ArtScience Museum is cementing its status as a nucleus of innovation with the complete transformation of its Level 4 spaces. A year after unveiling its state-of-the-art VR Gallery, the Museum will open its first purpose-built screening room, ArtScience Cinema, on 28 May, alongside its latest virtual reality installation We Live in an Ocean of Air.
With its refreshed offerings, Level 4 will provide a new dimension to the museum experience through the exploration of various digital mediums. Art, science, and technology will come together in a holistic experience that will push the boundaries. In addition, the rolling programmes of innovative virtual reality artworks and films will be curated year round to complement ArtScience Museum’s ongoing seasons and exhibitions.
The Level 4 relaunch will feature a vast array of ecology-inspired programmes that explore and celebrate one’s connection to their environment, ecosystems, and relationships with nature. As the exhibition extends beyond the exhibition galleries, visitors are invited to explore these immersive environments and discover the invisible but fundamental bonds between humans and nature.
“ArtScience Museum’s Level 4 spaces have been converted into a place where visitors can enjoy cutting-edge digital art and film, as well as immersive virtual reality experiences that take visitors on journeys of the imagination far beyond the Museum’s walls. ArtScience Cinema will be a place to experience innovation and creativity in film, featuring a dynamic and changing programme of acclaimed art house movies through to mainstream, and family-friendly films that will appeal to a variety of audiences.
Since the launch of our VR Gallery last year, we have presented two exciting programmes of virtual reality artworks, and now we present one of our most ambitious interactive works to date – We Live in an Ocean of Air by London-based art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast – that brings humanity’s relationship with nature to life in a multi-sensory, multi-dimensional way.
As the Museum launches the new cinema and We Live in an Ocean of Air side by side we continue to highlight some of the most urgent challenges our planet faces in the 21st century through thought-provoking art-science experiences that delight and engage,” said Adrian George, Director: Programmes, Exhibitions and Museum Services, ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands.
Suit up for a multi-sensory journey through the vast ecosystem of a forest
Running from 28 May to 2 October 2022, We Live in an Ocean of Air is the latest project to be presented at ArtScience Museum’s VR Gallery – a permanent space launched in 2021 which pays tribute to curiosity, innovation, and experimentation of virtual reality artworks.
We Live in an Ocean of Air is an immersive multi-sensory art installation created by Marshmallow Laser Feast, one of the world’s leading experiential art collectives, that illuminates the symbiotic relationship between animals, plants, and humans. It breaks down the boundaries between installation, live performance, and virtual reality to celebrate the relationship humanity has with nature, as well as to confront our responsibility in protecting our ecosystems and all life on earth.
Sit back for an immersive cinematic experience
Additionally, on 28 May, ArtScience Cinema will open its doors as the Museum’s newly renamed and refurbished home for its moving image programme. With an emphasis on exploring the intersection of art, science, and technology through film and emerging media, the cinema will present curated film programmes year-round which will include feature films, cinematic retrospectives, festival selections, documentaries, and more.
Featuring red plush armchairs and high-quality surround-sound wireless headphones, the purpose-built screening room delivers a truly immersive cinematic experience. There are four wheelchair access points at some of the best viewing angles for the large cinema screen, with a total seating capacity of 66.
Beyond the traditional role of a cinema, it will also explore the role of moving images in museums by showcasing works by both emerging and established artists. To keep films in the public’s reach, ArtScience Cinema will offer both free and ticketed admission. While tickets can be acquired onsite, online pre-booking is advised to secure seats.
Its inaugural film programme has been curated to complement the upcoming immersive VR experience We Live in an Ocean of Air. Titled We Tread in a Garden of Spells, the film season will celebrate humanity’s fundamental connection with the hallowed land beneath our feet.
Featuring film festival selections across Sundance and Berlinale, iconic pieces from celebrated auteurs like Abbas Kiarostami and Chloé Zhao to indie darlings Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze, as well as riveting one-of-a-kind documentaries, We Tread in a Garden of Spells is an all-encompassing examination of humans’ shared existence with the natural world.
Conversations: In the Company of Trees
From 28 May, visitors can also enjoy an array of complementary programmes surrounding the opening of We Live in an Ocean of Air, such as a mini-symposium that delves into the art and science of trees.
Through elemental artworks curated with nature in mind, and movements that aim to restore nature back into the city, Conversations: In the Company of Trees will offer guests the opportunity to contemplate how we have looked to trees for meaning and understanding.
Conversations: In the Company of Trees features the following speakers:
• Ersin Han Ersin (Artist and Creative Director of Marshmallow Laser Feast)
• Robert Zhao Renhui (Artist)
• Dr Ngo Kang Min (Forest ecologist and Chief Executive at GreenSG COLLAB)
• Dr Adrian Loo (Group Director for Wildlife Management and Senior Director for Community Projects at NParks)
• Dr Shawn Kaihekulani Yamauchi Lum (Tropical rainforest ecologist and President of Nature Society Singapore)
The programme is complemented by a screening of Leaning into the Wind (2017) at ArtScience Cinema, a powerful documentary portrait of land artist and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy that brings viewers on a journey through the beloved natural environments where he creates his site-specific works.
Conversations: In the Company of Trees will be held on 28 May, 2pm – 6.25pm at ArtScience Cinema, Level 4. Admission is ticketed at S$10 per person.
Uncover the operating manual for our “Spaceship Earth”
As part of the Museum’s ongoing exploration of environmentalism this season, visitors can finish their visit to ArtScience Museum by checking out Radical Curiosity: In the Orbit of Buckminster Fuller. The exhibition invites visitors to explore the life and world of a visionary and 20th century inventor who made it his personal mission to change the world.
Fuller foresaw many global crises and worked across multiple disciplines including art, science, architecture and design, to guide “our spaceship Earth” towards a more sustainable future. In traversing seven key ideas of his works, visitors might just be inspired to observe, ponder and challenge the world around them with the same sense of curiosity, and perhaps even uncover their own ways to be stewards of planet Earth.
Tickets and Reservations for We Live in an Ocean of Air
Tickets can be purchased at all Marina Bay Sands box offices and online. It is strongly recommended that guests pre-purchase tickets online in advance, due to limited capacity of the venue and timed entry to the installation.
The experience is not accessible to individuals below 120cm in height, as participants will be required to wear a backpack weighing 5kg for up to 20 minutes, that enables them to roam freely within the play space.
Adult SGD $19 Standard Ticket, SGD $16 Singapore Resident
Concession SGD $14 Standard Ticket, SGD $12 Singapore Resident
The following time slots are available daily: 10:40am, 11:30am, 2pm, 2:40pm, 3:30pm, 4pm, 4:50pm, 5:30pm
