Egyptian Sand Magic: Storyboard

User Experience Based on Chladni Figures

Upon entering the Egypt-themed room, the participants see hieroglyphs and patterns everywhere. On one wall of the room, there are 4 pictures with mystical looking drawings on them. Each image has a title underneath it, written in hieroglyphs. Below the images are 4 large medallions with some hieroglyps on them. The medallions are stuck into the wall, and they cannot be accessed. In front of that wall, there is a table, whose facade contains many bricks with a hieroglyph inscribed in each brick. The most salient object in the room is a square metal plate that sits on top of the table and is fully enclosed inside an acrylic box. On top of that plate there is a layer of sand.

As the participants begin exploring the room, they see that the bricks can actually be pushed into the table, but after pushing a bricks and letting go of it, it returns to its original position. Another participant observes the box more closely and touches it, but nothing is happening. However, after touching it with both hands, all of the sudden the sand starts moving and it rearranges itself into a highly symmetric pattern. The players notice that the pattern produced in the sand is identical to one of the images on the wall - image 3. A player then realizes that they need to look at the name of the 3rd image and then push the bricks on the table corresponding to that image's name. After pushing each of the bricks corresponding to the name, now those bricks get illuminated and stay pushed. But 3 seconds later, the bricks still spring back to their original position and the illumination turns off. The players realize that they need to push all of the corresponding bricks within that 3-second window - thus they need to do this together as a taem. Upon pushing the corresponding bricks simultaneously, the medallion underneath that image comes out of the wall.

The bricks on the table now move back to their original positions. But what should the players now do? They have to turn the medallion by 360 degrees and then they have to push it back into the wall. Upon doing so, the third image becomes illuminated as shown below.

The players now go back to the sandbox and see that the sand has started moving again, but particles are just jumping up and down and no pattern is being formed. A player now touches the box but still nothing is happening. Another player joins the first one, and only when they both touch the sandbox, the sand all of the sudden rearranges itself into a new pattern. This time, the sand pattern corresponds to image 1.

In the same manner as before, the players have to simultaneously push the table bricks corresponding to the name of image 1. Then the medallion underneath that image will come out of the wall. Then they have to turn it by one full revolution and push it back into the wall, and then the 1st image will become illuminated.

The players go back to the the box on the table and try touching it again to see what will the next sand pattern be. But this time, nothing happens regardless of how many people touch the box at the same time. To reveal the next pattern, the players this time have to first spin the box and then touch it. After doing so, the sand on the plate rearranges itself to reveal that the next pattern is image 4. The players proceed just as before to unlock the remaining 2 images.

Upon completing the challenge, the players will get to enjoy a performance of the sand dancing on the plate and rearranging itself into several dozen patterns rapidly shifting from one pattern to another.

AUTORESET: The Chladni plate has raised eges, so the sand remains contained and does not spill out of the plate. Moreover, because the plate is inside a transparent box and inaccessible, the players cannot remove the sand. Upon exiting the room, the players will leave no traces of their presence. The lights behind the 4 images will turn off at that point and the room will be ready to accept the next group.