Wow Museum Zürich
Welcome to the rooms of illusions
Come be amazed by our rooms which are full of surprising illusions and new perspectives! WOW combines fun with learning, culture and virtuality.
Across three floors and more than 400 square meters you will lose yourself in infinity, stand upside down and wonder about your own perception.
Can you even believe your eyes?
In the WOW museum, nothing is as it seems.
Be inspired and amazed that there is no right or wrong and that everyone sees things differently.
Be invited to cherish your illusions! We make room for it!
Come and dive into the WOW Experience – A museum has never been so much fun!
Museums must become the better Netflix
ZKM-Direktor Peter Weibel
Monopol, Magazin für Kunst und Leben
The Corona pandemic has driven art into the digital realm – curator Peter Weibel was already there. Here the ZKM director explains why virtual events dominate reality – and why proximity in the museum is a fiction that is now coming to an end.
Mr Weibel, you curate the Karlsruhe Schlosslichtspiele, among others. How do reality and digital art interact?
The castle light show is a highly technical event. With “Projection Mapping”, images are not simply projected onto a cinema screen. Instead, each group of artists receives a computer-based 3D model of the castle and is then commissioned to incorporate the architecture of the facade into the images. This means that every pixel of the façade becomes part of a composition and is transformed by it. The façade moves, it can collapse or become a waterfall with water coming out of the windows. Through a projected fantasy world one can let the real one sink, so to speak. In the case of the castle light games, one can already see a dominance of the virtual, but the real façade still needs this as a carrier medium.
Inner Telescope, a Space Artwork by Eduardo Kac
Conceived to exist in weightlessness by the artist Eduardo Kac and created on board the International Space Station by the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the work “Indoor Telescope” is the first milestone in a new form of artistic and poetic creation, freed from the constraints of gravity. The film “Indoor Telescope, a Space Work by Eduardo Kac”, takes us on an artistic and scientific adventure, from the conception of the work in Eduardo Kac’s studio in Chicago, to its realisation in orbit 400 km from Earth, during the Proxima mission of the European Space Agency.
With Eduardo Kac, Thomas Pesquet, Gérard Azoulay, Hugues Marchal and Thierry Duquesne. Directed by Virgile Novarina. Produced by the CNES Space Observatory, with the support of ESA and the Daniel and NinaCarasso Foundation.
Time and Frequency Laboratory of the Neuchâtel University
The LTF’s mission is to explore and push the frontiers in time and frequency research, optical metrology, and ultrafast science and technology.
LTF also contributes Switzerland to join in a near future the limited number of countries that actively participate to the definition of the international atomic time TAI with primary frequency standards, with the development of the unique atomic fountain clock FOCS-2 that operates with a continuous beam of cold cesium atoms.
Key competences
LTF’s key competences to achieve its research objectives are:
- Ultrafast lasers development and analysis
- Various frequency combs systems
- State-of-the-art ion beam sputtering (IBS) machine for custom optics fabrication
- Cold atoms
- Noise/stability analysis for microwave/optical oscillators
- Stabilisation of microwave/optical oscillators
- Vapour cells manufacturing and characterisation
- CPT and double resonance spectroscopy in alkali vapour cells
- Vapour cells atomic clocks
- Time & Frequency metrology
- State-of-the-art reference H-maser
Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM)
This research centre occupies the other buildings on the Neuchâtel Observatory site. In 2007, part of the Observatory’s activities were transferred to the MSRC. Its credo is:
Managing and fostering innovation to convert groundbreaking basic research into advanced processes, leading to innovative products and helping industry and society prepare for the future.
Its activities cover the following areas: Aeronautics & transportation; Biotechnology & life sciences; Information & communication technologies; Energy & building solutions; Environment; Watchmaking; Home & industrial automation; Healthcare, wellness & sport; Security & surveillance; Semiconductor industry; Space & astrophysics; Food & agriculture,…
History
CSEM’s success story began in the early 1980s as a result of the visionary plans of the Swiss Confederation.
Mission & Vision
Championing industrial innovation and maintaining our role as a cornerstone in the transfer of disruptive microtechnologies.
Governance
CSEM is a research and technology organization (RTO) and a public-private partnership.
Partnerships
Building alliances and strategic partnerships is vital to coping with the fast pace of technological innovation and product development cycles.
Start-ups
Start-ups or joint-ventures based on CSEM technologies contribute to the economic vitality of Switzerland and of established and emerging industries.
Certifications
CSEM has been assessed and is certified as a demonstration of its commitment to best practice, efficiency, and sustainability.
87 million turnover
499 people
44 ventures
212 industrial clients
Directive sound shower
Sound showers allow a sound message to be broadcast in a targeted manner without disturbing others.
You no longer need to wear headphones, they provide freedom and comfort.
The sound showers are suitable for use in trade fairs, museums, amusement parks, shops, exhibitions…
Model “The A” by Akoustic Arts
Directional sound enclosure that creates sound bubbles. Product used for shops, museums, etc.
The transmitter is made up of 217 independent transmission points offering spatial sound control that is unrivalled in the market. Directed and focused sound. All integrated in a small product.
The meridian sighting marks of the Neuchâtel Observatory
Article on the website of Swisstopo
To determine Swiss time the Neuchâtel Observatory observed the passage of the stars above the meridian using a telescope. To make sure that the telescope was correctly adjusted, it was required to scan the north-south axis and identify two marks serving as reference points. These marks still exist today. The southern mark in Portalban has a direct link to swisstopo since it was integrated into the national survey network.
What is a meridian sighting mark?
It is a stone construction which had to be visible with the meridian telescope. In order to enable the Neuchâtel Observatory to cover the north-south axis and thus determine the time at which the stars pass over the meridian, two telescopes had to be built. One to the north and the other to the south. If the telescope did not detect these marks, they had to be readjusted.
In 1959, the lack of precision of the meridian telescope and the arrival of atomic clocks sounded the death knell for the use of sighting marks. However, they are now part of the heritage of the Neuchâtel Observatory and swisstopo.
Where are these marks?
The Observatory of Neuchâtel had three sighting marks built. The closest was on the Mail hill, 80 meters from the Observatory. It no longer exists today. The northern sighting mark was erected in Chaumont, 3 kilometres from the Observatory. The third was built in Portalban, on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel, 9.5 kilometres south of the Observatory. Like the mark in Chaumont, the Portalban sighting mark still exists
The southern sighting mark in Portalban
The first mark in Portalban was rather crude. Indeed, in 1861, the Observatory had a black diamond painted on a rock on a white background. The second version of the mark was also created in 1861 and consisted of an obelisk 3.10 meters high. A white diamond surrounded by black was also painted on the stone structure.
The link between the Portalban sighting mark and swisstopo
In 1927, the Portalban sighting mark was integrated as a first-order fixed triangulation point and as a third-order triangulation point by the Federal Topographic Service (swisstopo). This fixed point was therefore measured precisely, and its coordinates are well known. As a result, the point is protected by federal law and cannot be dismantled. In 1886, a levelling pin was sealed on the sighting mark. swisstopo is responsible for its inspection and renovation. And its condition is checked every 12 years.
Museum Electro
An exhibition in the heart of the Espace Découverte Energie (Ede).
Visits to EXPO ELECTRO are accompanied by a guide who will tell you all about the history of electricity and will brighten up your exploration of this magnificent building with illuminating anecdotes.
EXPO ELECTRO, permeated by the atmosphere of a former power station which has now been listed as a historic monument, features almost 500 items including a dynamo manufactured in 1896 by René Thury, a Swiss, in whose honour the first hall is named. A second hall acts as a contrast, showing 150 items (Edison bulbs, rectifiers, motors etc.) paying tribute to the genius and father of alternating current, Nikola Tesla.
Location in St-Imier, Jura-bernois
The visit of EXPO ELECTRO is only accompanied by a guide.
Duration: 1h – 1h30
GROUPS
- visit from monday to sunday
- reservation one week in advance
- Possibility to reduce this time subject to guide availability.
- Schools, special rates on request
- max. 20 persons
INDIVIDUAL AUDIENCE
- Guided tours on fixed dates are organised several times a year for the individual public (dates available on www.expoelectro.ch).