The giant artery: blood and blood vessels in a science museum

ABSTRACT

In order to communicate scientific knowledge of blood and to raise awareness regarding physiopathology events occurring in blood, we describe here the creation and development of an art facility built at the Brazilian Science Museum. The installation reproduces a large human artery that visitors can walk through, designed to communicate several concepts about blood and blood vessels. It displays models of various cellular and molecular components and their characteristics: The mediation process uses analogies to express scientific content foster communication between the public and the concepts portrayed. Scenography techniques and features were used to produce models of actual blood components, including visual and sensory analogies and lighting. A survey was conducted in the form of questionnaires to 61 visitors; 99% of them very much liked the personal experience within the giant artery and 85% reported having a concrete learning experience with respect to some of the content. Our results suggest that the art installation communicates several concepts about blood and its components, conveying understanding of its characteristics and functions. The ‘Giant Artery’ provides visitors with a union of meanings characterised by scientific content and its associated emotions and sensations, finally resulting in an understanding of concepts.

KEYWORDS:

• Science museum
• science-art
• blood vessels
• art-installation
• non-formal education

Acknowledgments

Special thanks is due to FAPERJ for funding the project Science – Blood and Citizenship that allowed the development of the module on blood in the permanent exhibition of the Espaço Ciência Viva and the organization of exhibitions dedicated to the theme Blood. We are also grateful for the coordination of Profs. Luis Cristóvão Porto and Andrea Monte Alto Costa of the Laboratory of Histocompatibility and Cryopreservation of UERJ), to Prof. Cassia Monteiro, professor of scenography at the School of Fine Arts at UFRJ and fellows who participated in the project during the construction of the “Giant Artery,” especially the biologist Danielle Borim and the scenographers Rodrigo Duarte and Clycia Fuglino.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary materials

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [311362/2014-1, 313011/2018-4, 448152/2014-2]; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior;Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [E-26/010.002985/2014, E-26/111.839/2013, E-26/010.003057/2014,E-26/202.774/2018].