Ice Lab will play host to the official opening of the Manchester Science Festival at Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI).

 

Ice Lab features some of the most innovative and progressive examples of contemporary architecture in Antarctica.

These groundbreaking projects align cutting edge technology and engineering, with aesthetics, sustainability and human need.

Included in the exhibition are four international research stations:British Antarctic Survey's Halley VI, Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, Bharati Research Station and Jang Bogo, plus a speculative design for an Iceberg Living Station.

 

Visitors can learn about some of the scientific research which takes place within and around the polar stations, such as collecting 4.5 billion year old meteorites which show how the solar system was formed, drilling ice cores whose bubbles of ancient air tell of Earth's climate history, and studying the Antarctic's Mars-like Dry Valleys.

 

They can also experience the Antartic landscape through two new artworks by Torsten Lauschmann, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst for Ice Lab, which use sounds, sights and sensations to evoke the disorientating Antarctic landscape and immerse you in a bewitching environment.

 

The exhibition is accompanied by an events programme:

Discovering Antarctica

26 Oct | 12pm - 1.30pm and 2.30pm - 4pm
Find out what it takes to live and work in one of Earth's most extreme environments, from scientists who've been there.

 

Chasing Ice (12A)

27 Oct | 7pm - 9pm
National Geographic photographer James Balog travels across the Arctic with time-lapse cameras to capture shifting glaciers.

 

The Thing (18)

31 Oct | 7pm - 9pm
Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people it kills.

 

Architecture in Extreme Environments

1 Nov | 6.30pm - 8pm
Renowned architect David A Garcia presents a new language and approach to architecture in extreme environments.

 

Eight Below (PG)

2 Nov | 10am - 3pm
Brutal cold forces two Antarctic explorers to leave their team of sled dogs behind as they fend for their survival.

 

March of the Penguins (U)

3 Nov | 2pm - 4pm
A look at the annual journey of Emperor penguins as they march - single file - to their traditional breeding ground.

 

 

The Great White Silence (U)

3 Nov | 7pm - 9pm
The extraordinary official record of Captain Scott's final expedition to the South Pole - fully restored by the BFI.