Operation Ouch! Food, Poo and You

Sarner designed a major new science exhibition; ‘Operation Ouch! Food, Poo and You’ for the Science Museum Group, featuring the IP of the BAFTA award winning CBBC TV show ‘Operation Ouch!’ and capturing its humour and enthusiasm into an immersive setting. The super-sized, super-fun, rib tickling, tactile, child-focused experience gives visitors immersive ‘wow’ moments, offering something fresh while respecting the brand identity of the much-loved programme.

Location

Science and Industry Museum, Manchester, UK

Services

- Story, Research & Interpretation - Concept Design & Visualisation - Scheme & Detailed Design - Project Engineering & Technical Design - Interior Design, Set and Staging Design - Lighting, Audio, Video, Network Design - Writing & Content Development - Audiovisual Technologies - Graphics - Theming Design - Show Control Specification - Show Programming - Technical Installation & Commissioning - Support & Maintenance - Training - Consultancy

Links

Operation Ouch! Food, Poo and You

Photos: Sarner International Ltd, Science Museum Group © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Client's brief

Science Museum Group engaged Sarner to create an immersive design for an interactive touring exhibition that provides a hands-on, dynamic journey through the digestive system - offering a fun, playful and tactile experience. One that explodes all the gory glory of our digestive organs and processes and the hilarity of BAFTA award winning CBBC TV show ‘Operation Ouch!’ into a curiosity driven, multisensory, participatory exhibition for families and children of 5-10 years old.

The exhibition aims to break down taboos by teaching young people how to talk about their health and providing them with a clear and accurate understanding of how things truly work, using imaginative and metaphorical interactives.

Our solution

Energy, fun, surprises and real science are cornerstones of the ‘Operation Ouch!’ brand on TV – and these also inform every aspect of the visitor experience at the exhibition.

Starting with the mouth and ending with what happens when one goes to the toilet, visitors explore the role of each organ in the digestive journey through interactive games and challenges, fun facts and fascinating objects from the Science Museum Group's collection. They encounter non-stop playful content and interpretation, discovering how digestion gives us energy and keeps us healthy. A variety of dynamic, surprising and entertaining exhibits in clearly defined zones provide a range of play styles, group participation opportunities and sensory experiences. The design also ensures that there is a suitable balance between high-impact activity spaces and more reflective, calmer areas, suiting a variety of visitor needs.

Doctors Ronx, Chris and Xand are our inimitable hosts on this very special journey through the amazing human digestive system. Shrunk to microscopic size and sent on a mission of discovery through Doctor Xand’s body, visitors get hands-on with the processes that turn our food into fuel and waste. Visitors leave thinking: my body is amazing!

The design strives to set new standards in STEM education through immersive experiences as well as world class levels of accessibility and sustainability, ambitions that drive our team at Sarner.

Features

Mouth

After an enthusiastic introductory video from the Doctors, guests first get to explore the Mouth zone. Giant setworks and interactives offer playful insights into the role of the mouth, enabling discovery through play. Accompanied by an immersive soundscape of burps, squelches and assorted bodily exclamations, visitors can explore inside a giant set of teeth, discover why teeth are different shapes, work as a team to move food around the mouth and see how their tongue measures up against that of a giraffe or a cat. The scene is set for the type of experiences visitors can expect throughout their journey – fun, inclusive, exploratory and tactile environments that play with scale and allow you to dive right in.

Oesophagus

Moving from the Mouth into the Oesophagus, lighting pulses simulate the peristaltic effect. Visitors can get hands on with interactives that explain how food moves down the oesophagus, and how the epiglottis prevents food from entering the lungs. Graphics and video content enhance the visitors’ discoveries. Guests also begin to delve into the intriguing realm of medical practices. One of the engaging activities involves exploring how doctors locate swallowed objects and make informed decisions about the next steps. In a fun interactive experience, visitors are invited to pass a metal detector over three cartoon style torsos, identifying the precise location of the ingested metal object in the oesophagus.

Stomach

As visitors travel deeper into the body, they next enter the Stomach. Tactile interactives introduce guests to the wavy rippled texture of the stomach lining (the rugae), a washing machine interactive visualises the role of acid and mucus, and why our gut bacteria are so essential to our digestion and general health. Cutting edge technology is on public display for the first time in the form of Larry the Vomiting Robot, who helped scientists understand how bacteria and viruses in our vomit spread and make people sick. Guests can also engage in a fun-filled ‘whack-a-bacteria’ response-time game in which they try to beat the bad bacteria and save the good. Previously untold stories of young people living with a range of digestive conditions are also available for audiences to explore, along with the modern-day medicine helping to treat them.

Small Intestine

Leaving the Stomach, visitors journey through the tactile and experiential Villi Walk – a textured corridor representing the tiny hairs that expand the surface area of the intestinal lining and transport the nutrients through the intestinal wall. Guests get to behave just like food as it is absorbed into the bloodstream. The Small Intestine is a feast for the senses. Visitors can have a go at the nutrient absorption game, throwing different types of nutrients through an ‘absorbent’ wall which represents the intestinal lining. Different coloured bean bags represent different nutrients and guests can reflect on which ones are absorbed into the body and which are discarded. Elsewhere in the Small Intestine, visitors can discover the surprising science behind tummy rumbles and bottom grumbles and can even compose their own gut-sounds orchestra, simply by waving their hands through invisible sensors.

Large Intestine

The highlight of the exhibition is the grand finale, which is all about poo. An array of gleefully gross interactive games and activities demonstrate the fascinating facts about the Large Intestine. Upon entering the Large Intestine, gastric voyagers encounter a colossal, impressively realistic pink tube containing a mechanical ‘poo-duction’ line which invites visitors to work together to help move waste through the large intestine and out the other end. In this fun ‘Poo Factory’ interactive, visitors turn cogs to work a conveyor belt, and through transparent sections they can see poo travelling down the large intestine in a fun ‘poo river’. As the poo travels along, visitors can pump out the water using hands-on physical interaction – and will see it changing colour and transforming into what they recognise as ‘poo’. Guests also get to visit the Poo Emporium to see different models and specimens representing different types of human and animal poo and play ‘Guess who’s poo?’ game. They can also sniff out the science of how food is broken down during a smelly challenge involving the Stink Chambers in the “Is this poo?” game.

The Big Splash

Visitors will also have great fun putting on their ‘poo hats’ and ending their tour in style as they travel out of the bum and into the toilet bowl! Poo projections floating through the u-bend, in a friendly Operation Ouch! illustrative style, encourage kids to jump on turds as they go… “splat!”. This wacky and metaphorical finale zone is a key experience that resonates with the de-stigmatizing mission of the Operation Ouch! brand.

The Lab

After making a big splash in the toilet, visitors walk into the famous Operation Ouch! Lab. Role play, object handling, specimen hunting and hands-on interactive stations dotted around the space provide opportunities for self-guided exploration. The important role of medical science in helping to find clever solutions to some of the trickiest gut problems is showcased through fascinating objects from the Science Museum Group’s collection, including a penny removed from a child’s stomach almost 100 years ago and ancient objects gifted to the gods in hope of curing digestive problems. On a programmed basis, across the calendar The Lab serves as a facilitated space for live ‘Don’t Try This At Home’ experiments, demonstrations and science busting shows that maintain the exhibition’s fun, participatory personality and reinforce its key messaging.

Location

Services

Links

Client's brief

Our solution

Features

Mouth

Oesophagus

Stomach

Small Intestine

Large Intestine

The Big Splash

The Lab

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