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Wild Music: Sounds & Songs of Life May 31 - September 7, 2008
Whales compose, bullfrogs chorus, songbirds greet the dawn, and people everywhere sing and dance. What do we all have in common? Visitors of all ages will find out Saturday, May 31 when Wild Music: Sounds & Songs of Life makes its way to Minnetrista. This hands-on exhibit explores sound and music in nature and in life and will be featured at Minnetrista through September 7.
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Wild Music invites visitors of all ages to expand their understanding of what makes music. Through whimsical, hands-on activities, they'll not only hear the music that surrounds them every day, but they'll see and even feel it too. They'll discover that nature is filled with "musicians" that create distinct musical masterpieces to communicate with and relate to one another. And they'll explore how human music is inspired by the music of other living creatures – from tiny insects to giant whales.
Wild Music Features
- Three different "soundscapes" that invite visitors to explore sound and music that comes from the ocean, the forest, and the city. Visitors will learn to interpret spectrograms, or "pictures," of bird songs, learn what whale cries tell us about the animal's life cycle, see samples of instruments from around the world, experiment with how sound travels underwater, explore how music influences memory, and more.
- The Jamming Room, a soundproof practice studio where visitors can use pre-recorded audio soundscapes, animal voices, percussion instruments, and live vocals to compose their own songs.
- The Bioacoustic Lab, where visitors can experiment with how the human voice works and how it compares to that of other animals, specifically birds. Here, visitors can explore a model of the human larynx and the bird syrinx, use an electrolarynx to "speak" without using their voices, and use a set of vibrating metal reeds to "feel" sound.
- The Power of Sound and Music Theater, where visitors can sit back, relax, and experience sounds from around the world. The seven-minute, sound-driven video demonstrates – both visually and audibly – how animals use sound to identify themselves, communicate, and form and nurture social groups.
Designed with an eye to accessibility
Wild Music is the latest Science Museum of Minnesota exhibit that is designed to be accessible to all visitors. All of the exhibit's videos are narrated and captioned, and more than a dozen major components have audio descriptions for vision-impaired visitors. Many components incorporate tactile (raised line) graphic illustrations, and many have visitor-adjustable volume controls. All areas of the exhibit were built to be accessible for visitors using wheelchairs.
In addition, text in Wild Music is printed in large, highly-readable type and is written in both English, Spanish, and, in some cases, Braille.
Learn about the exhibit's environmentally-friendly materials and construction!
