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 where there’s… a little helter skelter, which is very definitely not canonical but is, crucially, a delight for the children.
There is some canonical stuff, though it’s essentially limited to little display cards that lay out the premise of the book and some context (one clarifies what a league is) but doesn’t exactly get into heavy spoilers. Nonetheless, it’s a layer of interest for slightly older primary-aged children, which is probably why the more simplistic Octonauts-based aquatic fact cards have been added for this UK date only. You could probably stage an exhibition about the Great Terror at the Horniman and the audience would still mostly consist of toddlers.
Toss in a giant synthetic kelp forest and a bank of cute little aquariums showing off such quirky creatures as the garden eel and yellow boxfish and you have a somewhat chaotic but thoroughly entertaining exhibition. Will they learn anything? Maybe. Will they have fun? Yes!
