March 11, 2012

• Ars Electronica

  Thursday, we were going to go on a field trip, but it was rainy and depressing, and none of us felt like walking there, so we postponed it until Friday when it was to be sunny and warmer.  After Bible time, we packed our lunches and walked to our destination, Ars Electronica.

  

  To get there, we had to cross the Danube River. Even though I’ve literally been a stone’s throw away (not my throwing a stone, but someone who doesn’t throw like a girl), I’ve not actually seen it before. It’s a big-ish river. One could swim across it (if it weren’t super cold), but it must be deep as there were big boats on it.

  

  

   

  

   

   

   

  

   

  

   

  Once inside the museum, the girl at the front desk (who had braces! Number Two person with braces seen!) took our money, and we decided if we should start at floor -2 or floor 3.  The ground floor is 0 here, and the second floor (to us) is the first floor, and so on. If it is below the ground floor, it is -1 or -2 or whatever. We hopped in the elevator and went down, down, down in the mirrored elevator. Really, my kids can’t take me anywhere.

  

  We headed to Robotics where Florian, one of the workers, explained a lot to us in relatively good English. He first came over to help us work a thing that you could flip over while holding it, play patty-cake, and it would make different tones and instruments. It worked some of the time.

  

   

  My favorite were the realistic-looking butterflies that flitted around in response to vibrations.

  

  I think the girls’ favorite was this harbor seal. It responds to touch by making noises and lifting its head and closing its eyes. Florian told us that they use it in nursing homes as a sort of pet for the residents. He said they chose a seal because they aren’t common, like cats or dogs, and are also very cute.  It was cute for sure! We had to put on gloves to pet it, otherwise, I think with all the touching, their prototype seal would look like it had been through an oil spill.

    

  I got to put on a tail so that I could see what it was like for “my ancestors.” The tail moved in response to how my body moved.

  

   

  Michael and Libby tried out a machine that “x-rayed” your insides. I believe it was just a video, but if you flipped around the white screen, it would show muscles, then skeleton, then the organs–and the heart even beat! If you would move it up and down your body, it would show the image of what was behind it. (skull, stomach, chest…)

  

  Then, we all had our retinas photographed, just for fun.

  

  This is all four of ours.

  

   

  I learned several things: one is that the younger you are, the more white areas show up in a retinal scan. (Rachel’s is the third one; mine the second.) What these are, I could not tell, due to her limitations with English and my total lack of German. Another is that retinas vary in color just like skin tones. It’s due to pigment in one’s skin. And third, the reason she felt that retinal scans weren’t as reliable was that your retina can change due to glaucoma and cataracts and things.

  There were a lot of videos to watch, and some of them were in English.

  

  The three-D movie we saw on an IMAX screen was not in English, though!

  

  The first thing they showed was some amazing “jump out of helicopters and cause small avalanches” snowboarding. Wow! (can you see the tiny boarders?)

  

   

  Then, there was a 3D show of the planets and outer space that the worker narrated. I understood “day,” “night,” and the names of the planets. (I kept my glasses off. 3D and I don’t get along, even more so when my eyes are bad!) Then, they showed a long, Olympic-style, downhill ski run with the camera on the skier. I didn’t even bother to watch it because I knew I’d get motion sick! 

  We thought David would have been jealous of the big room that was all buildings made with white Duplo blocks. (Although I know David is much more jealous that we have an H&M in town!)

     

   

  We finally made it to the roof which had a restaurant and some wonderful views of the Danube.

  

   

  I wonder what the specialty of this restaurant is?

  

   

  Probably, the girls and I will remember this museum as the place we made shadow pictures. There was one room that was like a theater with a screen of different places in the world. They’d show the image change from day to night. It was cool and all, sort of, but it was boring. Then, we got the idea to make shadows of ourselves on the screen. (We were the only ones in the room!)

   

   

   

   

   

        

       

  Can you tell who is who? (Hint–I am only in the first picture. Libby and Rachel are in the rest.)

  Another shadow thing was that the walls of the museum had silhouette stickers everywhere, some with “captions” and some without. 

  

   

  It turns out that these stickers were the guests of the museum who could pose how they wanted and leave their sticker there. (You could also take it with you, which is what Libby and Rachel did later in the day when the worker of that machine changed.) Michael was not interested in being a part of it, so the girls and I did it.

  

  Yes, part of Rachel’s arm is missing. It was out of the screen area. Libby is in the middle, and I am on the right side. I let Libby decide what to put on our bubble, except I wrote “State College, PA USA.”

      

  It was then time to head home. Why? Did someone have a hot date? Well, yes! Libby and Michael were invited to a birthday party for an Austrian friend. So they went out from 8:00 to 12:00 to a club and met new friends. Yay!

  

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  • 2:48 pm
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