Voyage to the Deep – Underwater Adventures
Some of the touring kids’ exhibitions that come to the Horniman can be a little on the generic side. And while this is of limited concern to the target audience, who undeniably skew towards preschool age, it can be a tad wearying for adults (i.e. me) who end up making repeat visits over the years. Voyage to the Deep, however, is a lot of fun, combining a Jules Verne theme and elements from the animated kids’ show Octonauts, alongside some generic stuff that tots will inevitably enjoy.
On tour from Australia’s National Maritime Museum, the exhibition is nominally based around Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, although the classic Victorian adventure novel is more of a jumping-off point than slavishly interrogated. What it does do is give the whole thing a distinct identity: the room is dominated by a sort of exploded recreation of the Nautilus, the fictional – and indeed, in 1870, science fictional – submarine on which Captain Nemo and crew traversed the world’s oceans on a quest for vengeance (the vengeance bit is very much not included here).
Kids will learn a little something about how a submarine works via the exhibition’s Nautilus and its various interactive stations. But it’s not exactly hard science, more a fun selection of themed activities running from two CGI screens at the front that allow you to ‘steer’ the sub through the oceans by operating its steampunky controls, via bunks, grabber claws and curio-packed storage cupboards, right to the back...
