Illusion Visiting Mini Exhibition at the Petrosains Discovery Centre

 

Petrosains: The Discovery Centre, is one of the national petroleum industry's most effective greenwashing and marketing tools. That's right, people, get the kiddies while they're still little and impressionable, and let them know how amazing and indispensable fossil fuels are!

 

 

While I am not a fan of the oil and gas industry, I do think that Petrosains has certain entertainment value and educational merits, one of them being that it hosts travelling science exhibitions, such as Illusion, a science and art exhibition from Dublin.

 

 

I was in that part of town on a particular Saturday morning and so I persuaded Aravind to attend the exhibition with me. I paid for the admission tickets to the mini exhibition (priced at RM15.90) and we made our way to the annexe without mowing down any of the preschoolers who seem to visit Petrosains by the busloads on a daily basis.

 

 

The most frustrating thing about this exhibition is that only the signs that are in Bahasa are in plain sight. The English-language signs are visible only under UV light, and tiny UV flashlights were suspended on equally tiny cords next to the signboards. We didn't understand the rationale behind this. Yes, it's supposed to be a little like a game of hide-and-seek, but the remarkable thing is that half the UV flashlights were not functioning or out of batteries.
Oh joy.
Aravind and I can read Bahasa just fine, but woe betide the hapless non-local, non-national-school-educated visitor who wants to find out more about the exhibits and installations.
Why must people make things so unnecessarily complicated for themselves and others? What next? Are they going to make us crawl through tunnels upside down with high-pressure jets of water aimed at us to get to the English language signs?

 

 

 

There were however, quite a number of intriguing installations which we rather enjoyed.

 

 

Bottle Magic, Jeff Scanlan, USA (2000) -- the bottles were not cut or altered in any way, and no, the bottles were not blown/constructed around their contents.

 

 

"All the Universe is Full of the Lives of the Perfect Creatures"

Karolina Sobecka (2012)

This is an interactive mirror that tracks your head and face movements and replaces the reflection of your face with the holographic image of an animal. Aravind's reflection is that of a German Shepherd dog or wolf. I got an ungulate of some sort -- a deer or ibex or something.

 

 

"Delicate Boundaries"

Chris Sugrue, USA.

Not for the mysophobic or entomophobic.

 

 

Motion aftereffect illusion. This is actually a mural on a completely flat wall.

 

 

"The Point of Perception", by Maddie Boyd, UK.

Now this I did like. It created a sense that I was looking out a window into a dark mess of wilderness behind Petrosains. Quite nightmarish, but in a pleasant way, like when you know you can wake up anytime you want.

 



Lots of exhibits involving mirrors and projected images suggesting things that aren't there or are something else.

 

 

"You. Here. Now."

Ian Wilcock, UK.

A brilliant portrait system that creates a pixelated portrait of the person standing in front of it using a mosaic of images harvested from the Internet. It's easier to stand in front of a mirror or camera, but not half as fascinating.

 

 

A virtual barbershop that uses the stereo effect to create the illusion of sounds coming from different parts of the room. Ingenious and witty.

 

 

A proper old-timey zoetrope! With a surreal animation of a corpse or something snaking up and down the wall. Uncanny.

 

 

They weren't kidding when they called it a 'mini exhibition'. We were done looking at all the exhibits in an hour. For the price of a cinema ticket, I'd expect something that would keep me occupied for at least 2 hours.

Still, it could be that we are adults, and the interactive science and optical illusion workshops (which would make our visit worth the ticket price) are targeted at schoolchildren.

Would I recommend visiting this exhibition? Yes, if you have RM15 burning a hole in your pocket, are able to read Bahasa (since the UV flashlights that would enable you to read the English signs often do not work) and have children young enough to benefit from the interactive workshops.

 

 

It was all reasonably entertaining for adults like us, but most of the exhibits are static ones of images such as the Penrose triangle and vanishing black dot, and of the 'which of the dots is bigger than the other' variety that you find in the 1970s edition of the Children's Britannica.

Still miles better than visiting our National Art Gallery or National Science Centre with its outdated exhibits, but also rather like picking up the shiny expensive cracker next to your plate at Christmas and pulling it to find only a tissue paper crown, a riddle and a cheapie plastic ornament in it.

Brand new month

I had the Battletank’s exhaust header, expander and silencer replaced last week. Sold the old parts to a scrap metal dealer to recover some money for food. I have to save and scrimp more so as not to have to dig into my savings, which I plan to invest on land and stocks with.

Woke up on Saturday morning to a text message from R.R. inviting me to a threesome. My first thought was where was it going to be, and how many fuel miles would I have to travel to get there? You know you’re on the wrong side of thirty when you could actually turn down an invitation to a wild party.

Left the ‘Quarters for the SPCA after feeding and cleaning up after the cats. Jake had left for Korea the night before, so things were pretty quiet. I didn’t even feel like watching football on Friday. Arrived at the SPCA and got to work immediately with the kennel dogs. There were a few new admissions to Kennels G and H, and I’m afraid they’ve spread ticks to the others. I made a tub of Tactick solution and shampooed, rinsed and tickwashed each dog. Then I soaped and disinfected the kennels to get rid of any remaining parasites.

A kind man came in with 4 feral puppies he had been feeding and had managed to capture, and he even paid for their vaccination and neutering fees. 2 of the puppies escaped and cowered in a corner, snapping at anyone who tried to pick them up. I went behind the cages and picked them up. They were so terrified that they eliminated waste all over my crocs. Ah well. They are puppies, after all. Great distract-and-flee tactic, though. I cleaned my clothes up and resumed bathing and tick-washing dogs.

There was to be a Vintage Clothes Sale at the shelter on Sunday, 30th June, to sell off as much as the Jumble Sale ware as possible, and so I cleaned up the front Reception/Admin area where the sale was to be held. I soaped and scrubbed the table, benches, sink, floor and gutters and put away the old cages, mops, pails and other junk that didn’t belong there. In the evening, the evening staff let the dogs out to play in the compound so we could clean the shelter. I cleaned the Cattery, cages, puppy area, maternity kennels and central area and we collected rainwater in barrels and pails for washing and rinsing. The monsoon season may be a killer, but it does provide us with a steady supply of freshwater.

Finished cleaning up and bade goodbye to Reve, Linda and Muniandy. On my way home, I purchased a copy of the upcoming week’s ‘The Edge’, as I had been interviewed for their special Green Pullout. Went back to the ‘Quarters, fed and cleaned up after the cats, tidied the place up and drove on back to the parental home. Spent Sunday giving Amber a warm bath, cleaning the parental home, spring cleaning the spare rooms and washing the driveway with, yep, you guessed it: more rainwater. Took Amber and Cody out for a short car ride in the Battletank, followed by longer walks around the neighbourhood.

Went back to the ‘Quarters after dinner. Did the laundry, mopped the floor, and did some research work on the rights of directors and shareholders. This is about as exciting as my Sunday nights get. Now that Mizan has stopped singing at Online, I don’t even go to the pubs anymore. I currently have the social life of Napoleon Dynamite. I really need to get outdoors and do some camping and offroading again soon.

Bowling with the workmates again on Monday night, which was an excruciating waste of time. At 2100 hours, the alley management turned out the lights and switched the ultraviolet lights on for glow-in-the-dark bowling. I couldn’t think of anything more ridiculous. It felt like being on Space Mountain, which I found dreadful and didn’t enjoy at all.

Was relieved to be out of the bowling alley and shopping mall and downed a cheap daiquiri before boarding my train home. It had been raining again and I squelched my way back to the ‘Quarters.

More than half of 2008 has come and gone. I wonder if the ensuing months will bring my country more political and economic stability. I wonder if as a direct consequence of the rising fuel prices, we could make significant cuts (10%? 15%?) in per capita carbon emissions by Christmas. I wonder if, out of boredom, I might want to go for the threesome after all.

Postcard: Glad You Weren't Here!

24th – 25th May 2008: Postcard – Glad You Weren’t Here!

It would have been a good weekend for me if I didn’t have to attend the office annual bowling tournament. I would have gone to the SPCA, bade goodbye to Felicity, collected the cage and had another stray cat neutered. I would have put in 5 – 6 hours of volunteer work before going back to the parental home.

Unfortunately, in the interests of fostering camaraderie and goodwill, we all had to drive down to the A Famosa Resort in Melaka for the infernal bowling game. There is nothing amicable or peaceable about these games. Such events are almost invariably fraught with vicious backstabbing, quarrelling and allegations of cheating or rough play.

It was with reluctance that I made the journey to A Famosa Resort. Like most other amusement parks and holiday resorts in Malaysia, it has seen better days. The golf course was overgrown with weeds and the timeshare apartments were mostly vacant. There was a desolate shabbiness about the place.

The Cowboy Town in which the bowling alley was located was just as bad. Migrant workers in Western getup greeted us with a kind of desperation. Will you buy a souvenir? Have a cold beer? Shoot a few bottles off a wall for a made-in-China stuffed animal?

The workers were only just opening up the bowling alley for us. The air conditioning wasn't working but the 'fridge stocked with overpriced sodas was running beautifully. The rugrats (my workmates' children), succumbing to the resort management's devious machinations, began to scream blue murder for soda.

The game began hours after it was supposed to have commenced. I fared badly as my heart wasn't in the game. I played much better with the 4x4 team and the Parents, but playing in a pointless tournament just doesn't float my boat. (If it were a Sudoku or Scrabble showdown or a public speaking competition, however, I would be singing a very different tune).

Despite all appearances, I am not usually a competitive person. Nature thrives on cooperation and collaboration, not competition. Success isn't about defeating the next person, it's about achieving your objectives and doing it well. So a bowling tournament has little context for me. I don't know whose pride or honour or survival I am bowling for. How could a bowling victory help me improve myself as a person, or help society at large or the animal world or the natural environment?

It must have been a while since the alley was last used, because a fluorescent light fitting fell off in the middle of my team's lane and the computer system in 4 out of 10 lanes were faulty. The air conditioning was still out and everyone began to smell positively vile.

Even the Boss had to throw in the towel after his team had completed the first set and admit that the place was a dump. We'd have to play all over again in one of the better sports facilities in the city. Oh joy. Yet another weekend squandered against my will on "office sports".

There was a miniscule shopping arcade in the Cowboy Town offering substandard made-in-China goods. Worse, there was a tiger chained to a stage for photo opportunities. His paws were shackled to the floor and he looked either sedated or unwell. When we made eye contact, his sense of despair was palpable. How could people be so cowardly and so cruel as to display our national symbol, the Malayan Tiger, this way?

Visitors had to pay to have a photo taken with the poor tiger, and I chose to forgo getting photographic evidence of this instance of animal cruelty so that I wouldn't be aiding and abetting wildlife abuse and enriching the management.

(As at Tuesday, 27th May 2008, I had sent out Letters to the Editor to the major newspapers, had notified the Tiger Crime Hotline and had e-mailed the Wildlife Department upon Loretta's advice. Thanks, Loret.)

Was in no mood for dinner and went back to KL immediately after the game, drenched in sweat though I was.

Reached the Bachelor Officers' Quarters, fed and cleaned up after the cats, cleaned the 'Quarters and crashed into bed. It's been a terrible waste of a Saturday.

Went back to the parental home on Sunday morning. My cousin, Boy Scout, had come to stay for the weekend. Had lunch with the family, gave Amber a bath, took Amber and Cody on walks, cleaned the parental home, read the papers, sent Boy Scout off to get his bus back to college and went back to the 'Quarters in the evening.

I still think it is a waste of a weekend.