Beginnings Exhibition | MOD. Museum | Review

Adelaide’s MOD. Museum has a new exhibition for 2026, and we think it’s their most interactive, kid-friendly exhibition yet. Kids of all ages will enjoy Beginnings, an exploration of how our acts in the present can shape the future.

Review by Claire Davill

MOD. (Museum of Discovery) is an interactive museum that explores the intersections of science, art, and innovation. MOD. is located on North Terrace in Adelaide at Adelaide University and features a new interactive exhibition each year. The themes explored are often aimed at teenagers and adults, but the current exhibition, Beginnings, explores concepts that are suitable for younger kids as well. The interactive nature of the installations means that even if little kids don’t understand the concepts behind them, they’ll still have fun!

The entrance invites you to sit and listen to stories from individuals describing the beginnings of projects that they are involved in. Lights dance around on the ground and interact with you as you move around. This is a great opportunity for younger kids to play while older kids and adults ponder the narration.

Explore the concepts of genetics, epigenetics and personal choice with the Folk Island game. After choosing your parents, you’ll choose your environment to live in and personalise your creature with clothing choices, personality and hobbies. You then get to watch your creature walk out into the world and wander around on the screens above.

Explore the experimental sonic studio where creative prompts drive the sort of music you make.

The Convenient Store was one of our favourite installations. Set up like a real shop, you choose a shopping list and then decide which products you should purchase from each product category. The choices make you consider your environmental impact, how products are marketed, and the ethical implications of products. After your shopping is completed, you’ll receive a printed receipt that poses questions about your choices. We had several runs through this installation exploring the different options.

The Beast is a chaotic contraption that relies on input from different energy sources. Young kids will particularly like this one, trying to balance inputs to feed the beast and keep it happy.

The MOD. Crisis Control Centre is a fun, retro-styled office with activities exploring AI concepts. Our 10 year old reviewer loved the code-breaking activity, and successfully completed this with no help.

The transformative repair installation is highly interactive, showing how broken items can be transformed and repurposed.

The final installation, Celestial Navigation, allows you to take a personality test to discover what type of star you are, and then your star is added to the constellation on screens above and below you. This is a beautiful, atmospheric room with plenty of space to explore. There is also a station inviting you to write (or draw) your own plans for beginnings to create change.

What we like about MOD. Beginnings

• It’s free to enter and no bookings are needed.
• All the installations are interactive and suitable for a range of ages.
• Older kids will be prompted to think about many concepts, while younger kids will simply enjoy the interactive technology.

Things to consider

• Some of the spaces are small and have limited points to interact with the exhibit, so make sure your kids are mindful of others and take turns.
• The Beast installation has bright lights and sounds, and might be overwhelming for some people.

Coffee and food options nearby

The MOD. shop and cafe is located on site and serves sandwiches, rolls, biscuits and drinks.

Location:

North Terrace, adjacent Morphett St, Adelaide.  The Beginnings Exhibition will run until November 2026.

For more information, opening hours and all enquiries please visit the  MOD. website.

At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently. All photos are by Play & Go.

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