The kids had a really awesome time last week exploring Future World, the new permanent exhibition at the Art Science Museum. It was a whole new world of play.
Future World is a collaboration between Art Science Museum and TeamLab, an award-winning Tokyo-based art collective of “ultra-technologists” that includes artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects and designers. Future World is touted to be Singapore’s largest interactive digital playground, and I think the kids have to agree with this.
There are 4 different spaces within the exhibition – Nature, Town, Park and Space. Our favourites were Park and Space. Most of the exhibits are designed to be highly interactive. Take this Table Where Little People Lived, which comes to life when visitors “play” with its inhabitants. Try moving the wooden blocks around the table and the little people will react and change their movements accordingly. It even responds when you place your hands on the table! JJ was very excited trying to “catch” the little people, and observing how they react to different things and movements.
This huge screen is the Sketch Town installation. It includes recognisable landmarks such as Marina Bay Sands, ArtScience Museum, the Merlion and the Singapore Flyer. The kids got to colour drawings of buildings, cars, and even spaceships. Then watch their creations come alive (in 3D) after they are placed on a scanner and “transported” into Sketch Town itself. Very cool!
The same drawings can be scanned into a 3D paper model version that they can bring home and cut and fold to form their own 3D models.
What’s more, kids can interact with the screen by tapping on buildings and cars, and watch them hop, dance, or skip, with accompanying music. And watch out for the dragon who comes to attack Sketch Town – when you see it, tap on the fighter jets on the screen and they will start shooting at it!
There is a similar installation called Sketch Aquarium, a digitally rendered aquatic world of underwater animals. Both Vera and JJ were busy colouring (and scanning) in different fishes and marine life.
After a while, JJ got distracted with the Light Ball Orchestra, made up of luminous multi-coloured giant balls. The balls react when touched and played with, they glow and change colour, and create different kinds of sounds when kicked and rolled over. A multi-sensorial experience!
He was content rolling and frolicking with the balls for a pretty long time.
Then he discovered the Create! Hopscotch for Geniuses…now this is where he really got hooked.
Here you can create your own game of hopscotch by arranging different shapes on a tablet, which are then projected onto the floor. As you hop your way through the course, different light and sound effects are triggered. Also, specific shapes and colours create different visual effects on the forest background projected onto a separate screen, so it’s interesting for older children to observe.
Like the Light Ball Orchestra, this was a great game for JJ, who like most boys can’t stop moving their bodies. 😛
Finally, we come to the final highlight of our visit – the Crystal Universe, a beautiful and intriguing installation made up of over 170,000 LED lights arranged across the room. There’s a tablet here that allows you to create different lighting and movmeent effects. Vera said this was her favourite part of the exhibition. It definitely was a magical experience so I can understand why!
Future World, the new permanent exhibition at ArtScience Museum, is now open. Ticketing information here.
Admission prices (for Singapore :
- Adults: S$14
- Child (2-12 years): S$7
- Family (2 Adults + 2 Children): S$35
- Senior (65 & above):S$11
- Every Friday is Family Friday! Up to four children under 12 years old enter for free with every adult ticket purchased.
Timed-entry has been introduced from 1 April 2016. Admission times are: 10am, 11.30am, 1pm, 2.30pm, 4pm and 5.30pm (last entry).
It’s definitely worth a visit, so go check it out!
