Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination

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Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination is a traveling exhibition created by the Museum of Science, Boston, featuring props and costumes used in the Star Wars films, but focusing primarily on the science behind George Lucas' science fiction-fantasy epic. Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination was developed by Boston's Museum of Science, in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd., with the support of the National Science Foundation, under Grant No. 0307875. This exhibit is presented nationally by Bose Corporation.

Contents

[edit] History

The exhibit was developed over a period of four years, beginning in 2002.[1] It opened to the public at the Museum of Science on October 27, 2005. George Lucas was the guest of honor at the Museum of Science's Grand Opening Gala; Anthony Daniels was the master of ceremonies.

At its first venue in Boston, MOS cited a visitor attendance of approximately 275 000 before the exhibit closed on April 30, 2006, to commence its 8-venue US tour.

[edit] Features

The primary focus of the exhibit is the introduction of modern science and technology through the lens of Star Wars. Topics ranging from space travel, mechanical prosthetics, robotics, and levitation technology such as is seen in hovercrafts and Maglev trains are addressed through hands-on activities and volunteer demonstrations.

[edit] Interactive displays

The exhibit includes a reproduction of the Millennium Falcon's cockpit, which features a four-and-a-half minute experience about real-world space exploration, particularly the unmanned exploration of the farther planets of our solar system, and the hundreds of exoplanets that have been discovered. The experience is narrated by Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO, and with a few added effects in the cockpit (rumbling seats, fans, and lights) is meant to simulate the appearance of actually traveling through space and looking out the cockpit viewscreen. This exhibit is not included in the version at the Powerhouse Museum.

Also included is an interactive presentation on robotics narrated by C-3PO. It shows some mocked up specific purpose robots (pipe inspection and welding) and contrasts these with the Star Wars robots, robot soccer and the Kismet_(robot). It provides an interesting insight into some of the current thinking on how to improve the usefulness of robotics and the nature of the interaction between robots and humans.

The "Living on Tatooine" section of the exhibit features three augmented reality kiosks in which visitors interact with a virtual environment on a large screen. The environment includes reflected imagery of the visitor and computer-generated elements from the Starwars universe which are attached to the prop in the the video. Visitors move physical props in order to complete tasks of increasing complexity to build communities in the three simulated environments. The kiosks were developed by ARToolworks, Inc.. When the user is interacting with the props the user and props appear in the video but once placed, the video takes over the whole screen, the props disappear and the interaction between the computer generated elements is altered by their relative positions.

[edit] Props and costumes

The exhibit includes an impressive number of props, costumes and models, including the Yoda puppet, C-3P0, "Naked" C-3P0, R2-D2, the Chewbacca costume, the three-section Darth Vader helmet from Revenge of the Sith, as well as models of the X-wing, Millennium Falcon and many others. There are also costumes for Mace Windu, Princess Leia, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the stormtroopers, and lightsabers belonging to Luke, Obi-Wan, Darth Maul and Count Dooku, among a great many other costumes, props and models.

[edit] Other features

There is also a multimedia tour which uses a PDA to provide not only audio content, but also video and still images, adding to the visitor's experience. The PDA has a "bookmark" feature, that allows visitors to email special features of the exhibit to their email address. The exhibition also includes a number of documentary videos about the technology of Star Wars and the comparison of real-world technology to that of the Star Wars universe.

[edit] Tour schedule

[edit] Notes and References

  1. ^ Brad Puffer, New England Cable News "Starwars exhibit makes its premiere in Boston" (Television news article) 2005-10-27.
  2. ^ "Next month, in a gallery not so far away.". Sydney Morning Herald.. November 21, 2008. http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/where-science-and-imagination-meet/2008/11/20/1226770643738.html. Retrieved 2008-12-14. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Where_Science_Meets_Imagination"