‘Alternate worlds’ hold key to the future of museums

Taking in the smells of wet earth and ocean spray, the ArtScience Museum’s just-opened exhibition on nature and biodiversity is about as far as you can imagine from the traditional idea of museums as rarefied places where you wander around artefacts behind glass cases.

Instead, the

museum’s Sensory Odyssey show

relies on the latest technology and science to create an immersive visitor experience, with high-definition video footage of creatures great and small – from sperm whales to honeybees. Spatial audio and specially created scents transport visitors into unique ecosystems, from the Indian Ocean to the African savannah.