Sunday, October 31, 2010

Inside Out or Outside in?



Imagine two different exhibitions.  Both take up about the same amount of space.  Both look to have about the same level of "fit and finish."  Both have comparable amounts of labels, graphics, and exhibit furniture.

But one exhibition gallery is filled with happy, engaged people, while the other gallery stands forlornly --- practically empty.

How did that happen?  Are the exhibits inside the empty gallery "bad" or was the exhibit development process flawed in some way?

In an effort to stir up some discussion without directly answering those questions, I'd like to commend a book to your attention, and then ask you to consider if you are developing exhibits from the "inside out" or from the "outside in."


First the book:

Fostering Active Prolonged Engagement is a book about an NSF-funded project at the Exploratorium that digs deeply into how exhibit components can foster "APE behavior." (APE is the acronym for Active Prolonged Engagement.)  Namely, how can exhibits be developed (or in many cases, re-designed) to allow visitors to take active roles in creating their own experiences in ways that compel them to spend longer periods of time at the exhibits?


If Fostering Active Prolonged Engagement isn't already on your museum exhibit design reference bookshelf, you should buy a copy today.



Now the consideration:


Are museum exhibit designers, developers, funders, and audiences too concerned with the outward aspects of exhibit galleries  --- the ad campaign?  the portfolio shots?  the "hip" materials and color schemes?


Should an exhibition be developed "inside out" that is, with the inside values (like thoughtful content messages and true visitor engagement in mind) first,  rather than "outside in" with the outside values (color schemes or high-concept  PR themes) first?   

It's worth considering when you're figuring out who to work with and how to spend your money on your next exhibit project.  Is someone who is trained to think about the surfaces and shells of a situation (like an architect, or marketing person, say) really able to help you design your exhibition from the "inside out"?




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Saturday, October 23, 2010

100% Pure Fake



Who wouldn't love a book that teaches you how to make fake blood, snot, barf, and poop?

100% Pure Fake is a book by Lyn Thomas that shows you how to gross out your friends and family with special effects you can make with items you likely already have around your house.

This is a great reference book with great pictures and ideas for both exhibits and education  folks to play around with.

If you hurry, you can still pick up a copy of 100% Pure Fake before your Halloween festivities begin!

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. P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email (or Facebook or LinkedIn) you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like videos!)

Sunday, October 17, 2010

A Challenge to Find the Next Great Exhibit Idea

The Crowd by Sreejith K 

The Museum of Science in Boston recently issued a challenge, in partnership with InnoCentive, to "create the next great science and technology exhibit."

Paul Fontaine, the Vice President of Education at the Museum, was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about the challenge.  As background,  Paul works with the staff and volunteer educator team who develop exhibits, offer programs, create interactive media, write curriculum, and teach in venues throughout the Museum, and throughout New England.  He studied Biology, with a concentration in Marine Science, and received a BA from Boston University.


Why did you choose to partner with InnoCentive?
We've teamed up with InnoCentive, a company that encourages "challenge-based innovation", to cast as wide a net as possible to hear about what people would like to see in the next large-scale science and technology exhibition.  There’s been a lot of interest recently in wiki-style, open source platforms for a number of activities, so we thought we’d try this experiment with InnoCentive to solicit exhibit ideas.  We don't know what we'll hear from the challenge solvers, but I'm sure there will be original ideas that surprise us.

What’s the project time frame for the MOS Exhibit Challenge?
The timeline of the challenge is pretty compressed.  It was posted on September 27th and remains active for 30 days, until October 27th.  After that, we’ll review the submissions and select the one we like best within several weeks.
     
What makes this process significantly different from convening focus groups or doing formative evaluation with visitors?
As I see it, the primary difference between this and traditional focus groups/formative evaluation is that the latter are generally reactive (i.e. "look at this list of 10 possible shows and tell us which you find most appealing"), while the experiment we're doing is more proactive, encouraging open collaboration.  That is, there's no wrong idea, we're creating an environment where any idea can get heard and considered. 

How much will you actually use visitor-input in your final decision making process?  For example, if the program shows an interest for an exhibition on cannibalism or Lady Gaga, what then?
The selection of the idea(s) that get the award(s) will be based not only on originality (cannibalism and Lady Gaga are certainly original ideas), but heavily on education goals and opportunities to introduce visitors to STEM topics and activities. It's likely there are some really interesting themes out there that no one in the museum community has thought of to date that might be an excellent bridge between our visitors and our mission...but since we never searched for that idea, we never found it.  Hopefully this process will bring some of those ideas into our creative universe.

Which MOS department(s) are spearheading this program?
This project is being led by staff from our Education Division. 

Will the final exhibit be only a traveling exhibition or will there be a permanent version?
Our intent is to get creative ideas for a traveling exhibit.  While there are a number of creative and original traveling exhibits available to museums from other museums, the pump continually needs to be primed – particularly for large-scale exhibits. 

What determined the size (square footage) of the exhibition project?  Will there be smaller versions for smaller museums?
Creating smaller versions for smaller museums is a terrific idea – we hadn’t considered that in our proposal.  Many larger museums these days are facing a situation where more and more we need to rely on non-museum sources for the large-scale exhibits we feature.  That’s often a win-win situation, but it does feel like museums could be contributing more to this product pipeline.  That’s what led us to experiment with soliciting ideas for a large-scale exhibition that could travel to a number of museums.

In the current climate, are traveling exhibitions still economically and environmentally sustainable?
Yes, very much so.   Although the square footage that museums dedicate to their traveling exhibition products is often modest, they are huge drivers of attendance.  Few things other than a time-limited traveling exhibition will drive attendance during a specific window of time.  They also keep museum members engaged with the institution, and that’s a huge factor in membership renewals.  With regards to environmental sustainability, if the exhibit is created in a manner such that uses sustainable practices and designed so it can be efficiently traveled using the least amount of energy we can meet the goal of stimulating an interest in science while minimizing our carbon footprint as much as possible.


Thanks again to Paul Fontaine for taking the time to answer these questions for ExhibiTricks readers.If you hurry, you can submit your own ideas for The Museum of Science's exhibit challenge by clicking over to the InnoCentive website and entering before October 27th!

What do you think about this approach for soliciting exhibit concepts and ideas?  Let us know in the "Comments" section below.


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. P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email (or Facebook or LinkedIn) you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like videos!)

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Most Popular ExhibiTricks Posts (So Far)


I'm off idea-fishing, so I thought I'd point out the most popular posts on this blog (to date) and what they seem to reveal about the museum/exhibit/design zeitgeist.

By far the most popular post to date was "Screened Out: Preferences for Technology in Museums" a guest posting by Susie Wilkening from Reach Advisors.  I'm imagining that many designers and museums are struggling with both the economics and the true usefulness of technologies in effectively delivering content, and Susie's analysisprovides some interesting things to consider.

Also, screen-based technologies in particular seem to be a "hot button" topic for many people as evidenced by the enormous number of comments generated by the posting entitled "Are Screens Killing Museums?"   The use, or deliberate non-use, of screens in museums seems to be an almost religious discussion, with strong adherents on each side.   Despite all the heat this posting generated I still think we should continue to carefully consider our choices of technology, not only from a design aspect, but from an environmental standpoint as well.

Which is a great segue into the most popular interview I've done so far for ExhibiTricks, "Green Exhibit Design: An Interview with Tim McNeil"

Tim provides some wonderfully thoughtful commentary on what green design in museum means, as well as highlighting some great Web-based resources to learn more from.  I'm heartened that people are still continuing to seek this interview out to aid in their thinking about environmentally-conscious design practice.

The last popular posting in this compendium involves some thoughts about untethered and/or consumable materials and their effect on learners and learning environments:  "The Theory of Loose Parts: A Different Kind of Exhibit Design?"  Does deliberately "bullet-proofing" every part of your interactive design create unintended behavioral and learning consequences?

Let me know if you enjoyed this round-up, and whether you'd like me to put together the occasional re-cap of thematically related postings in the future in the "Comments" section below.


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Monday, October 4, 2010

Exhibit Designer's Notebook: SketchUp and Project Spectrum



SketchUp is a great free tool from Google that makes it easy to present ideas visually.

I've used SketchUp for several years now and really love its flexibility and simple learning curve.  I even started a Museum and Exhibits SketchUp group (which could use a little more traffic and interest --- so please join if you're not already a member.)

But today I'd like to highlight a program called "Project Spectrum".   Project Spectrum gives people along the autism spectrum, especially young people, an opportunity to use SketchUp to develop ideas and express their creativity while also learning a marketable life skill.

You can find out a little bit more about Project Spectrum by watching the video at the top of this posting (or here on YouTube.)

As noted on the Google for Educators website:  "The idea for Project Spectrum originated when we began getting phone calls and emails from users telling us about how much kids on the autism spectrum were enjoying SketchUp. As the calls kept coming in, we learned that people with autism tend to be visually and spatially gifted—that, in fact, they think in pictures. When people with these gifts get their hands on powerful, easy-to-use 3D design software like SketchUp, sparks tend to fly."

If you're not already familiar with the many other resources Google provides for educators check out the Google For Educators website.

And if you don't already use SketchUp, download your free copy today!

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. P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email (or Facebook or LinkedIn) you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like videos!)