraulophone, which makes these beautiful keyboard like sounds by direct physical contact with hydraulic fluid (water) to generate sound hydraulically. The largest hydraulophone in the world (the FUNtain) can be found outside the Ontario Science Center, it was made by Steve Mann and his colleagues. Apparently Steve Mann has also been able to make something similar to Midi, which he calls fluidi, so you can use the hydraulophone to control sounds that would come from different musical instruments. Pretty amazing! He even talked about being connected over the internet and using a hydraulophone here to spray a stream of water in Australia!

All in all, it was a pretty fun and inspiring day. We finished off by checking out the lobby of advertising agency Cossette. With a little persistance, perhaps we can hold our IMM open house there!

Below is a short video of some people enjoying the hydraulophone at Nuit Blanche.