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Exhibit explores depth of James Cameron's deep-sea obsession

Delve into the ocean's hidden frontiers at Telus World of Science.

“I am an explorer at heart, a filmmaker by trade.” 

James Cameron 

On one hand, the world knows James Cameron as an Oscar-winning filmmaker. Less is known about his life-long fascination with deep ocean exploration. 

And yet it was this very fascination that pushed him to invent technological equipment that allowed people to see the ocean’s undiscovered floor and least known place on Earth.  

In James Cameron — Challenging the Deep, the Telus World of Science’s newest exhibition, visitors are taken to great ocean depths through the lens of Cameron’s underwater cameras. The main component of the exhibit is DeepSea Challenger, a spherical-shaped custom-built submersible vessel he co-designed and co-engineered with two teams: one in America and one in Australia. 

“The Australian and U.S. team engineered and built DeepSea Challenger to Cameron’s revolutionary design and exacting specifications. They had to think outside the square,” said Kim Butts, design director for the Avatar Foundation. 

Cameron spent seven years researching, designing, and testing the seven-metre sub able to withstand huge compression forces of up to 16,000 pounds per square inch. He piloted a record-breaking dive on March 26, 2012, to a depth of 10,907 metres in the Marianas Trench, the Earth’s deepest point. In comparison, Mount Everest located in Nepal and Tibet, reaches 8,848 metres into the atmosphere. 

For Alan Nursall, president and CEO of Telus World of Science, the exhibit is of great importance in developing a greater understanding of our planet. 

“We live on a water planet and experiencing the ocean is really different and imaginably important. The ocean in no small way controls the ecological and climatological health of the Earth. The ocean is the greatest reservoir of life and we’ve barely scratched the surface and what’s underneath,” said Nursall.  

For the exhibit’s tour, a round pilot sphere where Cameron sat throughout the entire expedition provides a first-hand look at one of the challenges. Visitors are encouraged to step inside the confined sphere.  

“The chamber is 103 centimetres wide. Cameron is six feet two inches. You can imagine how cramped it was for him,” Butts said. 

The exhibition also features several cinema-scale screens, a robot, and an engine telegraph as well as artifacts, specimens, and models of the Titanic’s stern. 

As fans of Titanic enter the exhibit, they will see a video of Cameron exploring the deteriorating wreck of the RMS Titanic as well as glass showcases filled with hand props, costumes, personal items, and detailed pencil drawings he designed. 

Highlights include clothes worn by Kate Winslet’s (Rose) and Leonardo DiCaprio’s (Jack) characters as well as the iconic blue diamond necklace, Heart of the Ocean. Jack’s sketches, drawn by Cameron himself, add a fresh dimension to Cameron as quite a talented visual artist.  

“I see James as a modern-day da Vinci. His tools are digital, and he is so knowledgeable in so many areas like filmmaking, engineering, and the technical part of it. He is even a remarkable artist. He drew the drawings that ended up on the Titanic. He is at the core a visionary, somebody who is willing to go out there and do things that have never been done. If the technology isn’t there, he designs it.” 

Interestingly, Cameron never studied engineering, however, both his father and brother did. 

“Jim with his brother would pull apart objects when he was younger and rebuild them. So, he’s always had a genius for engineering. He just gets the mechanics of how things work, and he is also able to bring the right people on board to assist. He co-designs everything and is hands-on in all aspects.” 

The trajectory of his life changed when, as a 14-year-old watching television, he discovered Jacques Cousteau.  

“And it furthered when he was taken to the Ontario Museum, and he saw a subliminos built by Dr. Joe McInnis. Jim went home and started drawing his own sub. He put a rat in the sub and the submarine in water, and the rat lived. His first experiment was successful.” 

Cameron started conceptualizing DeepSea Challenger while filming Avatar. 

“This is the way he took a brain break from the stress of the Avatar set. He would leave the set and start thinking how this was all going to come together. He started putting together the team who would build the sub. He used a couple of guys from Edge Innovation who were actually movie prop builders to build the base of the sub. And there were various other people he pulled in.” 

Before building the submarine, every part had to be planned, designed, materials sourced, and parts custom built. 

“This wasn’t stuff you could go buy off the shelf. Everything had to be designed as a system from electronics to thrusters to the air system.” 

Building the DeepSea Challenger was an incomparable feat of science and engineering. 

“James says curiosity is the most powerful thing you have. That is why we created this exhibit — for the curious and to really inspire people to go out there and do the same.” 

The exhibit runs until April. Tickets range from $16.95 to $23.95. Visit www.telusworldofscienceedmonton.ca 

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