Once upon a time, the great golden dome taught us about the inner workings of the body, in many interesting ways more than one. This blog brings you attraction history, reviews, and also possible Imagineering theories on how to bring the pavillion back to its former glory (one way or another). A source of memories, or a chance to look forward into the future... call it what you will!
Welcome readers, and due to the sheer anticipation of the sporting event that stops the world, I'm deciding to bring up another Attractions Toolkit, this time, for another hands on exhibit. You may remember in the previous article, it covered Sensory Funhouse and the many ideas that would have made it far more memorable.
Fitness Fairgrounds was one of Wonders of Life's hands-on offerings, and being a big hit in its prime, the exhibit area consisted of two sections - the iconic WonderCycles, and the Coach's Corner testing booth. For those who have no idea what are these exhibits are, here's a crash course:
The WonderCycles were a hands on staple, and it was an interactive take on the exercise bike with a touch screen. Guests can cycle through one of three locations, especially Disneyland in Anaheim, and even in a miniaturised-point-of-view (and you thought Body Wars was the only attraction to involve miniturisation)
Coach's Corner was a netted/caged booth in which guests can try out three sports: baseball, golf and tennis - this simulation was designed to analyse guests' swing, with celebrity athletes giving them tips on achieving the most ideal swing for great game performance.
While it's only a minute section of the exhibit, I would as well have to blame the single-floor layout for limiting the choices (*sigh* because Epcot... no scorn intended.) But assuming that the plan was to only put together the highlights (and the innovative) aspects of fitness, that kind of served as the Achilles heel in two ways - the technology being outdated, and that this is only the fingerprint aspect of fitness. Perhaps, as this aspect is straightforward, here is the sketch for a reference:
The above floorplan, on how Fitness Fairgrounds would like to be expanded
From the above referential conceptual floorplan, it would be particularly wise to consider covering the major aspects of fitness as possible. In this case, we may keep the two attractions, but the main goal would be expansion. The key areas that might be of interest might be the jogging track simulation, the treadmill wheels, the rock walls, and the fitness ability test booths. Let's give a brief description of each attraction section, and how it would have been improved, or just set up.
Welcome back again, readers, and here with another article on Footsteps, this time, on an immersive museum experience based in Europe, and surprisingly a referential equivalent to the early addition for the Life and Health pavilion - an OmniMover ride titled the Incredible Journey Within. However, this attraction directly takes a leaf from the book on what the Wonders of Life would have had...
The introductory tourist video, which explains Corpus facts and figures at a glance.
Welcome back, readers, and in another issue of Footsteps, we focus on another state of the art exhibit, already mentioned a little way back in this blog as an exhibit of interest, and even for its release a couple of years ago, it still has the inspirational appeal of what Wonders would have jumped for if it was given another chance. You! The Experience is a successful interactive exhibit, as hosted by the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, and focuses on the concept of life and health in an expansive take - ranging from the mind and body, through to healthy choices, through to medical innovations, and even in depth to a personal level. Again, because the exhibit is continentally away from my main blogging quarters (*SIGH*), I shall start with a brief summary of the exhibits primary highlights:
Your Mind - portraying the mind as the "...main generator of the thoughts, emotions and decisions that can affect your health in big and subtle ways", this part of the exhibit covers the self-portrait (how we see ourselves), as well as techniques to attract our attention (for instance, in advertising), and even an interactive 'brain exploration' game under augmented reality.
Your Appetite - encouraging people to be concious of what they feed their bodies, this exhibit is hands-on, especially in fields on comparing different common snack choices (which one is healthier?) and even what's really in their snacks.
Your Heart - Considered the most iconic exhibit landmark of the Museum, it is a 13-foot tall 3D interactive animation, and shows many views of the heart, inside and out. Guests can interact by sending over their pulse - the heart on display will beat in time with theirs. Here's a brief video from their official website:
Your Beginning - In my humble opinion, if 'The Making of Me' had its own interactive exhibit, but with more artistic merit - this exhibit consists of an interactive display following a mother adjusting to a growing baby during pregnancy, through to a collection of preserved human embryo/fetuses, each per stage of development.
Your Vitality - they say that overall health is closely linked to quality of life, so this section is to do with the little things that can help your overall health. The iconic Laugh Garden is the cornerstone of the exhibit (and the epitome of laughter as the best medicine), as well as an engaging game of mindball, in which guests compete against each other trying to move the ball the furthest - the more relaxed the person, the higher chance of succeeding.
Your Movement - this section inspires guests to be more physically active in life, regardless of their age or state of health - this ranges through to the assisting (a "sports personality quiz" to help pick which activity you'll enjoy), through to the interactive (the 'hamster wheel' and the motion-capture screen installations)
Medical Innovations (ft. iStan®) - the name says it all, this section focuses on the high tech aspects of medical developments (which would have filled the niche for what Frontiers in Medicine), from the bionic, through to medical imaging, and even to some life-changing high tech procedures. Also featuring iStan®, a Human Patient Simulator unit, capable of exhibiting realistic symptoms of medical crises.
Your Future - now this part of the exhibit takes an intrapersonal look at how we see ourselves, whether physically (the interactive 'aging' simulation portraits), through to the mental (the interests, hopes and dreams, organised into your very own online bucket-list) and even the experiences of others (from the experiences of centenerians through to your opportunity to contribute a fragment of your life story)
The reason why I cite this exhibit in this blog article is due to its innovative nature; you may recall much earlier in the blog that there is mention of the exhibit as a primary source of inspiration for hypothesising what Wonders would have strived to be had it remained alive and nurtured, rather than shuttered and sentenced into oblivion. In fact, comparing the aesthetics of the Wonders of Life as it was presented since 1989, as well as that of You! The Experience, it seems that the latter has more aesthetic updated potential that Wonders would have pled for (but nobody listened.) Even some components of the exhibit would have inspired me to organize Wonders attractions by group (see Operation Imagineer for a little more understanding), among a few more things.
But honestly, being the distant blogger I am, I do not have the access to try the exhibit in person, so I am inviting you bloggers to leave a comment with regards to You! The Experience, and how it would have helped Wonders of Life still into visitors eyes.
Noting that this summary article is only a page in the book, here are some resources and external blog articles if you would like some more information, or some more pictorial evidence on each of the featured attractions and their technologies.
Pernot and Tatlin (2010) Pernot and Tatlin » You! the Experience. [online] Available at: http://pernotandtatlin.com/?p=91 [Accessed: 17 May 2012].
If you have any information or experiences with the above exhibit (what do you think of it?) or have a request for an externally based human body/health/wellbeing centered exhibit that you would like WOL4EVA to cover, feel free to leave a comment below.
Welcome to the first issue of Attractions Toolkit, where we select one of the pavilion's existing attraction and list a few possible addons, subtractions or even replacement options to attract the next generation. This would tie in with the Potential WoL Resurrection ideas sections covered in Operation: Imagineer on this blog.
Here we look back at the playground of the senses in which we faithfully know as the Sensory Funhouse. While we know that the five senses are the primary tools of exploring the world around us, bear in mind that the sensory playground has practically become a part of every competing science museum's attraction belt (well, make that a selection of those in which would soon be covered in the Footsteps section of the blog).
To be honest, compared to a given handful of state-of-the-art technological attractions that once were the superiority of areas outside Epcot's border, it appears that the Sensory Funhouse has had a crisis of attempting to catch up. Some of the critics would have seen Sensory Funhouse as, by current standards, comparable to what other science museums have on offer (plus not to mention how it would have trodden on the pawprints of the original ImageWorks upstairs playground once existent in days gone by).
And also by current knowledge, it is no doubt that all parts of the Sensory Funhouse are uprooted and buried from public view, but thanks to a vast array of photographs capturing parts and highlights of the exhibit, it would prove helpful to explain what you'd find in the exhibit:
Touchy Subjects - a gallery of physical objects (including an interactive guessing game on selecting the right object without peeking)
Perplexion Pipes/Curious Coils - a thermo-interactive exhibit famed for its warm-to-cold temperatures of the pipes. (Remember, after handling both pipes, when you handled the pipe in the middle?)
Audio Antics - binaural auditory guessing games, delivered to you by your headphones.
Optical Illusions (name says it all)
Crooked/Illusion Room - or commonly known as the Ames room exhibit, this played around with your perspective - the further occupants went into the room, the smaller they appeared, yet the room appears to stay the same.
Sure most of them are long gone, but suppose that it was possible to bring this kind of exhibit back, it would require an extensive overhaul to literally bring it back into speed, but this would mean taking advantage of any aesthetics, topics and even technological elements to further the experience. This means looking over the highlights of the past Sensory Funhouse, and even going as far as figuring out the missing gaps of what it might possibly have, after the jump...
Welcome back, readers, and hopefully, an eyecleanser after a dose of weirdness on the blog. In the last possibility post, there is a potential idea that would have given the Fitness Fairgrounds a decent resurrection (had it happened), in one way or another. In order to take the idea to the starting blocks, it is only fair to investigate its history beforehand.
As some of you would have known (or not), Fitness Fairgrounds was a selection of recreational activities to get people involved with the joys of fitness, and investigating their role in health habits. Some of those included the Wonder Cycles, and the demonstrative Coach's Corner, as seen below:
