Isle of Wight Poo Museum launching illuminated poo aquarium

“We wanted to make it beautiful, so it’s in the style of a Galileo thermometer,” says museum curator, Daniel Roberts.

The new touring piece – The People’s Poo Aquarium – will be heading to libraries across the Island from March, and perhaps ever further afield, if funding can be secured.

Daniel says the aim of the project is to banish the “taboo” around poo, which has caused “so much misery, embarrassment, and premature death in the UK”.

Back in October of last year, Isle of Wight residents were asked to donate their own poo for the exhibition, and Daniel told the County Press he was soon flush with contributions.

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“We had no idea how to build a poo aquarium, or if anyone would give us their poos, but we soon found we had our hands full,” said Daniel.

Daniel Roberts' poo drying machine. (Image: Daniel Roberts)

“And from interesting donors, too.

“A midwife, a baby, a professor of history, a patient on an experimental faecal transplant trial, a Chinese takeaway assistant, a Cambridge scientist, an experimental artist, a local policeman, and a punk poet, among others.

“We quickly made a poo drying machine, then cast the dried poos in resin spheres using silicone moulds.”

The People’s poo Aquarium launches at Ryde Library on March 12.

Members of the public are welcome, and Atilla the Stockbroker – now the museum’s poet in residence – will perform some of his specially composed poo poems.

“We found a lot of visitors to our museum had their own poo-related issues,” said Daniel.

“And they were very grateful for a place where they could talk freely about it, without stigma.

“They inspired us to do something imaginative as a museum.”

Daniel has gone on to create an online citizen science survey – aptly named Log Your Log – inviting the nation to take part and share their bowel habits.

“It contains some unusual question and goes live on March 12, to coincide with the launch of the aquarium,” said Daniel.

“We worked with Professor Richard Joiner of the University of Bath to create it.

“We all poo, and we don’t need to feel ashamed of it.

“There is deliberately no fixed itinerary for the tour.

“To make it more interactive, people/communities can request for it to come to their library, and we’ll create a tour based around the requests we receive.

“Our aim is to add a poo from each community it visits.

“You can nominate yourself for this, and tell us why your poo would make an interesting addition to the collection.

“The aquarium is interactive, and visitors can control the lighting, circulation of the poo spheres, and add bubbles, using the controls on a heart-shaped panel.

“There will also be lots of gut health related information and fascinating poo facts!”