Manchester's steampunk difference engine adventure

Cory Doctorow 10:41 pm Sun Jul 5, 2009

The Manchester International Festival is putting together a touring, educational steampunk show based on the difference engine, Charles Babbage's mechanical computer. Oh, to live in Manchester!

Travelling from past to future through a landscape of machines and ideas Walk the Plank and Thingumajig Theatre have created an interactive journey through the courtyard of Manchester's Town Hall. The audience will help inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage find the clues to repair his Difference Engine; solve the spider's riddles, hidden in the worldwide web; persuade the counting madman to open the gates to the Hall of Shadows…and discover the secret workings of the steampunk arcade.

Alongside the show, a programme of engagement with six local schools is being led by The Centre for Urban Education. As part of the Creative Partnerships 'Enquiry' programme, children, young people and their teachers are working with creative practitioners to explore their ideas. They will develop a new creative learning resource based on the themes of the performance and linked to the science, technology, history, engineering and maths curricula.

The Difference Engine…a steampunk adventure

(Thanks, Ed!)

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