With free entry and free family activities, the National Media Museum is the place to discover the worlds of animation, the worldwide web, television, photography and videogaming this summer.

Science of Media is a series of live shows taking place throughout the school holidays as the Science Museum visits the NMM with two its most popular productions: The Not So Sleepy Hedgehog and Danger High Voltage (August 27 to September 1).

The Not So Sleepy Hedgehog takes children on an exciting journey of discovery about light and shadows, and Danger High Voltage is a hair-raising look at electricity and magnetism.

The What Do You See? Science Show (July 24-26 and then July 31 to August 2) asks if it’s possible to paint with light, see smiling unhappy faces, or make a person vanish?

Eyes and brains are tested with amazing illusions and digital tricks looking at ways in which light can be manipulated for entertainment, science and the arts.

Also featuring is the Science Museum’s comedy team, Punk Science, asking questions such as can TV detectives get DNA from breaking wind? (August 14 to 16).

The Spectrum Drama group will appear as historic characters such as Michael Faraday talking about the history of electricity and Eliza Kipling, model of photography pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, who talks about Muybridge’s life and work with subjects in motion, and his importance in the history of film-making (every Friday and Saturday throughout the holidays).

The museum’s major exhibition, In The Blink Of An Eye: Media and Movement, is part of the Cultural Olympiad and has inspired a summer of free family workshops.

Artistic creations come to life in the Paper Animation sessions based on animations such as Pixar’s Up (July 21 to August 3) and Slo-Mo Workshops give visitors the chance to play around with film and movement (August 4 to 17).

In addition, special effects secrets behind blockbuster films such as Tintin and Avatar are revealed in Motion Capture demonstrations at the Museum by the University of Bradford (August 7 to 9).

And the museum will be taking a peek at the future of broadcasting as one of only six venues worldwide showing the BBC’s amazing Super Hi-Vision coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games (starting on July 28).

Super Hi-Vision technology is the next generation of TV with a ground-breaking picture quality 16 times higher definition than standard HDTV. Showing on a purpose-built giant screen at the Museum, it is the next best thing to being in the Olympic Stadium. All shows and exhibitions listed here are free but booking for some is advised. Ring 0844-856-3797 All dates and times can be found on nationalmediamusuem.org.uk.