Get a look at our new fall exhibit Playing with Light from Space Center Houston exhibit specialist Carmina Mortillaro.
Playing with Light, designed and developed by Scitech and produced by Imagine Exhibitions, explores the vital role light plays in our lives through interactive experiments, activities, and light displays.
Is this a simple or difficult exhibit to install?
Playing with Light was scheduled to be one of the easiest installations we’ve had in a long time. The installation required one week, compared to the more usual two-week frame. The exhibit company, Scitech, is able to do this through modular design.
What do you hope guests take away from this exhibit?
Playing with light IS fun. The exhibit gives visitors a chance to play and observe light and how it behaves. Play—or experimentation—is important in learning. Light is fascinating: from colors, to mirrors and cameras to wavelength size and all the things scientists can learn from using light. The exhibit is in introduction to a wide and deep subject.
What is your favorite activity in this exhibit?
One of the activities allows visitors to use lenses, mirrors, and prisms to reflect, refract, absorb, and separate beams of colored and white light. It’s fun testing the concepts explained in the graphics and seeing the basics of ideas applied in other activities. The laser maze is a close second.
Who do you think will enjoy this exhibit the most?
There’s something for every explorer in this exhibit. There are immersive settings, hands on interactives, and digital kiosks, individual activities and group activities.
Are there any special additions that are exclusive to Space Center Houston?
Space Center Houston augments the exhibit with examples of the role of light as a part of NASA’s journey of discovery. NASA studies light on Earth and in the cosmos. NASA studies the effect of light on astronauts and plants in space. NASA develops technology that uses light phenomena to learn more about our solar system and the Universe. Artifacts not usually on public display add an engaging and exclusive look at NASA robotic vision, space telescopes, and more.
About Mortillaro
Space Center Houston Exhibit Specialist Carmina Mortillar has more than 25 years of museum experience. As the exhibit specialist for Space Center Houston, she curates, designs and develops exhibits that tell the story of human space exploration. Mortillaro manages graphics for the center’s exhibits, guest operations, education programs and facilities.
