Science Gallery Bengaluru opened CONTAGION, its first digital exhibition-season, on 30th April 2021 just as India was beginning to grapple with the second-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. CONTAGION has been designed as a freely accessible online platform, especially for the young, to explore the methods or process of transmission of diseases, behaviors, and emotions.

Snapshot from ‘Fluid Dialogues’ by Basse Sttitgen.

The exhibition-season has been designed with the advice of an expert panel – historian of medicine Sanjoy Bhattacharya, virologist Shahid Jameel, and physicist-biologist Mukund Thattai. It has been co-curated by Danielle Olsen, International Cultural Producer at Wellcome, and by Jahnavi Phalkey, Founding Director and Madhushree Kamak, Programme Manager, from Science Gallery Bengaluru. It showcases interdisciplinary exhibits embedded in research that can help us make sense of these uncertain times.

The exhibition-season hosts sixteen interactive exhibits and connected lectures, tutorials, workshops, along with masterclasses, events, and films as a way to provide our visitors multiple doors of entry to understand the concept of contagion. The exhibition is designed to allow visitors to seamlessly move between exhibits and interconnected programmes, making apparent the connections and thinking that tie them together. It can be viewed at www.nowtransmitting.com until 31 December 2021.

Humans Rights and Knowledge During Crises panel discussion by Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Seye Abimbola and Sharifah Sekalala.

From a live-stream of an ant colony, to an immersive digital game that lets the visitor relive an outbreak, CONTAGION revels in the freedom offered by a digital platform – exploring an array of virtual formats. The exhibition offers, on purpose, no fixed narrative but implores the visitor to explore the themes of Trigger, Transmission, Spillover, and Hindsight in their own way. These ideas contextualize the emergence, spread, and response to a contagion; and, finally, calls attention to how we might make sense of it all.

Ant fungus garden. Courtesy of the John Innes Centre.

As additional points of entry, we offer three online social rooms (link: (https://nowtransmitting.com/socialroom/) with a selection of games, books and podcast playlists to further explore the phenomenon of transmission. The exhibition also has a collection of 15 three-minute-long videos entitled ‘Co-Vids’ (link: https://nowtransmitting.com/covids). Here, international experts share the top three pandemic-related questions on their minds. In times when knowledge around this pandemic is being continuously revised, the videos provide the audience with reliable information and trustworthy insight from scholars across disciplines.

View from the studio, work in progress. Courtesy of Anaïs Tondeur.

Science Gallery Bengaluru has aimed to create an experimental exhibition experience that is dynamic, participatory and evolves with the contribution of visitors. Towards this we conduct Mediator-Led Sessions, where our young mediators engage in hour-long online live discussions with visitors while they view the exhibition. Our mediators provoke conversations and encourage visitors to bring their own insights and experiences to bear on the exhibition in these discussions. This leads to a more involved and deeper engagement from our audiences. 

Alongside exhibits, Science Gallery Bengaluru has also conducted participatory programmes inviting written and media submissions from young adults across the world to prompts that we shared. Their responses are showcased in two sections, ‘In Your Words,’ (link: https://nowtransmitting.com/in-your-words) and ‘Through Your Eyes’ https://nowtransmitting.com/through-your-eyes), which documents their experiences and creative responses to living through the current pandemic. 

An infection in the locality. Part of ‘Drawing the Bombay Plague’ by Ranjit Kandalgaonkar. Courtesy of the Wellcome Library.

We have found that the digital medium allows us to present rich, multi-layered media, and linked content. We are also able to reach entirely new audiences and foster collaboration across various institutions around the world. CONTAGION is currently available in both English and Kannada.

Science Gallery Bengaluru’s mandate is to bridge the gap between research and the public. Making an exhibition-season on CONTAGION for an audience living through a pandemic has been a challenge. The team found the responsibility to bring a fresh perspective and insight without losing out on sensitivity and acknowledgement of the trials of the present daunting.

CONTAGION provokes a public dialogue on critical concerns like structural inequity in healthcare access globally. Given the digital nature of the exhibition, the team found it easier to bring together diverse voices – scholars, artists, activists and young adults from across the world, to think and learn together.

This pandemic has served as a wakeup call for museums and cultural institutions. We encourage others to draw upon our learnings from the last two years – not only in going digital, but in enhancing offerings in physical spaces as well. Science Gallery Bengaluru will continue to integrate the digital into new work – adventurously and meaningfully, and continue to address the challenge of ensuring equitable access for all.

The ReReeti Foundation will host Science Gallery Bengaluru’s participatory virtual workshop entitled ‘Building Digital Exhibitions’ on the 14th of July 2021. Sign up, and learn how to build your own digital exhibition, here.

About Science Gallery Bengaluru:
Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB) is a public institution for research-based engagement targeted at young adults. We work at the interface between the natural and human sciences, engineering and the arts through a Public Lab Complex, ever-changing exhibitions, and mentorship programmes.

SGB is established with the founding support of the Government of Karnataka and three academic partners – Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for Biological Sciences, and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology. It is a member of the Global Science Gallery Network with sister galleries in Atlanta, Berlin, Detroit, Dublin, London, Melbourne, Rotterdam, and Venice.

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