Designing Science

Tour plan by Miles Martin

Designing Science

This tour explores the intersection of science and

aesthetics. It includes scientific objects that rely upon
artistic/design thinking, as well as artistic objects that
were created with scientific principles

Intended audience
This tour involves extensive travel
across the galleries on different floors
of the museum, so it would be most
appropriate for an audience of
university of upper secondary students,
or adults at a Museum Late event.

Outline
1) Schmidt Telescope
Level 1 >Natural World >Earth in Space >Space
2) Airmail dress by Hussein Chalayan
Level 1 >Art , Design and Fashion >Fashion and Style
3) Maze by Alison Kinnaird
Level 3 >Art, Design and Fashion >Making and Creating
4) SmartCane
Level 3> Science and Technology> Technology by Design
5) 3D-printed model brain
Level 5 >Science and Technology >Enquire

Introduction
Good morning/afternoon everybody.
My name is XXX and I’ll be taking you
on a tour of a few of the museum’s
diverse galleries today. National
Museum of Scotland has a little bit of
everything: life sciences, engineering,
fine art, fashion, historical artefacts,
and even some modern inventions. So,
today’s tour is less about showing you
one topic and more about showing you
how some of these topics mix together,
particularly science, art and design.

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1) Schmidt Telescope

Our first stop is our Earth in Space gallery.

Astronomy is the oldest branch of science that
began when early man looked up at the night
sky. Written records of astronomical observations
go back 5000 years to ancient Mesopotamia, and
we still don’t know all there is to know. Because
Astronomy began as naked-eye observation, it is
an inherently visual science. As our knowledge has
grown and we’ve come up with better questions,
we’ve also needed to come up with better ways
to see.

This is the Schmidt telescope. It was built in 1951

and was in operation until the early 1970’s. Later,
it was donated to the museum. It is first and
foremost a camera. The original Schmidt camera
was invented in 1930 and was the first telescopic
camera that could produce wide angle images
of the night sky. Before the Schmidt telescope,
scientists had to take numerous narrow images
and piece them together, which was impractical
and prone to error. The secret to its photography is
a spherical mirror within the telescope, correcting
distortion with a thin, aspheric lens, called a
‘Schmidt corrector plate’.

Removing the telescope from its previous home at

the Royal Observatory proved difficult, but luckily
the Museum and the Observatory were able to
work together to complete the task thanks to
some lucky renovation of the main dome of the
Observatory. It was found to weight over 3.2 tonnes
and had to be lifted in two parts by crane.

The need for sophisticated photographic

equipment like this for astronomy is an example of
where science relies on visual methods. In its way,
the telescope is a tool for making art and science.

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2) Airmail dress by Hussein Chalayan

Now we’re heading into the fashion galleries to

see one of the more unusual garments on display
at the Museum. This is the Airmail dress. It’s actually
made of a kind of paper. The dress is designed
to fold up and fit into the envelope attached to
the dress so it can be sent by mail cheaply. The
paper material allows it to be easily customisable.
You can write on it, draw on it, and anything else
you can do with paper. The designer intended
this garment to function as a piece of mail, giving
meaning to the recipient or the sender.

What makes this paper different is the fact that it

is actually a fabric/paper hybrid called Tyvek. The
material is washable, waterproof and cannot be
torn. The material was first discovered in 1955 by
DuPont researcher Jim White and has since had a
variety of applications in envelopes, packaging, as
housewrap in construction projects, and was even
used as the material for driver’s licenses in New
Zealand from 1986-1999.

Tyvek coveralls have also been used for protective

clothing for mechanics and oil workers. Only
recently have designers like Hussein Chalayan used
this interesting material for high fashion. Chalayan
is noted in the design world for playing with the
interfaces between science, technology, and
design. His work has also featured other elements
of technology, including LED lights to produce the
illusion of a screen on a dress You can see a picture
of that dress here on the placard. Chalayan’s work
is an example of the interweaving of fashion and
technology.

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3) Maze by Alison Kinnaird

As you can see, the Making and Creating gallery

contains mostly glass. The first glass humans would
have encountered would have been the volcanic
glass obsidian. The first human made glass is thought
to have been made in ancient Egypt, Syria, and
Mesopotamia. Since then, techniques for refining
and colouring glass have improved radically. Today
glass is everywhere, in our kitchens, on the screens of
every device, in our homes and cars, and are used
for decoration. This gallery contains examples of
objects from all over the world. Some have practical
purposes, but others are simply for decoration. Glass
making is both the earliest example of materials
engineering and an its own artform.

This piece by Allison Kinnaird is a synthesis of these

ideas. It features a figure falling through various
glass-engraved mazes enhanced by sophisticated
LED lighting. The maze forms evoke the image of
the brain, perhaps symbolizing the universal human
struggle through consciousness and emotion. This is
an artwork that toes the lines between engineering,
biology, and pure artistic expression

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4) SmartCane

Our next object is a practical object for everyday

use. This is our Technology by Design gallery, and
it is full of objects whose designs are dictated by
scientific concerns from airplanes to wheelchairs.
Along this wall we have numerous objects that
assist people with various disabilities. I’d like to
specifically point out this white cane. It’s not the
flashiest of museum displays, but it’s a fascinating
invention. It’s called the SmartCane. We’ve all seen
ordinary canes that blind individuals use to get
around. But the problem with these is that they can
only detect objects from the waist down. There
are plenty of things that can get in our way above
the waist, like trees, shelves, and open windows.
SmartCane provides a solution for these problems.

It began as a student project at the Indian Institute

of Technology Delhi. From there a company called
Phoenix Medical Systems jumped on the project
and led to the completion of this version of the
cane in 2017. It works by sending out sonic waves
to detect obstructions, and then causing the
handle to vibrate in response.

The device itself attaches as a handle onto a

normal white cane. This is a critical element of
its design because it allows the user to operate
the cane with no more difficulty or bulk than an
ordinary white cane, they’re likely already used to.
Objects like this that are meant to serve individuals
with specific problems must not only use up to date
technology but must be appropriately designed
as well to allow for ease of use. Design is not just a
matter of appearance. In objects that serve vital
functions for people, we see the power of design
to directly impact people’s quality of life. This
gallery contains numerous examples of these types
of objects

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5) 3D-printed model brain

These next objects are small but exciting. First is an 3D printed model
brain, based off the actual brain of John Scott, who was a member
of the 1936 Lothian Birth Cohort. This was a project to track down and
gather brain data from individuals whose intelligence had been tested
at 11 years old in school in 1947 as part of an initiative to test all school
children born in 1936. In 2004, these people were approaching 70, so
the Lothian Birth Cohort project started recruiting them for study to
follow up this original data. Numerous brain scans were performed, and
from these the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemioloy
and National Museums Scotland collaborated to produce the models
you see here.

First is a 3D-printed plastic model of the actual brain of Mr. Scott.

Underneath it we can see two separate models for each hemisphere
of his brain showing just the internal white matter. These are the most
visually arresting of the models. They are scientific objects created from
real data but would be just as home on somebody’s mantel or, as they
are here, on display at a museum. The last bit is this photograph which
shows Mr. Scott holding the model of his brain for the first time “meeting
his brain” as it were.

There are other examples of medical imaging on display in this gallery,

but these are the most dramatic example of how scientific data can
lead to beautiful aesthetic objects. Medical imaging and model making
in general are a way for scientists to gather more information that can
possibly be displayed in pure data into one place, and to share this
information with the world by visualising it.