The world of witchcraft and wizardry has landed in Toronto.
The Harry Potter Exhibition has cast a spell over the Ontario Science Centre when it opened its doors to the public on Friday. While magic can be left to the characters within the book, the science behind it all can be a reality.
CEO of the Ontario Science Centre Lesley Lewis believes seeing the Harry Potter world transform from written words to live action films, is science in itself.
“It took lots of creativity, designers, craftspeople of all sorts, and that’s really what science is all about,” Lewis said. “That sense of creativity, innovation, thinking differently about something, and coming up with creative problem solving.”
The 1,300 square metre exhibit displays hundreds of artifacts from the six films. Created by Global Experience Specialists, Inc. (http://www.ges.com), the move to Toronto will be its only one in Canada during a four-stop journey within North America.
While bringing the books on screen is innovative, there is new technology that can bring some of the magic to life. According to an article written by Robert Lamb and William Harris on howstuffworks.com, the invisibility cloak can be replicated through optical camouflage technology.
With the thought of one day owning a personal invisibility cloak, 16-year-old fan Jenny Tang is excited for a future like Harry Potter’s.
“It would be so cool to have the cloak. I always wanted to disappear during embarrassing moments,” Tang said. “I didn’t know that scientists were working on making a real one.”
For host of the Weston Family Innovation Centre at the Ontario Science Center, Heidi Breier, the exhibition is a means for fans to experience and acknowledge the science behind the magical world.
“We might be able to take advantage of that at the Science Center and turn them on to if not magical sciences then how creative it is,” Breier said. “How you can actually think beyond what you assume into other possibilities.”
The exhibition offers ticketholders interactive games like throwing quaffle balls through hoops, and pulling screaming mandrake roots. The Harry Potter experience runs until Aug. 22.