Museum Exhibit Design Toolbox: Gear Template Generator

Did you ever have the need/desire to cut some gear shapes out of basic materials like wood or phenolic using basic tools like a band saw?

If so, you owe it to yourself to check out the Web-based Gear Template Generator created by Matthias Wandel.  Using simple fill-in boxes to set the parameters, you can generate paper templates to cut many types of standard gear arrangements, as well as planetary gears, and rack and pinion setups.

If you are really into such things it is also worth checking out Wandel's "Woodworking for Engineers" website.

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Legal "Exhibits" for Courtrooms

When I think of the word "exhibit" my mind naturally thinks of displays in museums.  But recently POW! got to create a demonstration device for a courtroom case (or in attorney parlance, an "exhibit.")

As you can see from the YouTube video above, we created a tabletop version of our Giant Newton's Cradle device using standard billiard balls.

Attorney Leila Kilgore, from the law firm Kilgore & Smith in Virginia, contacted us to find out whether we could create a custom Newton's Cradle to help her with a case.  She needed a way to help support the expert testimony of a Physics professor in explaining collisions for a case involving a multi-car accident.  In this case, the numbered billiard balls fit in exactly with the professor's explanations, so we deliberately kept them visible.

It was fun and different to create a courtroom "exhibit" rather than a museum "exhibit."  So, if you are a museum person (or lawyer!) in need of interesting exhibits, feel free to contact me directly to discuss how we can work together on your next project! 


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Exhibit Design Inspiration: Caleb Charland

The elegant black-and-white photographs produced by artist Caleb Charland neatly span the arbitrary distinction between "art" and "science."

The images on Charland's website could easily serve as models for thinking about both exhibit components and exhibit graphics. Well worth checking out and thinking about.

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Take The OMSI Green Exhibits Survey

Interested in green exhibit design?

Then please help the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) with its new project: Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education.   OMSI is developing tools to promote sustainable practices for developing, designing and fabricating exhibits and they need your feedback!

Take a short survey to tell OMSI what you think about "green" exhibits!

Your feedback will help OMSI make these tools relevant and accessible to the entire museum community. If you have any questions regarding the survey, please contact visitorstudies@omsi.edu.

You can also forward the survey link to any colleagues who might be interested in "green" exhibits.


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Should Your Next Exhibit Be Designed Like The Web?

Should the loosely connected, surf anywhere you like approach that makes the Web so popular serve as the design model for your next exhibit?

What got me thinking about this was the review (and subsequent comments) over on the ExhibitFiles website concerning the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry's new human body exhibit entitled "YOU!" 

Many exhibit designers seem to feel that exhibitions need a clear storyline or narrative thread that helps visitors walk away with clear messages.  The folks involved in the YOU! exhibition seemed to be guided not only by the disjointed architecture of the spaces they had to fit the exhibition into, but also by an acknowledgment of the user-centered, Web-based manner that many members of their target audience gather their information these days.

While the Web is great for wading through vast oceans of information, it still seems that "sticky" narratives are the best way for acquiring  long-lasting knowledge.   Using the Web as a model for design criteria seems like it could easily lapse into the "let's just fill up the space with cool stuff and let the visitors sort it out..." school of exhibit (or museum) design. 

So, can a museum exhibition composed of free-standing units that can be viewed in any order, any more or less effective than the traditionally-styled exhibition hung on a clear narrative structure? The folks from Chicago involved with the YOU! project have indicated that they'll be releasing their summative evaluation reports, so stay tuned...

What do you think?  Are folks from the narrative thread school of exhibit design just old fuddy-duddies that aren't keeping up with the Web-savvy public?  Or can museums serve as an antidote from click-based info-surfing,  and provide real objects, experiences, and stories that people can dive more deeply into?  Share your own deep (or shallow!) thoughts in the "Comments" section below.


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Exhibit Design Inspiration: Gear Ring

 

What if a hands-on exhibit actually fit in (or on) your hand?   Kinekt Design has created the Gear Ring which you can see in the image at the top of this post or in action in their YouTube video.



The Gear Ring is a neat idea, and it makes me wonder what other sorts of functional interactive items that could connect to exhibit themes and ideas might be possible.

What do you think?

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ExhibitFiles Launches "Bits"

The already excellent ExhibitsFiles (a community site for exhibit designers and developers to share their Reviews or Case Studies of exhibits or exhibitions) has added a new tab to its homepage called "Bits."

Bits gives you an opportunity to provide, well, just a quick "bit" of information like a picture or video or Flickr link that introduces a cool exhibit idea or something you'd like to get feedback on.  Not quite as detailed as submitting a  Case Study or Review (although, c'mon isn't it time you've submitted one of those to ExhibitFiles already?)

So why not do your "bit" for ExhibitFiles and submit a Bit today?

Not an ExhibitFiles member yet?  It's simple and easy to sign up by clicking here.

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

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Exhibits Exchange: Give Old Exhibits A New Home!