A new Montreal is emerging in which interactive exhibits are elevating experiences to ever greater heights
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By Adam Waxman
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We are entranced as psychedelic matrices morph from an intergalactic metropolis into celestial ocean trenches that fractalize into coral reefs in which increasing magnification reveals dendrites that blow our minds as accompanying ambient harmonics lead us through infinite surrealities.
This is an immersive art exhibit; the dynamic vision of acclaimed artist, Julius Horsthuis, in collaboration with nine of his favorite musicians to create an abstract journey through music, space and mathematics.
A brilliant avant garde art movement is arising from the romantic cobble stones of Old Montreal. New Basilicas are emerging in dreamscapes created by digerati who know no bounds.
Oasis Immersion
Montréal Biodôme
From ethereal digital environments we enter the natural world of the Biodôme, where our veritable walk in the park leads us through five different ecosystems that span the Americas. Biodôme means “House of Life.” Here, plants and animals thrive and interact in these naturalized habitats. Unlike a zoo, where animals are behind fences and gates, here, we are amazed at our proximity to them, and yet they stay within their own domain. We are actually in their environments, and our path leads us through a Tropical Rainforest in which we are so close to beautiful Golden Lion Tamarins as they swing and feed, and just chill out while watching us!
In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we observe marine life in their massive tanks, and then walk along a granite shoreline cleaved by millions of years of ice freezes and thaws. This area is around 1,600 sq. m. It’s as though we have been transported to the North Shore. The air is colder, the humidity, higher.
The Laurentian Maple Forest never stays the same because, naturally, it changes with the seasons. Standing on a foot bridge we feel almost meditative, as we gaze at a delicate rippling stream, and then hear the kerplunk of an otter diving into the water. There are birds and turtles and frogs, and we have fun trying to spot them all between the sugar maple, yellow birch, fir and white spruce trees. The animals are peaceful and harmonious in their habitats. We can’t help but smile as we watch a lynx and a beaver sleeping together. It’s all so calming.
A tunnel and wall of ice separates two different hemispheres with opposite seasons and lengths of day. Penguins frolic in the Sub Antarctic Islands while puffins perch on cliffs along the Labrador Coast.
One final immersive experience at the end of our visit is the Mégaceta, in which projections thrust us underwater to explore humpback whales.
High above, from walkways across a mezzanine, is an incredible view of the Tropical Rainforest, Laurentian Maple Forest and Gulf of St. Lawrence from above. Since opening in 2020, this immersion also challenges us to recognize the fragility of these environments, our individual responsibilities to protect biodiversity, and that the time to act to protect them is now.
Planetarium
From the Biodôme to the adjacent Planetarium, our awareness of our place in precious nature and our inter-connectivity to it is amplified. The Planetarium provides an immersive experience in astronomy but not merely for education in the abstract concepts of space. This evocative combination of science and art provides two theatrical domes: one in which to explore the Milky Way, and the other puts us centre stage as we silently take flight above the line of horizon. We begin on a lake in a forest. We find boulders made of bean bags to sit. We are then propelled into space with the symphonic accompaniment through synthesized Hubble images and nebulae. We feel completely mesmerized by this experience, and are awe-struck by the simulation and the stimulation it inspires in each of us.
Montreal Science Centre
Kids love science. Today, their learning is optimized by the immersive element and the interactive element. The Montreal Science Centre covers both. Within its seven stories high IMAX®TELUS Theatre we are engulfed in 32,000 watts of sound, so that Australia 3D: The Wild Continent can immediately plunge us into the wild and beautiful outback. Here we discover flora and fauna, ancient landscapes, their biological significance and our custodial responsibilities over it.
The science centre is forward-thinking and provides a panoply of fun experiments in every direction: motion, air, light, water, geometry, matter, and even coding. This is not your grandparent’s science centre.
What is evident to me, as my son examines life-sized gears and levers of motion, creates gyroscopic effects, and converts his own movement into electricity, is that the Montreal Science Centre has turned my son into a veritable science centre—exploring and discovering with unbridled curiosity and adventure.
At one moment he’s trying to harvest the wind, experimenting with air pressure and the physics of a tornado. Where’d he go? Now he’s raced inside a giant kaleidoscope. By the time I catch up he’s building water circuits, and then pursuing magnetic attractions, and learning how to shape matter into a giant bubble!
All roads lead to coding. I watch in amazement as my son along with other children instinctively understand how to connect wires to code object and augment reality with music and animation. I don’t know whose mind is more blown—his or mine.
Demonstrations and hands-on activities introduce us to the human body from flatulence to heart functions to cellular regeneration. There are explorations into learning from nature, and the studies of bio-mimicry, cellular reprogramming and even 3D printing of organs.
There are exhibits on chemistry; space exploration; a Digestor to show how the potential energy conversion of organic waste through bio-methanization. All these activities and workshops aim to stimulate young minds with ideas, and provides ideas with materials to bring them to life. It’s endless!
Montreal has vaulted to the forefront of a new wave of tourism that is not based on sightseeing the past, but on stimulating visionaries of the future.