Editing Your Exhibits

"In art, economy is always beauty."  ~ Henry James

There's a tendency for folks who are new(er) to developing museum exhibits to want to jam as many concepts (or objects or exhibit components ...) into a space as possible.  It's almost as if they don't trust their ideas to carry the visitors along and instead feel that more of EVERYTHING would be better.

It's natural when imagining a new empty museum building or exhibition gallery to feel compelled to fill all the spaces and walls with stuff (and museums have lots of stuff!) But your visitors will be better served if you take a step back and resist that urge.

Aside from the truism that "sometimes the easiest way to fix an exhibit is to change the label," what are some easy ways to edit your exhibits?  Here are three things to keep in mind when editing:

 

BEFORE OPENING: What's the Big Idea?  What essential parts of your exhibition's story arc can't be removed? Keep those and junk the rest. This is especially important when your exhibition ideas are tied to large objects or component sets that can't be easily moved (or removed!) after opening.

DURING INSTALLATION: Be on the lookout for duplicate sets of materials or too many loose parts.  This is a common problem in Maker/Tinker-type spaces --- does every workstation need a complete set of markers, colored pencils, cutting devices, and glues, or could you cluster these things in materials stations to reduce the clutter and chaos?  Similarly, many Children's Museums or Early Learner exhibition areas have Puppet Theater components --- but do you need multiple complete sets of puppet figures (like fantasy figures or animals) instead of rotating through one thematic set at a time? 

AFTER OPENING: Evaluate (and edit) by observing visitors.  Set aside time to watch your visitors move through your exhibition spaces.  Are there "dead spots" where nobody ends up? What could you shift around physically or conceptually to change those traffic patterns?  Similarly, if certain exhibits seem constantly overcrowded, are there ways to create multiple stations to spread out the visitor interactions?

Of course, exhibition editing should be an ongoing and iterative process.  Remember the words attributed to an anonymous Exhibit Developer:  

Create without fear; edit without mercy! 

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Helping Visitors Make Choices in Exhibitions

Sometimes as part of a museum exhibit experience, we'd like the users to make a choice of some sort -- "Which historical figure do you want to find out about?"  "Choose one of these six minerals to test ..." "Did your animal survive the winter?" and so on.

While these kinds of decision points as part of an interactive experience can be handled by a digital/computer device or (gasp!) some sort of Artificial Intelligence application, I'm a big fan of a decidedly more "old school" analog approach -- incorporating the devices used in board games (dice, spinners, flippers, carnival wheels, etc.) to provide different content or experiential choices for museum visitors.

Why use things like dice or spinners in an exhibition instead of a randomized digital equivalent?

Here are a few reasons:

SOCIABILITY 

Watching a spinning carnival wheel or having several people throw dice to make a choice in an exhibition is inherently a more social experience than one person hunching over a touch screen.

SUSTAINABILITY

Spinners or dice don't need to be plugged in.

ACCESSIBILITY

Physical selection devices can be used by people with a wide range of abilities. For example, all these "old school" game devices can be set up so that users with low or no vision can still participate.

SCALABILITY

Game elements can also easily scale up or down. Large-scale game elements add to the "sociability" factor mentioned above.

Check out this example below from a nature game (about geese!) I saw during a recent trip to Bulgaria.

TESTABILITY

Simple selection devices can be easily mocked up when testing exhibit prototypes, or just by doing a quick Google or Amazon search for "game piece suppliers," you can find lots of good places to buy all sorts of pieces to use for testing or in finished exhibit components.

In that regard, while researching this post, I came across a great website boardgamegeek.com. In addition to having all sorts of information about and reviews of board games, the site also has this handy webpage that provides an alphabetical listing of online outlets that sell game pieces and related materials. 

FAMILIARITY

Most, if not all, of your museum visitors will automatically know how to use a carnival wheel or set of dice.

MAINTAINABILITY

Last but not least, these low-tech items are very durable and easily maintained or replaced.  Even better, all of these items can be self-contained -- that is, without loose parts.  Even dice can be put into spinning cages or the awesome Pop-O-Matic so they don't go astray.

So, why not take a chance (roll the dice!) and incorporate some "old school" physical game elements into your next exhibit design or prototyping session?

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Back to Bulgaria for MUSE Academy 4!

I'm very excited to return to Bulgaria to kick off the FOURTH edition of the MUSE Academy program sponsored by the America for Bulgaria Foundation (ABF).

The MUSE Academy will equip Bulgarian professionals from museums and other cultural organizations with the tools to create compelling exhibits and tell powerful stories that will keep visitors returning for more.

I am doubly excited to share the MUSE Academy teaching stage with colleagues Isabella Bruno and Christina Ferwerda! (Pictured with me at the top of this post.)

Check out this article from the ABF website, which shares more information about my work and the MUSE Academy. Also, follow me on Twitter (X), Facebook, and Instagram, where I will post live updates from Bulgaria!

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Museum/Exhibit/Design Inspiration: Real-Time Data Sites

In addition to being a perfect blend of science, art, and technology, real-time data websites provide a soothing thrum of information that I find mesmerizing and relaxing. These sites can also inspire great museum/exhibit/design ideas.

Some of my favorite real-time data sites are listed below:

Wind Map gives a real-time visualization of wind speeds in the U.S. It's like a giant video infographic! The Earth website pictured at the top of this post offers a more three-dimensional view of wind around the entire globe.

While you monitor the skies, check out planefinder.net, a site that allows you to locate commercial aircraft during their flights.

Returning to Earth, you can track tectonic activity by seeing the geographic locations of active earthquakes and volcanoes at this site or view NOAA satellite data, including infrared, visible light, and water vapor views.

Finishing up on the terrestrial side, EarthCam is a website that lets you easily choose and view real-time webcam feeds from exciting places worldwide.

I'll finish out this post with a favorite digital "eye candy" site.  Google Trends Hot Searches gives you a constantly scrolling feed of current trending searches from the popular search site.

I hope clicking on these sites inspires you and brings you enjoyment! Did we miss any of your favorite real-time data sites? How have you used real-time data sites in your exhibitions? 

Let us know in the "Comments" section below!

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Gatherings

I've been thinking a lot about gatherings lately.

One reason is that my son Philip got married this past weekend. (Congrats, Dani and Phil! ❤️)  

Another reason is that an international gathering of museum professionals is about to converge on Chicago for the 2024 edition of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference.

Both a professional conference filled with excellent colleagues and an auspicious occasion like a family wedding actually have several things in common:

• Everyone is gathering for an event that is important and meaningful for them

• You are seeing people you care about that you may not have seen in a while

• Things will happen at the event that people will continue to ponder after they return home

• You will meet new people 

• There will be dancing and drinking!

All this to say that what makes a successful event are the people who create a community of sorts there.  

All this noodling also leads to what Brian Eno calls "scenius" -- the idea of a creative community -- rather than "genius" -- the focus on one creative individual.  Check out this super short video of Brian Eno explaining the concept.

 

That idea of scenius really resonates with me and makes me think of many examples of powerful creative communities -- Apple Computer, Burning Man, the Harlem Rennaissance, Andy Warhol's Factory, and, yes, even museums like the Exploratorium.

So I hope the next gathering you attend will be a true coming together of diverse individuals forming a spirited creative community!

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Can a Museum Become a "Small Giant"?

In the excellent book Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, author Bo Burlingham contends that there is more to "growing" a business than getting bigger (and getting bigger quickly!)

As the book's subtitle suggests, companies featured in the book (such as Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe companies, Clif Bar, and Anchor Steam Breweries) have concluded that simply making a business larger is not nearly as important as maintaining high standards and not confusing one goal for the other.

One interesting aspect of Small Giants is that the different companies came to their conclusions about quality and size by various paths. Some companies and founders/directors/employees seem to have always had an intuitive sense of the mission of their particular business and were willing to pass up growth if that meant sacrificing their original principles. Other people running companies that grew too fast or grew for the wrong reasons only came to embrace "quality over quantity" after suffering personal and business disasters due to growth for growth's sake.

I often think of this constant tug of war as it relates to museum expansion projects.

Sometimes, upon hearing of a campaign to make an existing museum "bigger and better," I wonder if they couldn't increase visitation and income by "just" becoming better. Admittedly, that is hard and incremental work that doesn't lend itself to sexy capital campaigns.

What do you think?

What are some of your favorite museum examples of "small giants"? 

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"