Wednesday, April 18, 2012

TITANIC : The Artifact Exhibition (100th Anniversary 1912 -2012)


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Play the video on top for the "My Heart will go on" music. This would create the right atmosphere for reading this post. 

Photos taken at Marina Bay Sands and collage created from Smilebox

Once again, thanks to the invitation to the NESCAFE® Dolce Gusto® launch event that I got to visit the two ongoing exhibitions at the ArtScience Museum. The first one was Andy Warhol : 15 Minutes Eternal and now I'm going to share my experience that I had at the TITANIC : The Artifact Exhibition.   

Source: http://www.impawards.com/1997/titanic_ver2.html
Having watched the Titanic movie for more than 3 times and each time cried buckets over the story, I entered the exhibition with a mix feeling of both anticipation and grief.


Anticipation for what I'm going to witness and discover is the real artifacts of Titanic and also the re-creations of the interior of the Titanic. Grief for all the lives that were lost during this tragedy.


Every visitors were given a Boarding Pass with a random name of a passenger who boarded the R.M.S Titanic back then at the entrance. It looked almost like the real thing and we were told to find out whether did this particular passenger survived or drowned in the deep cold sea. Mine was a passenger called Miss Hanora Hegarty and she was supposed to travel to America to join an order of nuns. She was a third class passengers and unfortunately she was a victim in the sinking and her body was never recovered. : (      


No photography is allowed in the exhibition but they have two special locations whereby one can take a photo and after which see if you are interested to purchase them. This one is the first one located at the Introduction area.


Couldn't resist and took three photos which I have added the halftone and vintage effect in Smilebox. The first highlight of the exhibition is the Construction Gallery that allowed us to peek into Harland and Wolff shipyard in the early 1900s with the layout of Titanic's concept, design and construction. Here we see the small parts of equipment like the air register, rivets that were made to build the gigantic Titanic.


Hah. Can't resist and took another photo of my reflection at the first class passenger section. Beside the first class stateroom, there's even a first class reading room. That's life, if you are rich and can afford it, you will get to enjoy all the luxurious way to travel. Another highlight is the set up of the Verandah Cafe which is a alfresco dining area with sounds of the dining passengers and ocean breeze. After looking at the cafe, there's also a gymnasium.


The Grand Staircase - towering over 24 feet tall, this majestic beauty just enhance the Ship's elegance and this also provides an excellence backdrop for photo taking.

 
True enough, with such a grand backdrop, how could we not put on some costume of the past to match the theme? So there I took my second photo openly, not sneakily. I think I took three or four shots here so that I can choose which one I wish to purchase later on. Right after the Grand Staircase, we came to the Third Class Passenger cabin. Do you know that a Third Class ticket to New York cost $40 about $900 today and a First Class ticket cost $4500 which is about $103,000 today! My gosh, and there is really a big difference in terms of the amenities and the space allocated. It was really cramp inside the Third Class Passenger's cabin. They were the people who were travelling hoping to find a better life elsewhere.


The promenade section. Here, I could really feel the chilly wind under the starry night effect and it felt as though I'm really there at the moment. "There was no moon, and I have never seen the stars shine brighter; they appeared to stand out of the sky, sparkling like diamonds. It was the kind of night that made one feel glad to be alive." -- Jack Thayer, First Class Passenger. 

This is real. It's freeze my hand!

On that deadly night, the water of the North Atlantic were below freezing and since salt water freezes at a lower temperature than freshwater, the saltwater ocean was colder that night compared to this freshwater iceberg. Thus, most people don't died from drowning, but from hypothermia - a rapid mental and physical collapse that accompanies the lowering of body temperature. This means that even if you are an expert in swimming, under that circumstances when the water is freezing cold, surviving is almost impossible.


I'm glad to be alive. To be able to live today is a gift, that's why it's called the present. Treasure the present because it's human instinct for surviving.


  The photos, boarding pass, brochure and a Freeze dried ice cream that astronauts consumed in space! Bought the two photos for $35 and the astronaut ice cream for $10. Cool stuff right? Shall blog about the astronaut ice cream in my later post.  

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