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Science Museum Hosts Pure Iceland Energy Exhibition
by Roz Tappenden
20/01/2006
Image: colour photo of a man dressed in white and wearing a helmet with two horns sticking out of it
Iceland hopes to be the world's first hydrogen economy. Courtesy The Science Museum.
Sticking a Björk album on the iPod Roz Tappenden ventured up to London to experience an unusual exhibtion about Iceland at the Science Museum.
Without making the journey to Iceland, there’s no real way of telling whether it is as strange and as beautiful as the latest Science Museum exhibition suggests.
Pure Iceland opened on January 20 2006 and for the next 12 weeks visitors can enjoy a multi-sensory experience that explores how the country is moving towards hydrogen power for its energy supplies in an effort to protect the environment.
The exhibition is a departure from the usual displays at the museum. The Vesturport Theatre Company has been enlisted to bring to life traditional Icelandic tales while giant projections of moving seascapes give a sense of the frozen tranquillity of the country’s coastline.
Heather Mayfield, deputy head of the Science Museum, said: “Vesturport are an Icelandic drama company and are well known in the UK. They have been working over the last two or three weeks following their research of trying to meld together storytelling, theatre, drama and science and it’s an ongoing process which will allow our audiences to come in and interact with them.”
Image: colour photo of three children standing next to a foam model of a volcano
The exhibition is a multi-sensory experience. Courtesy The Science Museum.
The performance takes place in a darkened room against a backdrop of erupting volcanoes. Actors sing and shout, improvising their performance as they mingle with visitors, but perhaps the most disorientating aspect of the visit is the squashy foam floor.
“The performance changes all the time,” added Heather, “What they are trying to do is say ‘we’re going to tell you something about Iceland’.”
“They start with recounting a traditional Icelandic saga and into it they weave what Iceland is about today – why they’re trying to become a hydrogen economy – and they’re trying to do it in a way that has a bit of humour and pantomime. They’ve had a number of different endings and it will always end differently as far as I can see. It will be interesting to see what happens.”
There are very few bare facts to be found at the exhibition other than those contained in the audio-visual stations where, with the aid of headphones and a computer mouse, visitors can take a whistle-stop tour of Iceland’s telecommunications, fisheries and countryside.
Actors from the Vesturport Theatre Company bring the history of Iceland to life. Courtesy The Science Museum.
“We’ve tried to create something where people could take what they wanted because not everybody likes the same thing,” explained Heather Mayfield.
“We wanted to give people some choices so if they don’t want to be part of the performance, there is another room which is very calm, and if they actually want to know about Iceland, its industry, research and people, then they can get that as well.”
Iceland has a population of less than half a million but it has ambitions to become the world’s first hydrogen economy.
Icelandic Ambassador, Sverrir Haukur Gunnlaugsson, said: “While some nations might envy Iceland and its already existing clean energy, we are making steady progress towards the practical use of hydrogen fuel in our daily lives."
"Not only is hydrogen a clean fuel," he added, "it can be produced in an environmentally safe way by separating the hydrogen and oxygen in water using a strong electric current and since Iceland is rich in water this is an effective process for it to undertake.”
Science Museum, London
Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD, England
Open: Daily 10.00-18.00
Closed: Closed 24-26 December
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