Something missing in Life

While his eight-year-old son revelled in a family day out at the Life exhibition centre in Newcastle, Ian Macrae came away ultimately disappointed by what it left out

The former industrial hinterland behind and around Newcastle’s Central Station has, like much of the rest of the city, been transformed. Spaces which were once tramped by railway and other workers in heavy industry, are now thronged with the city’s bright young things by night and tourists by day.

Among the bars and restaurants which make Times Square a hub for nightlife is a permanent exhibition of life on a much broader scale.

The Centre For Life is part of Newcastle University, a serious scientific enterprise devoted to the study of genetics, embryology and other areas of the very stuff of life itself. Associated with this – representing perhaps, as it were it’s public, more easily understood face – is Life, a permanent exhibition reflecting human life on earth in all, well almost all, its diversity.

In one scary corner there’s an LED display, counting into the billions and ticking over at an alarming rate as it records the birth somewhere on the planet of each new human baby. Elsewhere you can explore how greedily cities consume precious resources like water and energy. Other parts of the permanent display are given over to the body and how it works.

It would be easy to say that the fact that there don’t appear to be any exhibits which represent the richness and sheer difference of disabled people’s lives reflects the exhibition’s association with its academic alter-ego across the square, concerned as it partly is with screening for hereditary conditions and impairments, but this lack was a major disappointment to me. After all, disability is a fact and fully a part of human life.

And given that the exhibits are aimed at children like my eight-year-old who embraced the whole thing with total enthusiasm, you’d have to say that this represents an educational trick missed.

My boy’s enthusiasm was equally engaged by a small collection of roaring, spitting and chomping anamatronic dinosaurs, a special display timed to coincide with the school half term.

Other attractions include a simulator which creates the impression of a white-knuckle ride complete with 3D visuals and pitching seats. This too was tied in with the dinosaur theme. It’s open to any disabled people who can transfer from a wheelchair. Wheelchair spaces are also available in The Dome, a cinema with the screen set like an enormous dome into the ceiling which shows a short programme twice every hour. Mobility impaired people might want to note that queuing times for this grow when the centre is busy.

It’s clear that access has been central to the thinking in how the exhibition was put together – although there was a surprising lack of audio support for many of the more visual displays. It also seems likely that this is primarily a kids’ day out, and it’s therefore a disappointment that they’re not given the chance to share in aspects of life beyond the merely normal.

INFORMATION
Opening times: Monday-Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 11am – 6pm
Admission: Adult £8; Children £5.85; Concessions £6.95; Kids under 4 go free; Family £24.50 (one adult, three children or two adults two children)
www.life.org.uk