Creating the Jukola – Jakomäki – Brussels, Finland 75 Years exhibition in the Heureka Science Centre was an empowering project. Never before had history been presented in an interactive exhibition in Finland, and examples abroad were also few and far between. We knew no precedents, no restrictions. The founders of Heureka had fortunately defined the scope of the science centre with the Finnish term 'tiede' and the Swedish 'vetenskap' in mind, i.e., to cover all academic fields rather than merely science, the hard sciences.

How does the world work? Who am I? How do I connect with the world and other people? These are the big questions that all of us deal with in our own way. At Heureka – and in science communication in general – we get to tackle these fundamental questions of humanity. We find answers, at least partial ones, but also ever more questions.

Being trained as a historian certainly qualifies you to design history-themed exhibitions, but it also provides you with a convenient angle of attack on other themes: all phenomena have their causes, and they need to be set in their proper context. Interactive exhibition media is – just like the work of a historian – storytelling, but here the protagonist is the participating public. The job of an exhibition designer is to script their actions.

When I was mulling over what would be feasible in respect to the plot and visual storytelling of my first multimedia display, Sari Koskinen, Heureka’s software designer, told me: “you just design and dream everything you want, I'll take care of the nuts and bolts.” The end result was a hilariously funny (at least according to its creators) interactive game about the player’s drinking habits and the role of alcohol in the history of Finland. However, it also showed me that I had happened upon a place with a “can do” spirit, where a multitalented team of professionals could take practically any theme and any material to brainstorm, design, shape, program, and craft a fascinating experience for the curious public: exhibitions, events, learning programmes, and planetarium shows. As Experience Director, my job is to create the conditions for these experts to work their magic and attempt to steer our path to the future.

The Science Centre is fairly unique in Finland, and most of our colleagues are far away. Happily, however, science communication is taking on new forms here too and the field is changing.

For several years, I have had the pleasure of lecturing on interactive exhibition media to University of Helsinki students of museology and cultural heritage, and especially to students of science communication, who also do practice projects on subjects agreed with Heureka.

The Finnish Association of Science Editors and Journalists, in which I have been active for some years, provides an unmatched network of journalists, editors of science publications, public information officers from universities and research institutions as well as we other science communication professionals.