“The crowd is not stupid. There is a lot of collective intelligence in the crowd. […] People tend to help each other rather than harm each other,” says Caroline Lantagne, project manager at the Musée de la civilization.
The route set up at the Musée de la civilization allows visitors to immerse themselves in different types of crowds, starting with the densest and progressing towards the most sparse, which includes digital crowds.
Concerts, sporting or religious gatherings, demonstrations, flocks of starlings, pedestrian streets, collective movements on social networks; everything goes! Thanks to art and technology, we offer several ways to visualize these crowds and appreciate their density.
We present, among other things, the film The bad reputationwhich looks back on several historical events involving masses of individuals, some of which were relatively dramatic.
The exhibition also offers some tips for moving in a crowd. (Frédéric Matte/Le Soleil)
Through games, interactive experiences, videos and texts, we debunk myths while becoming familiar with notions such as proxemics and the rules that govern crowds.
“For dense crowds, it will be the physical sciences, [comme] fluid mechanics, which will be used to understand crowd phenomena. When we are in a lighter density[…]it will be behavioral sciences,” specifies Caroline Lantagne.
It is, among other things, possible to see a data visualization wall projection by researcher David Chavalarias who is interested in interactions on Twitter (which has since become X). (Frédéric Matte/Le Soleil)
These scientific disciplines help build infrastructure, organize traffic or even create emergency evacuation plans that involve large groups of people.
The exhibition also offers some tips for moving safely in a crowd.
Our behaviors
The masses of visitors who wander through this human laboratory will pass through several airlocks, playful transitional spaces, where they will have the opportunity to become aware of their own behavior within a mass.
In particular, we discover a graffiti wall where we measure the ripple effect caused by a first transgression.
At other times, visitors find themselves in front of doors lit in red or green, or topped with a dial indicating how many people have passed through each door.
Visitors are part of the experience in this human laboratory. (Frédéric Matte/Le Soleil)
Will these traffic light lights influence people’s choices when moving from one room to another? Is a person more comfortable going through a door that is used more or less than others?
Finally, a big surprise awaits visitors at the end of this exhibition.
Quebecois winks
Crowds. Human laboratory was designed in France by the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie de Paris in partnership with the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
At the heart of this project, which is based on interdisciplinary studies, we find researcher Mehdi Moussaïd, scientific curator of the exhibition, also known for his YouTube channel and his talents as a popularizer.
In the adaptation that it is offering to the public until September 21, 2025, the Musée de la civilization team has inserted some local examples which will be particularly eloquent for Quebecers.
In one of the airlocks, visitors are invited to do crowdsurfing in the crowd at the Quebec Summer Festival.
The musical synchronization exercise teaches us that the collective is able to correct individual errors. (Frédéric Matte/Le Soleil)
It will also be possible to do karaoke to one of the four Quebec songs added to the musical synchronization experience. The latter teaches us that the collective is able to correct individual errors.
Crowds. Human laboratory is presented at the Musée de la civilization from December 19, 2024 to September 21, 2025
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