Marina Bay Sands Opens World’s First ArtScience Museum

February 2011, Singapore – The world’s first ArtScience Museum opens its doors to the public at 1.18pm on 17 February 2011. With 21 gallery spaces taking up 50,000 square feet, the ArtScience Museum will be housed in the iconic lotus-inspired design and is set to become the heart of the growing ArtScience movement as well as a venue for major international touring exhibitions.

You can expect a exhibits of a spectrum of influences from arts and science, media and technology, to design and architecture.  This museum was designed by international renowned architect Moshe Safdie to foster the interplay of art and science.

The iconic shape of the ArtScience Museum features 10 ‘fingers’ anchored by a unique round base in the middle.  Each finger reveals a different gallery space featuring skylights at the ‘fingertips’ that illuminate the dramatically curved interior walls.

According to Moshe Safdie, international renown architect who designed the ArtScience Museum explains that “Some see the form of the museum as reminiscent of a lotus flower, others feel it looks like an open palm.”  He feels that the museum’s design represents the forward looking spirit of Singapore.   Safdie explained that the flower-like geometry is one of the most complexed he has designed.  It is highly mathemtically ordered for efficient construction.  The roof channels rainwater through the central atrium of the building, creating a 35-metre water drop into a small, reflecting pool.  This rainwater is then recycled for use in the building’s restrooms.  Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP), typically used in high-performance racing yachts, which has never been used in a project in Singapore, was used for the construction of this architectural wonder.

ArtScience: A Journey Through Creativity will be the Museum’s showpiece exhibition.  It will feature a series of permanent exhibits that anchors the iconic venue at the forefront of technology, design and culture.   There will be three galleries Curiosity, Inspriation and Expression which begins at the ‘floating stairs’ on Level 3 and spans the entire Level 4 galleries.

Curiosity is located on the third floor of the Museum where visitors will be introduced to a unique space by an ascending “floating” staircase.  The gallery challenges guests with questions that have motivated artistic and scientific innovators through time via translucent scrolls hanging from the museum’s voluminous sloping ceiling.

Inspiriation features six large suspended artifacts representing famous inventions such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Flying Machine, a Kongming Lantern, a high-tech Robitic Fish, a model of the ArtScience Museum, a molecular model of a “Buckyball”, and an Ancient Chinese Scroll.  You get to interact in this section through engaging touchscreen units filled with information on ArtScience innovations in areas such as architecture, transportation, technology and exploration.

Expression combines lighting effects, sound and moving images.  A multimedia gallery of kinetic images that follow the journeys of great art/scientists across time and culture and artifacts that represent an array of disciplines light up on cue during the presentation.

There are Interactive Creative Stations in the gallery to allow guests to take the inspiration from these objects and create their own unique design project, which can also be shared with friends and family via email or posted to social media site such as Facebook.

When you exit the ArtScience Gallery, look out for the NEXT Wall.  The work of art that you created in the Inspiration gallery would be projected along with the other guests’ work onto a large media converse to remind you that you are also capable of great creativity and realization.

Thought leaders in the field of ArtScience from around the world will be brought in to drive discussion and further generate ideas on the subject in the coming months.

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• Marina Bay Sands To Open ArtScience Museum (luxist.com)

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