LIGO: ASTRONOMY’S NEW MESSENGERS
Traveling Exhibit
Featured at both the 2009 and 2010 World Science Festivals, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration exhibit was designed to reach young adults, ages 14-21, potentially inspiring them to explore careers in the field of astrophysics. After its initial presentation in New York, NY, the LIGO exhibit traveled to host institutions throughout the US. Based upon studies of visitors’ interactions with the traveling version, SKOLNICK expanded and refined the exhibit the following year.
Services
Concept Development
Script Development
Exhibit Design
Graphic Design
Project Coordination
Size
200 sf (traveling)
1,200 sf
DAZZLING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
In the LIGO exhibit, beauty, more than mere spectacle, is an indication of something profound, a key to unlocking cosmological mysteries. With content provided by the LIGO Collaboration and an undulating architectural enclosure and graphic system that reference gravitational waves, the exhibit’s centerpiece is a point of interaction between visitors, an actual interferometer and a dazzling light artwork by Leni Schwendinger suspended overhead.
INTERACTIVE INTERFEROMETER
Mimicking events in the universe, visitors vocally produce bursts, chirps and pulses that send patterns through the sculpture and are detected by the interferometer. SKOLNICK was fortunate to have had the opportunity to work closely with a host of experts in this exciting new field of science.
““The Skolnick designers were hired to give physical form to our ideas and to clarify and sharpen the messages we wanted to convey. We developed an excellent working relationship that enabled us to cooperate very closely on the actual design of the exhibit.”
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