ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

The ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, the white museum that kinda look like some robotic hand outside the Marina Bay Sands Mall would be one of the frequented destinations for families… and I had never visited it before, so I decided to visit the place where two exhibitions were ongoing…

The first exhibition was none other then Patricia Piccinini’s “We are Connected”….

This exhibition offers a fascinating and emotional journey through an extraordinary universe of beautifully bizarre hybrids and strange new beings. ..

I kinda felt like I stepped foot in the movie set of Neverending Story or something similar….

The exhibition halls showcases hyperrealistic sculptures, in the form of mechanised animals, mutated human beings and unknown and unique creatures, inviting you to celebrate a world filled with wonder and difference…..

Piccinini who works at the frontier of art, science and technology – a place where science-fiction, the surreal, feminism and environmentalism intersect challenges us to consider what it means to exist in a world that teems with different kinds of life – a multi-species world she has founded based on care, empathy and a naturing instinct.

Through sculpture, installation, collage and video, Piccinini urges us to reflect on the technological age we live in and to explore our relationships with other species and ecosystems. With this exhibition she issues a call to humankind for greater introspection, kindness, human responsibility and acceptance.

The exhibition was definitely surreal and somewhat mystically magical…..

It is little wonder why the museum is a popular space for play, creating and learning as it offers so much especially at its permanent exhibition

The permanent exhibition is definitely mind blowing and amazing – it brings visitors on an interactive journey of lights, digital art, and magic. Featuring a plethora of works by award-winning Japanese art collective teamLab, Future World is a delightful feast for the sight filled with high tech immersive art installations. Transport to another world with highlight pieces including Transcending Boundaries, where you can wander through the digitally-rendered garden featuring waterfalls that log in accordance with the laws of physics, butterflies that fly away upon touch, cherry blossoms that scatter like when touched and more.

Immerse yourself in a world of art, science, magic and metaphor through a collection of digital interactive installation.

This permanent exhibition is created in collaboration with teamLab, a renowned interdisciplinary art collective.

Future World consists of 19 art installations and creative projects for both adults and children to interact with, play, explore. They are also reflective pieces that help us reflect on ourselves in relation to our world.

There are four themes altogether: City in a Garden, Sanctuary, Park and Space.

When you walk in to the exhibition hall, you will happen across the City in a Garden section which has been is dedicated to our perspectives of cities, and how nature can still thrive in cities such as Singapore….

It is mesmerizing being greeted by a lovely cascading “waterfall” as you enter the first gallery. Universe of Water Particles, Transcending Boundaries is the name of the interactive digital installation. You can interact and play with the waterfall and and see how the flow of the water is altered… this is because the installation responds to the movement of people….

Outside this ‘gallery’ is a pretty traditional Japanese artpiece – 100 Years Sea, depicting rising sea waters which naturally calls attention to climate change….

I sure enjoyed admiring the floral artpiece titled Proliferating Immense Life which showed the cycle of flowers – bud, grow, blossom, wither and fade away. The cycle repeats and is actually rendered by a program in real time. It is said depending on which month you visit, you will probably get to see different flowers in different colours?

The young ones would love the Slide through the Fruit Field! slide that grows fruit… the kiddies are like the sun which transfers the energy to the balls, when balls collide with the fruit – it grows! The light blue ball represents water and it helps the seeds to sprout, bud and blossom. The yellow ball is the honeybee ball which helps pollinate the flowers to become fruit. When a fruit is hit by a ball, new seeds are sown.

The Inverted Globe room gives kids the opportunity to build their own city with giant connecting blocks. Kids can position the blocks of houses, stations to develop transport systems and build waterways with pond blocks to prevent flooding.

Sketch Piston are just across the Inverted Globe. At Sketch Piston, the little ones or not so little ones can compose music by placing stamps onto the canvas. When balls hit the stamps, a note plays and music is made! The three laws of mechanics are at work here, the law of inertia, the law of motion as well as the law of action and reaction.

The busiest place would be at the Sketch Aquarium /Amazing Creations area where you can colour your chosen sea creature like a jellyfish, shark, squid, turtle, seahorse, coral and watch the creation come to life in the aquarium.…

I found the Light Ball Orchestra kinda interesting…. there are two ball pits, one larger one for older children and one for the toddlers. Rolling a light-ball changes both its colour and sound. When combined, the light-balls form an orchestra together with the overhead ones! The entire space transforms into a cacophony of music and colours.

The last but not least exhibit is of course the very instagrammable Crystal Universe, located in the Space sector…. Guests will be warned to hold your bags closely and venture inside this space…. In Crystal Universe, you get to enjoy the beauty and scale of the universe perfectly with LED light points that feels like we were surrounded by stars, with the lights changing colours as the people around it move.

Future World is a tactile exhibition, encourages movement and sensory experiences with varied activities cleverly conceptualised by the exhibition designers.

The exhibition is interesting and beautiful and definitely worth a visit or two!!!!!