Date: 5th May 2015, updated 4th June, 2015

In just over a week's time, a brand new exhibit created in collaboration with the Pacific Pinball Museum opens at the Phaeno museum in Wolfsburg near Hannover in Germany.

Entitled Ausgeflippt (Flipped-Out), the exhibition showcases the art and science of pinball using a combination of classic machines, huge artwork murals, and bespoke exhibits to demonstrate how pinball and science combine and complement each other.

Ausgeflippt at the Phaeno in Wolfsburg

The exhibition opens on 14th May, 2015, but the story of its creation stretches back to last year when the Phaeno's Executive Director, Michel Junge, paid a visit to the Bay Area and San Francisco's Exploratorium.

The Pacific Pinball Museum's Michael Schiess has created several pieces for the Exploratorium, including the Visible Pinball - a clear Surf Champ electromechanical pinball showing how all the mechanisms interact with the ball to demonstrate a number of scientific principles. Two of these will form the centrepiece of the exhibition - one electromechanical and one early solid-state, demonstrating the how the game changed with the introduction of electronics.

Junge then visited Michael at the Pacific Pinball Museum (PPM) in Alameda and initial talks began about creating a suitable exhibition for the Phaeno. The fruits of those discussions can be enjoyed in Germany later this month.

The Galton Pinball

The Galton Pinball demonstrates Sir Francis Galton's central limit theorem

Some of the most popular and highly visible exhibits at the PPM are the large murals depicting classic electromechanical backglasses. Ten of these created by artists Dan Fontes, Ed Cassel, Eric Kos and d'Arci Bruno have made the journey across the Atlantic.

They are joined by twenty electromechanical pinball machines from the PPM's extensive stock, and several more from the personal collections of Larry Zartarian and Melissa Harmon.

EM machines from the PPE's collection

The mix of pinballs is further bolstered by machines from a local private collector which include modern classics The Addams Family, Terminator 2 and Indiana Jones.

Other exhibits include the Pinbowl Chaos Generator, an electromechanical music box and more bespoke kinetic sculptures.

The electromechanical music box

The Bumper Box

Finally, Galactic Dimension, a super-sized six-foot tall pinball machine, has been created by artist Niklas Roy.

Development of Galactic Dimension
(picture: Niklas Roy)

You can see more about the development of Galactic Dimension on Niklas's Google+ page.

The Ausgeflippt exhibition runs from May 14th until 2nd September. The Phaeno is open Tuesday to Sunday inclusive, while entry costs €12.50 for adults ($13.94/£9.22), €8.00 for kids, with discounts for families or groups. For more details, visit the museum's website at phaeno.de.

UPDATE

Niklas Roy has now published the full story of his Galactic Dimension exhibit on his website. The article includes a look at the prototypes used in development and explains about how an Arduino is used to control the various mechanisms. You can also download high resolution pictures and the Arduino code.

Galactic Dimension
(picture: Niklas Roy)

In addition, Pacific Pinball Museum's Michael Schiess made this video walk-through of the exhibition.

© Pinball News 2015