Last week, I was fortunate to be able to scrounge up an hour of time from my busy schedule to visit a place of discovery and learning reminiscent of my early days as an elementary school student! As I anticipated, the Ontario Science Center was a place embedded with new insights and hidden revelations about the simple nature of science being infused with art. The Ontario Science Center boasted a handful of culturally relevant art installations and educationally riveting sound sculptures. It was an afternoon of delightful discovery, enriched with learning and poignant ideas. As someone who is quite curious, and anxious to learn, I planned my short trip with detailed precision as I wanted to see as much as I could within the hour of time that I had to scavenge the science center for art installations and sound sculptures.
Lately, art has been the center of attention at the Science Center, as one of the main initiatives of the Science Center is to incorporate large scale art pieces to challenge the way people think about art in terms of science. "Agents of Change is a Science Center initiative which seeks
to invest $40 million in funding to transform the science center into an environment where visitors can explore and interact with their surroundings", says Lesley Lewis, who is the CEO of the Science Center. As such is the case, the science center is currently teeming with new ideas of inspirational innovation.
One of the highlights of my trip to science center was in visiting George Rhodas' sound sculpture. You might be surprised to learn that this particular sound sculpture was quite amusing, and provided endless hours of entertainment for young children older than the age of four. Somehow, it reminded me of my very young childhood, when I would wait in the waiting room of my cranky dentist's office, and be entertained by the simple toys such as the wooden roller coaster circuit which consisted of dizzying spirals and tight corners upon which my little marble
would travel. George Rhodas' sound sculpture was exactly like this simple childhood toy, if you can imagine, but it was ten times larger than the original! Imagine how much more fun that would be, given the endless delight a regular sized marble circuit delivers to a young child! This
sound sculpture is not just any ordinary marble circuit though; it is unique in the way that simple percussion instruments are embedded into the structure so that when a marble is traveling through the circuit, it will be a given a chance to cascade down a music xylophone, bounce off a small trampoline, and sequentially strike various other percussive instruments to create music!It also differs from the standard marble circuit, as much of the "music" that happens here depends primarily on chance. For example, once a marble is set in motion, more than one option of destination is available depending on time and chance. Ideally, every marble set in motion will encounter some kind of percussive instrument throughout the circuit, but sometimes, the unlucky marbles travel through the circuit only to return to the place of origin, without having played any significant role in adding to the tonal environment.Sometimes, more than one marble is set in motion at one time, creating a cascading effect of call and response, between the various number of marbles traveling through the circuit at the same time. The effect of a number of marbles striking the percussive instruments while traveling throughout the circuit gradually builds to a forte crescendo, as the marbles ricochet and rebound from one side of the sculpture to another, producing a vibrantly musical environment.
