Winchester Science Centre Sound Exhibit

The Science Centre wish to explore how an exhibit about sound could draw people through the space, provide them with an engaging and memorable experience and leave a unique sense of discovery and learning around sound. It also aims to provide a science lecture space where wider learning can take place in an iconic and permanent installation. 

The concept design creates a journey for the visitor to follow sound as it travels through the ear, encountering the mechanics of hearing, with the destination being an an-echoic chamber, where there is no sound and no reflections (representing the quietest place in the body – the cochlea). The Exhibit will provide a unique and world class experience, drawing a wealth of interest to the Science Centre, as it become the centre-piece of its attraction.

Most people have never experienced an an-echoic space, so this for many will be a unique experience best encountered in small groups.  Once the processed information is received in the ear, it then passes into our brain, where it becomes merged with our experiences and physiological effects occur.  Sound has the ability to change how we feel as a result, as in the case of music, or to impact upon us negatively as in the case of 'noise'.

Humans have evolved hearing primarily for threat detection, but also we evolved to develop language that relies on the detection of sound for our connection to people and the world around us.

The study of sound is acoustics, and the exhibit will use this science to the full, but also focus on why we need to consider creating difference types of acoustic environments in our lives and why “quiet” is so important.

This is a very exciting project, which we are delighted to be a part of.  To combine good acoustic design with the message of the exhibit will make this exhibition work on a number of different levels, including the practical one of providing an excellent learning lecture space.

The science will draw from the basics of changes in reverberation, and ambient noise levels, and the need for creating a great speech space. It will include consideration of the structure, and materials used to make sure the focus remains on sound as the central focus of the exhibit.

Stayed tuned for more exciting news on this project to come.