“Digital Me” + “Mechanics Alive” — new exhibitions at the Fleet Science Center
- In San Diego, California's Balboa Park
“Digital Me”: Meet Yourself in the Digital World
We live in a very different world from the one that many of us grew up in. Today’s world revolves around digital technology. Now the Fleet Science Center in San Diego’s Balboa Park immerses us in that world via a dozen large, colorful, hands-on interactive exhibits and informational graphics.
In its World Premiere, “Digital Me,” through a blend of technology, art, play and media, enables you to explore engaging interactions, and discover consequences — intended or otherwise — of what you share. Technologies and concepts include geolocation, facial recognition, Artificial Intelligence, computer vision, data privacy, Deep Fakes, virtual communities, mixed reality, Big Data, profiling and more.
Our modern, digital world is, by design, a world that is personalized with an emphasis on you, through the personal information that you are encouraged to share. You will learn about how your every action and image is preserved and stored in the history of the web.
The interactive activities at “Digital Me” will enable you, your family and friends to explore the digital world. Create social media moments with a 16-foot-long selfie and family portraits section, navigate through a digital labyrinth, track your online moves on giant screens and visit a city that has learned about you through your browsing history.
At “Digital Me,” you will gain insight into how you appear to others online, how your information is collected—sometimes without you even noticing — and how it can affect you in the future. Take time to think about what all of this means to you, and how this can and already does impact your life. The implications of this extensive collection of data can be profound and truly life-changing.
I personally experienced a rather profound revelation when a graphic at the exhibit noted that “many people today spend more time on documenting the experience than being in the moment. But could documentation create a meaningful memory to the same extent, or even more so?” For years I have been enjoying events largely through the eyepiece of my cameras, as I take photos. By capturing the events in this way for myself and for you, how much of my enjoyment and likely recollection of those events am I sacrificing by doing so?
Check out this fast-paced, thought-provoking YouTube video of what you can see and do at “Digital Me”: youtu.be/zxHIUuBIkeg
“Mechanics Alive”
The modern technology exhibited in “Digital Me” continues a long history of more basic, but arguably no less significant technological innovations that date back many years.
Learn from the interactivity that you will find here, as you operate simple devices that demonstrate the effects of gears, cams, cranks and other basic engineering elements.
Then have fun seeing these technologies put into use and brought to life, as you activate humorous and thought-provoking, artistic wooden gadgets and gizmos that are called “automata,” powered by Cabaret Mechanical Theatre of London.
The Cabaret Mechanical Theatre (CMT) was formed in 1979 by Sue Jackson as a small general craft shop in Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. Working with local artists, they created hand-made automata that were then sold to the general public. Within a few years, they had established a successful international reputation for their unique, high quality creations, eventually transitioning towards developing temporary and permanent automata exhibitions that have educated and entertained audiences for over 20 years. For more information about CMT, visit cabaret.co.uk
Poor cat. It drank the poisoned milk.
Studio X
Finally, apply the principles that you learn by building your own contraptions in Studio X, the makerspace at the Fleet Science Center.
“Mechanics Alive” and “Digital Me” will be on exhibit at the Fleet Science Center through January 2022. For more information, visit the Fleet Science Center in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park at www.fleetscience.org
Coming Soon!
Here is something else for everyone to get excited about. Soon you will be able to watch first-run, major theatrical movies in the Heikoff Giant Dome Theater at the Fleet Science Center – thanks to the brand-new IMAX® laser digital projection system that is being installed to replace the IMAX® film projection system. The theater will reopen on Friday, October 29, 2021.
The Fleet Science Center, in San Diego's Balboa Park
Balboa Park
Balboa Park
Balboa Park, San Diego, California
Balboa Park, San Diego, California
To see the most photos and the latest text, and to explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, visit AutoMatters & More at AutoMatters.net. On the Home Page, search by title or topic, or click on the blue ‘years’ boxes.
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Comments (4)
Jan, I can see that writing your AutoMatters.net column on a regular basis for 20 years years has consumed a great part of your life, and that you should wish for some kind of payback. 700 articles is a enviable legacy, but the question is how to generate an income stream from them.
What you do is so far outside my field of knowledge that any ideas I suggest may not even be sensible or viable, but here goes:
It seems to me that each NEW AutoMatters column will draw more readers on DT than on your AutoMatters.net website, for the simple reason that there are thousands more potential DT readers than there are those who might know of your website.
The beauty of your website is that it also contains all of your RECENT and OLD columns. So the challenge is to draw the thousands of DT readers who read each NEW column to your website to read the RECENT and OLD columns.
One way to move traffic from DT to the website for older columns would be to provide a link to an older column which is on the SAME or SIMILAR topic. For example, with your new column on the Nissan Z car, you could provide links to the many excellent earlier columns you have written on the Datsun 240Z.
I’ll throw in some others ideas for good
luck:
• try to syndicate shortened or edited versions of your columns in regional or local “township” newspapers.
• place ads on your website. This will require lots of traffic on the site.
• add a “subscribe” feature. This would require some extra content for the subscriber. (not easy to do).
• add a “donate” button. This would be for people who voluntarily wish to help offset the cost of running the site.
• a wild idea that’s not strongly recommended because it’s time consuming and labor intensive: sell automotive merchandise like T-shirts, caps, etc.
I’m exhausted. I need a break. David.
Hi David,
Thank you for the excellent suggestions. Of those suggestions, I do send versions of my columns to a few regional/local newspapers. I have been doing that for years, and they publish them. Unfortunately, however, they will not...
Read moreThe Fleet Science Center certainly is a fascinating place, with a mixture of digital, analog, mechanically animated displays, and basic mechanical devices with Rube Goldburg gadgets. What a place to visit!
I would enjoy the exhibits because they pretty well cover my life experiences as an older Mechanical Engineer. I was born and grew up in an analog age when there were no electrical devices: only rotary phones, no computers, no calculators (slide rules were used for higher mathematics), and all automobile functions were mechanical driven. Now vehicles rely on computer chips which are in short supply.
I would say that I have transitioned into the digital age reasonably well, but not perfectly. For example, I can’t really visualize how an IPhone can store a zillion bytes of data and find it without a hard drive. And how Bluetooth can transmit seemingly endless data at warp speed still amazes me.
My mind seems to solve problems in a mechanical way, but I follow technological advances quite closely, including Artificial Intelligence (AI). My son is involved in AI research and application, so I try to keep abreast.
Great article and photos. I was able to enlarge the photos and read the text, which was very helpful. You are attending shows and events nonstop. When do you get time to compose, edit and post your columns? Well done! David.
Thanks David,
Your question about my available time really rings true. I do not have enough time to do everything that I want to do — including doing things to maintain my life apart from producing "AutoMatters & More" every week, so I am...
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