The sensory odyssey is the new exhibition for the start of the school year. It is a journey into the intimacy of biodiversity offered by the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, from Saturday 23 October. Large spaces, and animals were filmed in high definition, with a very large work on sound and smells. Everything is there. And it is an impressive gateway to the living world.
What marks in this immersion in nature, it is in particular the meeting with giant insects. The ants are three meters high on the screens. We can see all the nuances. We look the bee in the eye amid the scent of flowers. We attend the lunch of the praying mantis. We hear the rubbing of the caterpillar on the green leaf.
We follow this visual, sound and olfactory exhibition in the eight pieces that compose it, representing eight parts of our world. It crosses the savannah, the Far North, the canopy of forests, and life in the basement. It is a sensory experience framed by the expertise of Muséum scientists. “In several places, we have an absolutely unique tool. No one has ever seen these ecosystems as we see them there., boasts Marc-André Sélosse, who is one of the exhibition’s scientific curators. THEe ground, nobody can see it because it is not transparent and its inhabitants are very small although they are very numerous. In one gram of soil you have several billion bacteria cells. “
“In the end, we see the ecosystem better than specialists who have visited it several times because we have selected the best from the best, organized for a stay of 3 to 5 minutes per floor.”
Marc-André Sélosse, biologistto franceinfo
Nature and animals were filmed in high definition. The slow descent of the canopy into the virgin forest is part of the thrills. It took six years to bring this project to fruition. The idea is to speak to emotion and not to reason as scientists do. “We are convinced that a certain audience, a large audience, needs emotion, needs wonder in order to be able to nourish reason, to make people want, explains Gwenaël Allan, CEO of the Sensory Odyssey studio which carried the project. And all the research for this project was based on how wonderment can make you want to learn, to protect. “
The exhibition lasts until next July. The Museum already has several fun exhibitions. With a virtual reality installation and an augmented reality exhibition.