Air Playground

Fly: experiment with air resistance by creating differently designed paper planes and throwing them to build up a mass display of planes over the course of the exhibition.

Hover: two colourful mounds hold beach balls hovering enticingly in mid-air. Balance balls and objects in the air flow and learn about the Bernoulli effect.

Float: float a ball in the air flow and manipulate the air stream to get the ball through a goal.

Whoosh: see how air pushes fabric through a tangle of tubes. Experiment with directing air flow and predicting where the fabric will eject and slowly land.

Lift: turn up the windspeed and test objects that may lift into the air and hover, spin or flutter when they fall, just like seeds do in nature.

Swirl: activate fans to direct a ball around obstacles and into a goal. Experience the chaotic way that air interacts with itself and physical items around it.

Squish: squash a giant inflatable sculpture with your body. Where does the air go? Feel the air displacing and shifting around beneath you.

Flow: stack pipes in different configurations and add fabric tubes and small objects to observe how diverting air flow changes air pressure. Try constructing a spinner or a launcher.

Puff: work collaboratively or work quickly individually to pump puffs of air in time to move a ball up a hill. Learn how air has mass and can push.

Gust: feel the wind in your hair from a large industrial fan generating a high-volume air flow environment. Learn the difference between natural and mechanically generated wind.