The Covid-19 pandemic has compelled cultural spaces like museums and galleries to quickly adapt to the internet to stay relevant and continue to deliver their programmes. We at Science Gallery Bengaluru took the challenge to implement our digital strategy ahead of its planned timeline. PHYTOPIA, our first fully online exhibition on plants, opened to the public on 21 August 2020, as our first experiment in this direction. 

PHYTOPIA supports the International Year of Plant Health initiative observed by the United Nations General Assembly. Plants are critical apart from being the source of the air we breathe and the food we eat, they also animate our lives in different ways. 

PHYTOPIA hosted fourteen interdisciplinary exhibits, ten talks and events, two films, and five workshops – all to explore the hidden world of plants. The exhibits were selected from an international open-call and were coupled with programming that brought together creative practitioners from across disciplines to engage with the visitors through talks, discussions, and hands-on workshops.

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 In discussion with filmmakers Dolly Kikon and Nilanjan Bhattacharya

 Audience engagement with digital content has reached new heights during the pandemic, and different kinds of platforms offer quick and easy access to new information. We have benefited from this. Digital engagement has also opened doors to content and programme partnerships across boundaries in myriad ways, and we are proud of the new associations we were able to consolidate.

At the same time, we are fully cognizant of the loss of the personal touch, shared experiences, and deeper engagement. We have tried to address this gap through our digital mediation sessions that personalized the experience of visiting an online exhibition. Mediators took a visitor through the exhibition offering insightful conversations and discussions on science, art, and humanity. Our audiences have been patient with technical glitches: together, we created a memorable experience.

A visitor attending the mediator-led session

“In a digital format, this was a great experience! More immersive than any other ‘virtual tours’ that came up during the pandemic.”  – A visitor on the online mediator-led sessions

“Honestly, I was surprised at how engaging I found it. I’m exhausted by Zoom these days, but I thought this was particularly well done. I wasn’t bored for a moment.”

– A visitor on the online mediator-led sessions

All exhibits at PHYTOPIA had a Read, Listen, and Watch section which had additional reading material, podcasts, and videos connected to the ideas explored in the exhibit. Many visitors found these connections to be quite valuable and requested that we have them up on the website even after the exhibition ended. Another unique feature of the exhibition was the Take It Further section which contained podcast playlists, a handbook of DIY activities and experiments, a Reading Room, and a selection of the best responses to the writing prompts invited from the public. 

“The vast diversity in the type of exhibits reflecting diversity in nature and the plant world itself. As an ecologist and an artist, it was an extremely engaging session. The interdisciplinary nature of the exhibits is what is probably the most memorable experience for me- visually/creatively enthralling (Arboreal/Foresta Inclusive), scientifically intriguing (Foresta Inclusive), and socially impactful (Pandurang Khankhoje, Archiving Eden). Needless to say, the full programme and beyond have a lot more to explore and I am looking forward to going through most of them. “

– A visitor on the exhibition

Discussion with Harini Nagendra, Jahnavi Phalkey, Pradip Krishen, Shannon Olsson and Sita Reddy at the launch of PHYTOPIA

The power of a digital exhibition like PHYTOPIA shows when people from all around the world experience the exhibition together. This has led to fruitful discussions where each visitor could bring their own unique insights and experience to bear on the exhibition. The digital format also allowed the visitor to explore the exhibits and connected links at their own pace in their own space.

(It was memorable …) “to connect with people and talk about plants, even though virtually. To hear such diverse perspectives and interact with a global audience.”

– A visitor on their most memorable experience at PHYTOPIA

Cultural institutions carry the responsibility to spark conversations and to have the visitors stumble upon new perspectives on something familiar. While digital exhibitions cannot easily replicate these experiences, they do enable scholars and artists to convey their ideas to a larger audience. Our challenge with conducting digital exhibitions going forward is to establish the significance of research based public engagement within a growing pool of digital content and to identify new ways to help us move beyond passive consumption towards active engagement and co-creation. What Phytopia has made crystal clear to us is that even when our physical exhibitions are up and running again – the digital exhibition platform must be strengthened and continued not only for its incredible reach to diverse audiences but also for the newer experiences and collaborations it builds for public engagement.

                                                                                                                                                                 – Science Gallery Bengaluru Team

~ENDS~

About:

Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB) is a not-for-profit 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, Detroit, Dublin, London, Melbourne, Rotterdam, and Venice.