Marvellous Materials

We wanted to post a photo of some of the materials we've been using over the last few weeks that are just a wee bit unusual.

Top left there is 3D printed wood which we've used in a few places now - here we have some castle pieces for NMS. Top right is some solid coloured mdf which has been laser cut into shape. Bottom left we have moulded silicone, moulded into some pretty nice shapes and colours and then finally we have a demo from our newest 3D printer which prints in two colours - purple & white is the new orange & white when it comes to traffic cones!

The Best of Scotland's Museums

The first few months of this year have been crazy and FifeX has been doing lots of work in some of Scotland's finest museums. The month saw a variety activities from finishing our project for the Sanday Heritage Centre (Sanday, Orkney) through to an exciting refurbishment of the Imagine gallery in NMS. (photo on right is Ken and Paul during an early-morning start under the yellow glow of the Imagine gallery's lighting).

Finally, to cap it off we attended the Scottish Museums Federation's annual conference in Perth to talk to them about interactive exhibits with Lyndsey Clark. The SMF has members from many of Scotland's exciting museums and it looks like there is plenty to see for Scotland's visitors this summer!

Careers In Science

The FifeX blog posts have been in short supply recently. The lead up to Christmas and January were incredibly busy while FifeX was working on a really exciting project for a company in Warrington called Cogent.

The exhibition we produced is designed to educate people about STEM and encourage people to think about a career in a STEM based subject. There are a number of fun elements to the exhibition including a large-scale periodic table, from which users can pick elements to answer some important questions.

The exhibition will be on show all round the country and in particular at events like the 'Big Bang Fair'.

If you're looking for the next step in your career, check it out and some of the other fantastic resources that Cogent produce.

Urban Orchard

Our blog has been pretty quiet for the last few weeks - we've all been outside, enjoying the last of the summer sun putting together a giant outdoor project for Dundee Urban Orchard. The project was installed on the piazza outside Dundee Science Centre and the Dundee Contemporary Arts - if you know the area - you'll know the space.

We built 17 planters in various sizes and arranged them in a golden spiral layout with larch inserts - every single one has its own unique placement - which was fun! Earlier this week, apple trees were planted in them and they are to remain as a permanent feature on the piazza. Inside the planter arrangement is a mini-stage and seating, where we hope people will be able to sit and enjoy the urban orchard while they eat their lunch.

For more information, see the press release on STV about the Dundee Urban Orchard project.

The photos: top right you can see us putting the units together onsite and bottom right you can see Clive Gillman from the DCA and Louise Smith from DSC looking pretty chuffed with the apple tree they have just planted!

Open Dialogue

Last week, FifeX completed work on a 'bench' with a difference. The bench was commissioned by Jonathan Baxter and was designed and produced for an art event which featured as part of Decision Time Scotland in the DCA, Dundee - it was used as the focus for discussions about open dialogue, where 12 participants could engage in discussion.

It exists in four parts as you can see and comes together to form a complete hoop. This is the latest in a series of fabrication projects which FifeX has been working on this summer.

Royal Observatory Edinburgh

Last month we joined up with Lyndsey Clark and Chris Peters to work on upgrading some exhibits in the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. 

The exhibits themselves have been in the dome a long time and lasted incredibly well - our job was to freshen them up - everything was done in-house and they were finished in a light blue colour which matched them beautifully to the telescope in the dome itself.

On the right you can see the exhibit where users can split white light into the visible spectrum. Below there is a snap of the Spectroscopy exhibit, where users can see the spectra of four different gases viewed through diffraction gratings.

If you fancy seeing the Royal Observatory Visitor Centre, you should pop down on the open weekend at the end of September!

View more about the Royal Observatory build on FifeX's website

Marking 100 Years

FifeX has just finished designing a multimedia booth for part of a project with the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. The museum tells the story of how conflict affected the county and the media booth here includes four very interesting movie clips for visitors including two interviews with soldiers.

It arrived on Saturday, ready for a busy period as visitors come to the museum to mark 100 years since the start of WW1.

Our booth is designed to be super-flexible and runs using an extremely configurable Raspberry Pi. We're hoping that this project will be a good stepping-stone for more like it in the future.

Meantime, if you're in or around Woodstock, you should definitely see what is going on at SOFO, they have a very busy events calendar!