Advertisement

Bristol science and arts centre looks into the soul for next show

Some of the questions were not unexpected: how does gravity work, do aliens exist, what happens if bees become extinct?

But when Bristol’s science and culture centre asked citizens young and old what questions they really wanted answered, it was amazed and delighted at the size and breadth of the response.

So far more than 10,000 questions have been posed by the city’s residents. True, a lot involved “poo and wee”, it said, but a striking number were of a metaphysical and theological nature, including: “Does God live in heaven because he’s scared of what he’s created?”, “Am I God?” and “What if everyone was equal and didn’t care about your race, religion or sexuality?”

Out of the thousands of questions, seven key ones have been chosen to form the centrepiece of an exhibition called Project What If, which will be unveiled when the centre, which is shut because of the coronavirus crisis, reopens.

We The Curious is shut because of the coronavirus.
We The Curious is shut because of the coronavirus. Photograph: Joe Dunckley/Alamy Stock Photo

The centre, which is called We The Curious, is not yet saying exactly what the seven questions will be, but it revealed on Wednesday that the themes covered took in the nature of the universe, time, invisibility, illness (an apposite subject in the time of coronavirus), sand, rainbows, happiness – and the human soul.

Amelia Howarth, a projects producer at We The Curious, said the themes ranged from the intense to the fun and playful. She said it was right that the centre looked not just at the sort of topics a science centre would expect to investigate but also challenging subjects – such as the soul – that have tended to be the domain of art. “We don’t just look at what there is – but what is possible,” Howarth said.

The centre is celebrating its 20th year, and the exhibition is due to open in November. Its chief executive, Donna Speed, said the exhibition was believed to be the first of its kind based solely on the “curiosity” of a city’s residents.

Each of the chosen seven questions will be addressed in a section of the exhibition space, with hi-tech interactive gizmos including an “invisibility” machine that will make visitors’ hands vanish as they play a keyboard.

Speed said asking the people of Bristol what questions they wanted answering had led the centre down unexpected roads. “Would we as a science centre have set up exhibits related to the soul?” she said. “We wouldn’t have chosen that ourselves but it’s what our visitors want to know about. Our aim is to place people at the heart of science.”