Cinematrix helps BBC's 'Bang Goes the Theory' put Science to the test
On the 26th January 2012, Cinematrix set up their event participation technology in “The Giant Screen”, part of Birmingham Science Museum at the Millennium Point complex. The following day Dallas Campbell of BBC1’s ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ and a film crew arrived to film the experiment originally run by computer engineer Loren Carpenter. Cinematrix had set up the experiment as part of the shows 6th Series Episode 4 in which the team looked at the science of managing, predicting and understanding crowds of people.
Viewers that tuned into BBC 1 on 2 April at 7.30pm will have seen how the experiment went. If you missed it however it can be seen on BBC iPlayer until 2nd June 2012
The programme showed individuals being handed a Cinematrix wand as they enter the auditorium. Using the power of crowd behaviour, they very quickly discovered they could use it to control what they saw on the huge cinema screen. Tapping into people’s natural instincts, the experiment showed that individuals in large groups can quickly learn to work together and coordinate their behaviour.
Dallas Campbell from BBC’s ‘Bang Goes the Theory’, said: “We wanted to show how individuals in large groups can collaborate naturally without the need for any instructions. We see this kind of behaviour in nature when large groups of animals seem to work together without any kind of leader such as in shoals of fish or flocks of birds. Although it is not always easy to see in humans, our interactive experiment revealed that we are also hard-wired to show swarming behaviour.”
Mike Reddy at Cinematrix said: “We were delighted to have been involved in the ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ experiment. The team experiment showed how you can create a real buzz in large groups. There was a lot of excitement as the audience members first discovered with no instruction that they could control what happened on the screen, and then went on to discover that they could cooperate just as Loren Carpenter had done previously by playing a game of Pong, although in the current version is based underwater and called Shark Attack. The experiment was great fun for those involved and viewers of the show will see how they discovered an exciting natural aspect of human behaviour.”
