Big Mouth
July 2009, Exploration Place, Wichita, KS
Big Mouth
Big Mouth is a highly popular attraction at Exploration Place, its second installation after the Children's Museum of Virginia. Working collaboratively with Exploration Place, Moey has made changes over the years to include additional examples of dental health, which young people explore together in a shared tactile interactive. At the back of the mouth, a monitor poses find-the-tooth scavenger hunt questions. Kids touch different teeth and parts of the mouth to take the quiz. Because Big Mouth is so big, young people often play the game together.
How to perform a root canal
The Big Mouth sculpture was fabricated by an artist not in Moey's shop. To make it interactive we placed dozens of touch capacitors inside its teeth, tongue, and gums, and wired them to a computer that communicated with a monitor at the back of the throat. With limited room to work, we had to get athletic.
How to pierce a tongue
After the first installation of Big Mouth, Exploration Place wanted to add braces, discolored teeth, and other oral fascinations, including a tongue piercing. Because Moey is a design-build studio, we were able to meet the new requests with agility. Our work included fabricating a new fiberglass tongue.
WHAT WE’VE DONE
Programming
Electromechanical engineering
Model making
Graphic design
User testing
Concept development
Electronic sculpture
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