The Boston Chapters: Beauty without Backbone

14th June 2008

New England Aquarium: Smooth flOw

A flurry of rainbow-coloured lights lit the tank, as soft, spineless blobs floated gracefully across the water. The New England Aquarium was supposed to be one of the spiffier places in Boston, something that the locals are probably somewhat proud to associate themselves with, and it made perfect sense, considering Boston's highly marine-dependent culture.

Spineless Rainbow

Jellyfish seemed to the be order of the season, as the aquarium had a special section set up to exhibit the beauty of the different types of Jellyfish through a colourful and somewhat hypnotic display, with the deep-sea-esque ambient sound in the background as the icing on the cake.

The entire display was highly reminiscent of the game flOw, and in similar fashion, induced a soothing sense of relaxation as a manoeuvred my way from tank to tank in the exhibit, buried in the droning beats of the background music.

Attempting the Impossible Illusion

Witnessing a wide variety of Jellyfish in an assortment of shapes, sizes and stages in their cycles of life, I walked away of the exhibition in more wide-eyed wonder of the beauty of these blobs placed in the right context than any form of digestible knowledge. Indeed, such was the effect of blinding beauty, very much to the extent that it numbs the cognitive retention of the knowledge obtained from the exhibition.

Tank Top

Finally shaking off the mesmerizing effects of the exhibit, I managed to fight my way through to the rest of the aquarium, the more *ahem* standard stuff. The aquarium proper had a main multi-storey central tank which simulated an deep sea environment, complete with sharks and sting rays, sectored tanks which grouped aquatic creatures from different climates and environments at the sides, and a pool for penguins at the bottom of it all for safe measure, since everybody loves penguins.

After being schooled by some fishes in a blinding silver light, a close encounter with some piranhas of the amazon, being amused by a retarded seahorse trying to make its way further up the tank and staring down an absolutely ugly moray eel, a voice came over the speakers, "Ladies and Gentleman, the aquarium will be closing in 15 minutes, please head down towards the exit."

That was the needed cue for us to start making our way to the adventure proper...

The Smell of the Ocean

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