What have people already done to avert dangers, to be free from fears and to protect their own belongings? The current AUDIOVERSUM special exhibition STAY SAFE wanders along this path through history and challenges visitors to try out all kinds of tricks interactively: they can drop into a safety net or balance through an optical canyon, try to crack a safe or prove their skiing skills on a simulator. The visitors’ sense of safety is challenged. Because safety is a feeling, beyond facts and statistics. It has a lot to do with trust: in oneself, in others, in the state or even in religion.
STAY SAFE
The well-known Austrian singer-songwriter Rainhard Fendrich sings about safety, for which unfortunately there is no guarantee. However, we have different strategies to deal with insecurities. Only the safety of “body and soul” makes our existence possible. Even if a feeling of safety is established, it still remains a subjective perception. This has to do with personal sensitivities, media coverage, collective expectations and individually made experiences – especially with trust. Trust in a collective to which we belong to, trust in doctors, or even trust in the person sitting next to us on a bus; people feel safest where there is trust in a fair distribution, where there is state-provided security and social cohesion. Our sense of safety can be manipulated – or, to put it positively: changed. Fear-mongering, incitement and propaganda mean a breach of trust and thus a loss of safety.
Interactive Safety Trial
To become aware of one’s own sense of safety, visitors can try out different exhibitions and decide whether they feel safe or not. The maze at the entrance is filled with questions about the conditions under which one can feel safe. An optical trick allows visitors to hike over a narrow canyon, and a ski simulator invites them to practice their carving abilities. Visitors can playfully learn about the principle of insurance or interactively experience what it means to work for the avalanche warning service having to clear a slope for skiers.
Tyrolean Artists
The exhibition STAY SAFE also combines various artists from Tyrol who have contributed explicit works on the topic of SAFETY. The exhibition’s main work originates from the comic artist PATRICK BONATO and can be seen in large format in the exhibition, as well as in the form of a poster on the folder: A drawn hidden object picture dealing with more or less dangerous life situations.
The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Vorarlberg Museum in Bregenz and curator Lisa Noggler. For the first time, the Science Center in Innsbruck is showing a unique exhibition by combining historical objects with interactive exhibits.
