The Field Museum’s latest exhibit is a seeming underwater immersion. The dim space is illuminated with vibrant blue and purple lighting, emulating bioluminescence. In one room, models of marine life dangle from the ceilings. In another, visitors are encircled with swirling projections of life-sized fish.
“It’s meant to make you feel like you’re submerged in the ocean,” said Marie Georg, a senior exhibition developer at the museum.
The exhibit, dubbed “Unseen Oceans,” offers visitors a glimpse of the deep sea and its elusive creatures. A maze of rooms explore a range of topics, from plankton specimens to underwater expeditions. The interactive gallery, which is set to open Friday, was organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
“The exhibition is exploring the oceans, and all of the things that you may not know, or have been unknown for many years, but scientists are now able to discover,” Georg said.
Though the ocean covers 70% of the Earth’s surface, only 5% has been explored. More is known about the moon than the deep sea, according to marine biologist Janet Voight.
Voight, a specialist in cephalopod mollusks, has spent years studying the ocean’s depths. Footage from her 24 research cruises and deep sea dives are featured in the exhibit.
“When you’re on a cruise, and you’re in a submersible on a dive, you’re usually sharing it with three other people, at most,” said Voight, an associate curator of zoology at the museum.
Voight specializes in octopuses, but her dives have brought her to other unique creatures. In one experiment, she and a team of researchers submerged wooden planks deep underwater to study wood-boring clams.
Over a ten-month period, the scientists watched the clams settle into the planks, which were eroded to a point of near-disintegration. Samples of the clam-ridden planks are exhibited in a case at various stages.
“The planks crumble in the hand, to just a little pile,” Voight said. “(The exhibit) is a great depiction.”
In another room, museum-goers can sit in a model of a submersible. There’s also a section about colorful fluorescence in marine life, as well as a tank of live creatures, including seahorses, pipe fish and eels. The final portion of the gallery highlights the next generation of young ocean scientists.
Other elements on display include a giant squid beak, an ammonite fossil and a megalodon tooth.
It takes about a year to plan, construct and configure an exhibit in the Field Museum, according to Georg. “Unseen Oceans” was no different, with its media elements, live fish and intricate displays.
The exhibit will remain on display until January next year.
What should be a visitor’s takeaway? “Curiosity,” Voight said. “And a belief that technology is coming along fast enough. We’re learning more, and that’s really a good thing.”