Tomorrow Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen opens at Melbourne's Scienceworks

India Pacheco, JBoard Member, interacts with the Cosmic Events exhibit

Tomorrow Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen – a $3.7m milestone gallery redevelopment at Scienceworks is set to reveal STEM futures, it has been created with teens, for teens.

The new permanent experience immerses visitors in large-scale exhibits revealing the invisible fields and forces that surround us such as gravitational waves, invisible light, turbulence, sound and the electromagnetic spectrum.  

The entire Level 1 gallery has been transformed into a dedicated space for teenagers and young adults. It is dark and atmospheric, with light projections, immersive and interactive experiences and a generative soundscape – which uses high-tech software to manipulate all of the sounds produced throughout Scienceworks into a cohesive soundtrack that is never the same twice. 

The exhibition is divided into six sections including: 

• Wrapped in Spectrum: an entrance corridor that takes a look at the Milky Way through six different electromagnetic spectrums. 
• Cacophony: an immersive and reflective space for teenagers to relax while light projections and a high-tech generative soundscape wash over them. 
• Turbulent Encounters: delves into the unsolved science of predicting airflow around objects. It looks at turbulence, fluid dynamics and aerodynamics via three-large scale interactives. 
• Energetic Vibrations: invites visitors to experience sound as a physical experience via an interactive sound couch, audio visualisations and projection mapping.
• Waves at Work: shows how different fields of science use waveforms to detect things we can’t see. It explores the synchrotron, various telescopes, fluorescence microscopy, CT scanning and scanning electron microscopy (SEMs).
• Cosmic Events: explores gravitational waves with an interactive that lets visitors bend the fabric of space-time to create black holes that they can collide together to create a gravitational wave. 

Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen has been co-developed with teenage members of a specially-convened youth advisory council, JBoard. Over the past two years, they have met monthly to provide feedback on almost every aspect of the exhibition to ensure that it is both appealing and tailored to young adults. 

Scienceworks has also sought the assistance of 28 scientists and engineers from Victoria’s top research institutions, including Monash University, the University of Melbourne and Museums Victoria, to ensure that the content reflects the latest in scientific and technological development. 

Lynley Marshall, CEO, Museums Victoria said: “It is predicted that education in science and math will be crucial for more than 400,000 new jobs in Victoria by 2025, but participation in these subjects is steadily declining. Beyond Perception aims to counteract this trend and inspire teenagers to participate in STEM by taking them to its most fascinating and imperceptible corners.”

"Beyond Perception is part of a major $6 million redevelopment, supported by the Victorian Government, aimed at engaging babies to young adults in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at Scienceworks."

JBoard member, Tanya Kovacevic said: “I can’t believe it’s finally open! It’s amazing that we all came to Scienceworks because of our love of science, and now there’s an exhibition opening that we are part of. I’m so happy that we’re finally able to show everyone what we’ve been doing at JBoard, and I hope everyone will enjoy visiting it as much as we did creating it.” 

Admission to Beyond Perception is free with Museum admission.