During my visit to the children’s museum, I chose to observe the gravity room area. It consisted of a large sloped rectangular room that was intended to distort the audience’s sense of “ground” and which way gravity acts. The room contained a shelf with a ball that added to the deceptive nature of the room. The ball would appear to roll up an incline. Visitors ranged from children to adults since the theme of the room was not intended for a specific audience. The general interaction per visitor was to walk along the width of the room (the direction where the slope was most prevalent). I observed that children in general spent more time in the room, likely because they were comparatively more curious about the room. Children would also run inside the room whereas adults would not.

The room in general sparked the children’s interest, not because of what it is, but what it did. In other words, the functional aspect of the room is what sparked the children’s curiosity. Few children interacted with the uphill-rolling ball. I assume that was an additional deception aimed more for an older audience since children at such a young age do not possess knowledge of general physics. The room combined a physical activity (moving within the exhibit) with  a mentally stimulating one, and this is likely the reason why the children’s attention was held for extended periods of time. The gravity room in my view pushed the initiative objective – children were encouraged to visualize the deception, get a feel for it and see what would happen if they moved around the room in various ways. Most adults utilized a hands-off approach since the environment was restricted and didn’t have any specific guidelines that the children should know to operate the exhibit. There were no mechanisms that required adult assistance or a facilitator’s presence.

The aesthetic of the room was to essentially mimic a normal room in a normal house. This allows the audience to focus more on the deception the room is causing and not be distracted by some other minor feature. The room is designed to have a sense of familiarity but with just one thing out of place (and a major one too). The aesthetic doesn’t seem to really merge with the surroundings, given the surrounding exhibits had a different theme to it.