Exhibit Inspiration: Huey the Color Copying Chameleon Lamp

Since there are four kids at our house (my wife might argue that there are really five kids, but I digress ...) we pretty much corner the market on toys, gizmos, and gadgets at this time of year.

A great sciencey toy that my 6 year old daughter Caroline received was "Huey the Color Copying Chameleon."  Huey is a slightly squishy lamp of sorts that is internally lit by several LEDs of various colors.  But the cool thing is that on the underside of the toy are two white LEDs that coordinate with an optical sensor to determine the color of whatever Huey is placed upon. The sensor assembly then matches this color by adjusting the shade of numerous multi-color LED's embedded in the body of the chameleon.  It is super cool, as you can see from the video below:



I'm already thinking about ways to play around with this toy with museum visitors --- perhaps as a fun way to discuss color and color sensing? Or as a new mascot for an art museum?

If you'd like to latch onto your very own "Huey" they are in stock via Amazon.

Have fun!

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Your New Year's (ExhibitFiles) Resolution

I normally hate the idea of New Year's resolutions.  Why wait until January to start making improvements? 

But here are two easy resolutions for museum folks to make (and keep!) as the yearly calendar transition approaches:  1) Join ExhibitFiles 2) Post something on ExhibitFiles.

What is ExhibitFiles you ask?  ExhibitFiles is a website (funded by the National Science Foundation) for museum professionals (and aspiring museum professionals) from around the world to post Reviews of exhibits they've seen, or to post Case Studies of exhibition projects they have been involved with.  (There's even a category called "Bits" that lets you quickly post bite-sized observations about a particular exhibit element or feature you may have seen.)

So what are you waiting for?  Click on over to the ExhibitFiles website now.  (It's a lot easier than resolving to lose ten pounds!)

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!)

What One Piece of Advice Would You Give to an Aspiring Museum Professional?

Lucky me! I'll be teaching the Exhibition Development and Evaluation course at Bank Street College starting in January, and I'd like to tap into the "wisdom of the crowd."

Think back to the start of your museum career --- what do you wish you knew then, that you know now?
 
Leave the best piece(s) of advice that I can share with my class of aspiring museum professionals in the "Comments" section below.

Thanks!

A "Post Exhibition" Museum?

What if your museum stopped making exhibitions?  

This is, in only some ways, a rhetorical question since many museums have lost the internal capacity to actually develop, design, prototype, and fabricate their own exhibit components and exhibitions.  Worse yet, some museums were intentionally designed (architecturally or managerially) to never have any internal capacity to create (or perhaps more importantly, repair or improve) their exhibitions.

But leaving the notions and importance of internal capacity aside, are traditional conceptions of exhibitions actually holding museums back from expanding their reach to younger, non-white audiences, and people who wouldn't even normally consider visiting a museum at all?  (Check out the work of Reach Advisors to examine the unsettling demographic trends around traditional museum visitors and visitation.)

If the compelling value that museums offer are the dynamic duo of "stories and stuff" how can we repackage narrative formats and object presentations in ways that move past parades of casework and frames in Art and History Museums, side shows of phenomena or relics in Science Centers and Natural History Museums, or candy-colored collections of miniature structures (or heaven forfend grocery stores!) in Children's Museums?

I'm not suggesting that museums give up objects or narrative, just the way they combine and "package" those elements.  In the short attention span world of Twitter and the post economic crash world of, well, now,  does it really still make sense to spend several years and several million dollars to mount a major exhibition that will likely remain largely unchanged for the length of its run?

I'd say no, but what do you say?   Where are the museums (or non-museums) that are presenting narrative and physical objects in "post exhibition" ways?

"Object Theatres" in museums (especially at Science North in Canada) were a stab at this, and "moving museums" like Maria Mortati's San Francisco Mobile Museum project are focusing on people and their stories without a lot of the infrastructure of traditional museum projects.

Last, but not least, are there viable digital tools that can reconcile and bridge virtual worlds and objects, especially the authentic objects that still seem to be an essential part of the museum experience?  (Rather than degenerating into a discussion of "shiny new toys." --->  Oh! oh! let's buy ten iPads and figure out how we can use them in the museum!)

Lots of questions and ideas buzzing around my head!  Please help me gather these woolly thoughts into a more cohesive tapestry of "post exhibition" ideas by adding your own thoughts or examples into the "Comments" Section below so I can do a follow-up posting or article that can pull more of these ideas about "post exhibition" museums together.

Thanks!

Ponoko + Google SketchUp = Your Personal Design Factory!

The fine folks at Ponoko (the company that creates real stuff from your digital designs) have a contest going with the equally fine folks from Google SketchUp.

The aim of the contest is to create "how-tos" or "Instructables" that show how you can use your Google SketchUp designs to create real stuff using Ponoko's tools.  (Ponoko basically lets you run your own personal factory to fabricate your digital designs into a variety of physical materials and finishes.)

You can find out more about the contest here.  But hurry! The entry deadline is December 17th.

Even if you don't enter the contest, it is worthwhile for any museum maker or designer to check out both Ponoko and Google SketchUp.

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!)