Listening Post @ Science Museum

Dictum no 1:"If a city has a science museum, you must go to it" .
So as soon as I got to London, I decided to make my way to the other side of the Victoria and Albert museum. Yet as I stepped into the large airy halls, it wasn’t the air conditioned draft that hit me, it was age. Sure the museum is fun, but only if you are in the early double digits of life. Otherwise, you walk through the halls, hoping that WallE will run in and compact everything into cubes of waste. Sorry curator, but this place is getting old!

Yet there is one gem in this steam engine obsessed museum: the Listening Post. With the help of tiny and noisy displays hung on parallel wires, chunks of real time chat data are streamed into one cacophonous, almost steampunk inspired, display. While the unaware chat away on the web, this conniving art display, steals their typed words and displays them, on a wide galaxy of tiny screens. While the almost-neon letters chatter into formation, they give a feeling of the matrix streaming in front of your eyes. Unrelated words nudge each other to form coherent sentences in the viewer's mind, shockingly making us aware of the banality of our instant communication, and the sheer emotion that flows through the 'information' super highway.
Unconvinced? Watch the video....

Travel tip: please carry sugary treats for bored adults.

The museum website: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

Video Courtsey: kapschamedia

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