Displays of the work of great Irish scientists to mark Hamilton Year are making a huge impact at Dublin airport, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Up to nine million people travelling through Dublin airport over the past year have sampled the quality of Irish scientific endeavour thanks to a striking set of displays describing our most famous scientists.
The Government designated 2005 as Hamilton Year - Celebrating Irish Science, a full year during which attention would be drawn to the life and work of Ireland's greatest scientist, William Rowan Hamilton. Few events staged as part of this year have had the reach of the wall displays put up along Dublin Airport's Pier A concourse.
"The number of people that read them is incredible," said Dublin Airport Authority planning strategy manager, Gerry Weir. "The visual impact is strong enough to stop them but they also stop to read the words. It stops them in their tracks. It is new to them."
Weir heads a small group within the airport authority who dream up ways to promote Ireland to those travelling through the airport. "We have had a heritage programme for 15 years, celebrating Irish heritage in the broadest sense, so travellers through the airport know they are in Ireland," he explains.
The group is supported by airport director Bob Hilliard and includes academics Prof Anngret Simms and Prof Howard Clarke, both from University College Dublin. Visual expertise is contributed by a design team from Display Contracts including Eric O'Toole and Jim O'Brien, says Weir.
Those familiar with the airport departure and arrivals areas might recollect seeing large wall displays dedicated to famous Irish writers such as Joyce and Yeats but realising this was Hamilton Year the academics suggested something with a scientific edge. "The temptation is to overplay the arts and our writers," Weir admits.
More approaches about Hamilton Year came through to Weir from other quarters including from the Tánaiste, Mary Harney and also from the Royal Irish Academy. The Academy has been very active in promoting Hamilton, and helped put together the display Light and Time at the National Museum Collins Barracks.
Eventually some ideas began to emerge. "We came up with the concept of celebrating Irish scientists through great Irish science. We got the Academy to begin to talk about concepts and we worked up a design concept that suited the airport."
Prof Luke Drury of the Academy and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies was instrumental in helping to put together the information for the display that highlights the work of 11 important Irish scientists, with Hamilton taking pride of place, explains Weir. "We included scientists who were either born in Ireland or who lived in Ireland and had substantial connections to Ireland."
Pier A was chosen as it handles about half of the 18 million people who move into and out of the airport each year. The displays line the wall along the departures concourse and some were repeated on the opposite wall which is seen by arriving passengers, says Weir.
Each panel shows an image of the scientist and a short amount of text that describes their accomplishment. Most importantly, behind the picture the viewer sees an artistic representation that shows what the scientist's contribution means in a modern context, "a today representation of their work", says Weir.
"It is designed in such a way to be a substantial read, light and colourful but also relevant. The visual presentation of the person's achievement had to be relevant."
What took Weir and colleagues by surprise is how the public responded to the display panels. "We have never seen people read a display like they read this. I had people reading it while it was on the floor before being installed," he says. "I have had letters praising it. This the one that has got the most attention."
He has also had several approaches from groups interested in acquiring the display itself or making use of the concept behind it. They will have to wait however because the display will remain in place into 2006.
The Hamilton display at Dublin airport was one of the first visible celebrations of Hamilton's year and as it draws to a close Weir, the Academy and their collaborators plan to hold an end-of-year event at the airport. It will mark Hamilton but also highlight the success of the display, which makes the important contribution made by Irish scientists more accessible to the general public.