atelier[jes]

Conception of scenario and educational principle. Construction of the device in the Ateliers Saint-Sabin

In 1998, the Mirador Museum was in construction. In the spirit of the ‘Cité des Sciences’ in the ‘Parc de la Villette’ and it is the first interactive museum in South America. Its founder, Alberto Dittborn, asked us to create an educational device that helps explain the phenomenon of erosion.

Through a mechanism that simulates a landslide, our device shows how deforestation leads to soil erosion.  We created a model terrain which is hammered out of metal sheet. When tilted it creates a slope down which thousands of little metal balls slide.  However, they are stopped by model trees placed on their course but when the trees are struck down by the young visitor, the soil is no longer held together and the balls carry on clattering down with a deafening noise. The machine gets back to its initial position like a roly-poly toy.