The Science Behind Pixar

Museum of Science Boston

Designer: Museum of Science Boston

Ravenswood Studio was tasked with fabricating two identical traveling exhibits for the Museum of Science, Boston, which has become one of the most popular exhibits in the museum’s history. Our design engineers created over 300 drawings for the 88 complex interactive displays. All the metal work was powder coated and the desk interactives were fabricated using bamboo plywood, with furniture grade finishes. Because this was a traveling exhibit, we built 36 of our custom 4’x10’ steel cage carts that breakdown flat for easy storage when not in use.

Our sculptors and painters recreated an exact to-scale replica of Ant Island from the movie A Bug’s Life. It contained a complex curved acrylic barrier wall to protect the island from the heavy visitor traffic. The island was technically complex as it had hidden conduit and wire raceways for the monitors of the attached interactives. Crawl tunnels were incorporated for children to use to explore different parts of the island. Visitors could pop their heads up into acrylic domes that let them look out over the landscape.

WHAT WE DID

Fabrication
Scenic art
Testing
Installation