Less Fuzzy

Be less fuzzy. As the New Year approaches, that's my resolution for my own work, as well as my advice for my clients.

There are lots of "fuzzy" terms in the museum business: Interactivity, Prototyping, Evaluation ...

Everyone has a basic idea of what they think those terms mean, but it often becomes clear(er) as a discussion or design meeting progresses that the use of a term like "interactive" could cover everything from a simple flip-up label to a more complicated design activity.  If you don't lay down some markers at the beginning of your discussions, you can really end up in a bad spot further into the design process.

This has come up recently as I've been speaking with clients and colleagues about "Maker Spaces." "Maker" and "Making" have become a sort of nebulous (and essentially so fuzzy as to be nearly worthless) shorthand for "spaces where visitor do creative things."  (Also, true to Museums loving to jump on a marketable bandwagon, the term"Maker" latches onto both the success and notoriety of Make magazine and Maker Faires.)

Unfortunately, without being a bit more specific, one museum's "Maker Space" could be an unstaffed table with glue sticks and recycled scraps, while another museum's space could be a staffed area where people could use tools like soldering guns and 3D printers.

While shorthand terms like "Maker Space" are a reasonable place to start a design conversation, the devil really is in the details.  Find a way, early in the process, to get specific about each person's starting point and expectations.

So as 2013 beckons, I wish all my ExhibiTricks readers a happy, healthy, and less fuzzy New Year!


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Visitors Are Heterogeneous: An Interview With Erika Kiessner

Erika Kiessner is an Exhibit Developer and Prototyper who is passionate about great exhibit experiences and the wonders of the world we live in.  I'm so pleased that Erika was kind enough to agree to be interviewed for ExhibiTricks!



What’s your educational background?
I have a BASc in Industrial Engineering, where I focused on Human Factors, which I earned at the University of Toronto. I have an MFA in Media Arts, where I focused on Interaction Design which I earned at the Utrecht College of Arts (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht) in Holland.



What got you interested in Museums?
I grew up in Toronto and always loved visiting the Ontario Science Centre (OSC.) My family also took yearly trips to Sudbury to visit both friends and Science North. But the clincher was participating in a program at the OSC called the Ontario Science Centre Science School. This program allows you to do one semester of your final year of high school in classes taught at the OSC
by educators from the OSC.

The program involved a lot of museum experiences, such as mentoring with OSC staff and running small carts on the floor of the museum with visitors. Seeing behind the scenes at the OSC was a magical experience. I loved everyone I met there. The people I met were all smart and enthusiastic about science. They were inquisitive and creative and they all seemed to love what they were doing.

I already had a love of the museum, but now I saw how great things were behind the exhibits and I wanted to be a part of that. I saw so clearly how this was a group of people sharing their passions with the world and that I could do the same thing. I’ve never lost the joy that I felt then even though I’ve moved on from the OSC.



Does working with teams to create exhibits inform your design process?
It absolutely does. I don’t think that creating exhibits is something one can do alone. Visitors are heterogeneous. So seeing things from multiple viewpoints is crucial to ensuring you reach your actual visitors rather than just people like you.

Plus, I find creative pushback very helpful in refining and improving ideas. Ideas rarely emerge fully formed and ready to go to production.



Tell us a little bit about how your tinkering and fabricating skills inform your exhibit design work?  I have interfaces on my mind all the time. When I am thinking about an exhibit concept or problem, the interface is the first thing I try to frame my solutions with. In that way the “what” of an exhibit is tightly linked with the “how” of it.  When it comes to a whole exhibition, I am thinking about what the theme is and how to give visitors access to its concepts through individual exhibits and experiences.





What are some of your favorite online (or offline!) resources for people interested in finding out more about exhibition development? I’m not sure that I have an answer to this. I think there is lots of great maker stuff in Instructables. There are interesting reviews in ExhibitFiles. But when I want to know more about exhibition development, I tend to talk to people about it.

I think that Human Factors is a rich area to mine for lessons about how people use things and interpret them. Also, there is an amazing amount of research in the design of retail spaces (Journal of Consumer Research and the like), which gets at the psychological impact of design. I am interested in learning theory, but people are so different from each other in the way that they learn.



What advice would you have for fellow museum professionals, especially those from smaller museums, in developing their exhibitions?
Test things out. I am personally often guilty of assuming that I know what visitors will know, or what they will want. But it is tricky to guess and it is easy to miss some really great elements thinking that way.

Even if the museum doesn’t have the resources to try out whole exhibits, there is lots of value in testing out just the text elements. It is cheap and easy to do, and it can give a lot of value to the exhibition.



What do you think is the “next frontier” for museums?
I think we are right on the cusp of an Augmented Reality(AR) breakthrough for museums. The tools for building exhibits that integrate AR are starting to reach a critical mass. Soon enough developers will get their hands on them and we are going to start to see some new ways of doing displays with them.

With smartphones becoming ever more common, visitors increasingly have the tools they need right in their pockets. I only hope that museums can agree on a shared platform so that the visitors do not need to download a new app every time they walk into a new institutions.



What are some of your favorite museums or exhibitions?
I love Science North in Sudbury for how it handles its live animals and makes use of its space.  Seeing Galileo’s telescope in the travelling “Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy” exhibit really blew my mind. I love the Louvre because it is impossible not to be blown away by the sheer density of it. The City Museum is this beautiful, amazing thing that really challenges all one's preconceptions about museums.

The Mill City Museum in Minneapolis is wonderful both for how it showed the old building and how it used the old elevator as a really unique theatre.  The Johnson Geo Centre in St. John’s Newfoundland is dug into Signal Hill and the exhibits are walled in by the rock of the hill. The Utrecht University Museum has an amazing cabinet of curiosities in it. But to be honest, it is hard for me not to love something about every museum I have visited. I have yet to visit one that didn’t have some real treasures in it.



Can you talk a little about some of your current projects?
The project I’m most excited about right now isn’t for a museum at all. We are building interactive set pieces for a modern dance company. It is a really challenging experience because the needs of dancers are very different from the needs of visitors!



If money were no object, what would your “dream” exhibit project be?
I would love to do a science exhibition about a city, embedded in the city landscape. I imagine walk-up exhibits on street corners and points of interest that draw your attention to something in the vicinity and give a science-based explanation for it. From architecture to wind patterns, local flora to material properties, there are elements of a city that are easy to take for granted even if there are fascinating explanations for them.

For example, in Toronto one of the big downtown office buildings has a cantilevered portion that suspends 13 stories over the sidewalk. An exhibit there might draw an area on the ground with the statement “Standing here there are XX thousand pounds of concrete suspended above you!” Then an explanation about how the building is constructed to support the structure overhead.


Thanks again to Erika for sharing her thoughts with ExhibiTricks readers! 

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ExhibitSEED: Beyond Green Exhibits Workshop

Heads up exhibit folks!  I've posted before about working on The Green Exhibit Checklist project with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI.) 

Now there is an opportunity to participate in some amazing one-day workshops around the country centered around "green design" topics, called "ExhibitSEED: Beyond Green Exhibits Workshop."

OMSI is presenting five regional workshops this spring on sustainable exhibit development. At each one-day hands-on workshop, exhibit developers, designers, and fabricators will discuss practical skills for creating more sustainable interactive exhibits. Each workshop will focus on case studies and concrete tools that allow exhibit teams to make more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable choices throughout the exhibit development process. 

OMSI is currently registering for the first workshop which will take place on February 25, 2012, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, OR). The other workshops will be hosted by the Children's Museum of Houston, the Miami Science Museum, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and The Franklin Institute.

To register, or for more information, visit www.exhibitseed.org.

Each one-day workshop is free for selected participants. Participants may also request travel funding. ExhibitSEED and the ExhibitSEED workshops are funded by the National Science Foundation and developed by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) with input from local and national museum industry and design advisors.

What are you waiting for?  Click on over to www.exhibitseed.org to find out how you can participate in one of the workshops!



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The Museum Fiscal Cliff?

The incessant drum beat about "The Fiscal Cliff" coming out of Washington coupled with news that the Dallas Museum of Art will eliminate its admission fees (as outlined in this excellent LA Times article) got me thinking again about the economic future of museums.

Museums, maybe even more than other non-profits and cultural institutions, seem happy to play the Blanche DuBois card and "depend on the kindness of strangers."  Unfortunately for museums, relying on tax-leveraged donations or corporate/philanthropic largesse, presents some fundamental challenges to a sustainable future.  Here are two large practical issues looming on the edge of a potential museum fiscal cliff:


• Demographics: The fine folks at Reach Advisors have pointed out again and again the practical demographic issues facing museums. (See this post for instance.)  Put simply, museum visitors (paying or otherwise) tend to be older and whiter than the current population at large, and the future demographic trends for the U.S. as well.

Leaving the very real concern of visitor demographics aside, why can't museums make a go of it on pure admission numbers alone?  As the AAM has reported:

There are approximately 850 million visits each year to American museums, more than the attendance for all major league sporting events and theme parks combined (471 million).

If we really have this volume of annual visitors, why are museums constantly rattling their begging cups?

 
• Marketing Gimmicks:  Museums have become great at selling the "sizzle" (marketing hype) instead of the "steak" (their core collections and activities.)  It really has become one step above professional wrestling marketing techniques in some cases.  If some museum professionals feel they need to "trick" people into visiting their institutions, are they really in the right business?

As writer Christopher Knight aptly notes in the same LA Times article mentioned above, many museums have coupled these carny come-ons to membership incentives as well:
 

Fundamentally, it means expanding the museum's membership. The usual method for that is pretty degraded: Program the museum with lightweight entertainments to appeal to audiences with no interest in art, and then offer discounted admission to new members who otherwise wouldn't dream of dropping 10 bucks -- or $40, $60 or more if the whole family comes along -- to see a beautiful 10th century Indian sandstone carving of Vishnu or a fine 1919 Cubist still life by Picasso in the permanent collection.

Hucksterism is the common term for the usual member's discount, with art regarded as P.T. Barnum's Fiji mermaid and visitors urged to step right this way to check out the egress. The gambit mostly creates churn: An attendance surge is followed by a drop, until the next high calorie/low nutrition program juices the numbers again.

So, what's the real "value proposition"for museums?  What are the museum experiences that will draw a majority of folks from the local communities?  I'd argue that that the strongest draw that museums still have (over every other type of media) is their "stories and stuff."  The opportunity to engage with amazing physical (not virtual) objects and compelling narratives in a communal, social environment is what museums should be selling if they want to avoid their own "fiscal cliff."

I applaud directors like Maxwell Anderson who are decoupling from the old-style "entitlement program" funding model most U.S. museums work under.  It's really a return to the fundamentals of the museum value proposition --- "we have amazing stuff we'd like to share with you."

What do you think?  Is your museum facing its own fiscal cliff(s)? Should museums jettison their old-school admissions and funding models?  Leave your thoughts in the "Comments" Section below!



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ReWind: MaKey MaKey and Scratch and HCI+ISE

Recently I've been thinking about (and playing with!) materials and resources broadly related to HCI (or Human Computer Interface) matters.  So, what follows below is a "ReWind" (or "encore") version of a previous ExhibiTrick post about a cool (and relatively inexpensive) system called MaKey MaKey.

In that vein, I just wanted to make you aware of two other things that fit under the broad HCI umbrella:  The first is a cool project and conference supported by the National Science Foundation that I'm an advisor to, called HCI + ISE (Human Computer Interface + Informal Science Education.)

If the thoughtful use of technology in museums and exhibits is of interest to you, check out the HCI+ISE website, and apply to attend the conference in June 2013 in, and around, Albuquerque.

The second thing may be a bit of "old news" to some folks, but it's new to me!  Scratch is a simple programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the Web.  Scratch was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.  I've just started working with Scratch myself and working on exhibit development and prototyping projects with kids and it's really been productive and fun!  I'll be writing a more in-depth ExhibiTricks post on Scratch in the future, but in the meantime, enjoy this ReWind post about MaKey MaKey!



I was a Kickstarter backer of a neat project called MaKey MaKey.  In exchange for backing the MaKey MaKey guys (two MIT Media Lab students) I received a set of stuff like that pictured below (a MaKey MaKey board, a USB connector, and a set of alligator clips) to connect my computer to the real world with real objects (like bananas, PlayDoh, coins, or anything else that is at least a little bit conductive.)

Basically you can make a physical object act like a computer key (hence MaKey MaKey) to cause other things to happen. Watching the video at the top of this post (you can also watch it on YouTube) gives you some fun examples like an electronic piano using bananas as keys.

This is all great news for exhibit designers who don't want to become computer geeks or code monkeys.  (Even though the MaKey MaKey board is built using Arduino, an open-source way of connecting computers with the physical world.)  The idea of using physical objects as HCI (Human Computer Interfaces) isn't new, but MaKey MaKey makes it much easier and cheaper than before.  In addition,  MaKey MaKey boards are a great tool for prototyping exhibit ideas that involve electronics, computers, or other digital media.

You can find out more about any of the groups or things mentioned in this post by clicking on any of the links above, but for now I'm off to start playing with my MaKey MaKey!  (I'll show off some of my own MaKey MaKey projects in future ExhibiTricks posts, or feel free to email me if you're doing cool stuff with MaKey MaKey that you'd like to share as well!)

P.S. Even if you weren't a Kickstarter backer of MaKey Makey, you can pre-order a basic kit via their website.



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Museum Exhibit Design Resource: Exhibitionist Journal

Here's the punchline for this post: if you're in the Museum/Exhibit/Design game you should subscribe to Exhibitionist.  Period.

Exhibitionist is a Journal of Reflective Practice published by NAME (The National Association for Museum Exhibition) in the Spring and Fall of each year.  Exhibitionist features thought-provoking articles on exhibition theory and practice, exhibition critiques and commentary, book reviews, technical articles, and other essays of interest to everyone engaged in the design, development, and creation of exhibits.  At two 100 page issues a year, an Exhibitionist subscription is a real bargain compared with other museum publications.

But don't just take my word for it.  You can check out (and download if you wish) free content from past Exhibitionist issues in the continually expanding digital archive.  Editor Gretchen Jennings does a great job of gathering some of the best and brightest folks in the museum world together for each thematic issue.

You may or may not know that because of recent changes to the AAM (American Alliance of Museums) structure, Exhibitionist is now available to anyone by subscription – you no longer have to belong to NAME and AAM to subscribe.  For people out of the country or more aligned with other museum groups, this means they can subscribe to Exhibitionist without paying AAM membership fees. 

The Exhibitionist subscription rates are just $25 per year if you do belong to AAM, and just $35 per year if you are not an AAM member.  Just head over to this Web page to subscribe.

So what are you waiting for?  Subscribe now, and help support a great resource for the museum community (and help yourself become a better informed practitioner!)



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Don't Let Them Squash Your Dreams!

Ideas, especially fanciful ideas that are just starting to take shape, can be delicate things.

It's easy, at times, to get discouraged and listen to the inevitable naysayers who seem to be able to enumerate an endless list of reasons why something won't work, instead of just rolling up your sleeves and getting on with making your dreams a reality --- naysayers be damned.
  

Don't let them squash your dreams! 

Visitor Voices: Cacophony or Chorus? Thoughts on NEMA 2012

I just breezed out of beautiful Burlington, Vermont as the 2012 NEMA (New England Museum Association) wrapped up for another year.

My big takeaway centered on all the session (and hallway!) chatter involving the issues and challenges regarding the increasingly greater inclusion of visitor input into museum exhibits and programs.

Certainly fostering cultural organizations that are more responsive to, and inclusive of, the many different communities that interact with each museum is important, but I was struck by an odd little nuance during many of the conversations in Burlington.

So many NEMA folks seemed hesitant (or downright ashamed) of sorting/curating/editing the vast piles (physical and/or digital) of visitor-generated content they were gathering.  Somehow it seemed that unless many square feet of inane sticky note comments weren't allowed to remain posted at "Talk Back" boards across New England's museums, we were inherently insulting (or censoring?) visitors by sorting and organizing more meaningful comments for display.

The "signal to noise" ratio at most of these comment boards really makes me question if this technique is becoming a painfully overused cliche akin to mini grocery store exhibits inside Children's Museums.  Crafting careful "prompts" or thoughtful questions that elicit more than repetitive and banal responses from visitors can be tough.  But why bother to even waste the sticky notes if you're only going to ask such overly open-ended questions as: "Tell us about your favorite memory about (insert exhibition theme here)?"

If you do come up with good questions for visitors to answer, have you provided a comfortable environment where they can focus a bit to produce a thoughtful answer?  Or did you just slap up a board on a wall right in the middle of a bustling exhibition gallery?  Again, why waste the sticky notes if you've set up the situation to realistically produce only the most cursory, dashed-off comments?

But let's say you've come up with great questions, and really crafted an environment that encourages the careful expression of thoughts as well as an opportunity to review and ponder what others have shared.  Do you really want to present everything in an undifferentiated mass like an intellectual "town dump"?  (It's great to keep past comments accessible, but what's your mechanism for allowing visitors to easily search through older contributions?)

Two analogies that I heard in Burlington really helped me think about the role of museum staff in this process:

The first compared visitor comments and community contributions to a museum's physical collections.  Curators care for physical collection objects and keep them, but museums only put their most interesting, most significant (perhaps even most upsetting) things on display, not everything!  Shouldn't we treat visitor and community contributions in similar ways?

The second analogy compared the role of museum staff to that of a conductor with an orchestra or choir.  You keep things a bit organized, and let individual contributions shine through, but you also help prevent everything from completely going off the rails.  It's important for community members to feel that their contribution "counted" but you can do that in many different ways.

I thought the analogies neatly balanced both sides of the visitor contribution "coin." One focused on careful curation and sorting, the other allowed for the recognition a broader collective effort.  I'm glad that the opportunity to interact with colleagues from around the region during the NEMA Conference got me to think more deeply about this topic.

What do you think?  What techniques have you used to "orchestrate" thoughtful visitor and community input?  Let us know in the "Comments Section" below.


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We Interrupt This Blog ...

... for "Superstorm" Sandy!

Until all the infrastructure gets put back a bit more firmly into place on Long Island, please enjoy some previous ExhibiTricks posts.  (Check out "Links" or "Favorite Posts" on the right side column of the ExhibiTricks blog homepage, or use the Search Box and enter the term "interview.")

Also, if you're so inclined, please consider a donation to the Red Cross to help victims of Sandy.

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.

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Bet On The Charette!

Working with other people can be tricky.  Group dynamics often degenerate into a pat way of thinking about other people (Oh, there's crazy George talking about visitor numbers again ...) or other departments (Those marketing folks don't have any idea of what it takes to put an exhibit together ...)

Unfortunately, in a constantly shifting marketplace that practically demands that museums are continually innovating and evolving, falling into boring operational patterns or getting locked into interpersonal cul-de-sacs is not great for business.  It also makes working with other people a lot less fun.

So how can you break the mold of past practice (or even get past the goofy term "best practice") and shake your museum working groups up in a fun and positive way?

I'd offer one suggestion:  The Charette.

A little history first from Wikipedia: The term "charette" was thought to originate from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 19th century, the word charrette is from the French for "cart" or "chariot." It was not unusual for student architects to continue working furiously in teams at the end of the allotted term, up until a deadline, when a charrette would be wheeled among the students to pick up their work for review while they, each working furiously to apply the finishing touches, were said to be working en charrette, in the cart. Émile Zola depicted such a scene of feverish activity in L'Œuvre (serialized 1885, published 1886), his fictionalized account of his friendship with Paul Cézanne. Hence, the term metamorphosed into the current design-related usage in conjunction with working right up to a deadline.)

Bringing together a small group of folks, including some from outside your organization, to bash around ideas for a fixed chunk of time, can bring incredible results.  The best charettes are not just  random brainstorming sessions, but rather concentrated bursts of activity surrounding a fixed topic (or topics) leading toward some conclusions about a particular aspect of a project by the time you're finished.

These past few months I've been whizzing around the country, helping to organize, or be part of, exhibit charettes.  I am always heartened and gratified by the large amount of high-quality thinking that can come out of a charette process that puts people into a room without the normal work-day distractions of phone calls, emails, and memos.  The charette process really compels people to bring their "A Game" to the table and contribute their best thoughts and ideas.

We so often complain about the lack of time in the museum business, so it's great to find a process that has a goal of producing tangible, actionable results in a short time.

So pick two or three specific thorny problems your organization has been struggling with, block out a day, and bring in some outsiders to shake things up a bit.  Who knows what sorts of ideas you can fill your "chariot" with?


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Goodbye Columbus, Hello Makers!

The biggest takeaway I had from the 2012 ASTC (Association of Science-Technology Centers) conference that just wrapped up in Columbus was all the session (and hallway) chatter about making and Makers.

In some ways, I find the interest in giving museum visitors access to (relatively) open-ended situations where they can use cool tools and materials a great step forward from past years of over-designed, neon-encrusted exhibition spaces (especially in Science Centers.)

On the other hand, is the term "making" destined to become an over-used "hot" topic that starts to mean so many things to so many people that it becomes a mushy buzzword like "interactivity" or "multimedia"?

It worries me when the appellation "Maker Space" fits everything from a "rebranded" recycled crafts area (where, let's face it, the main activity is globbing together pieces of junk with gallons of glue ... sort of like a bad real-life Katamari Damacy) to a well-staffed space filled with truly generative activities for visitors to explore (like MAKESHOP in Pittsburgh or the tinkering studio at the Exploratorium.)

That tension definitely came out in conversations and session presentations where some ASTC attendees thought letting kids "mess around" with tools and materials in any way they wanted was fine (and seemed to fit their definition of "making") while others felt that unless activities were "framed" in careful ways that lots of opportunities for "authentic making" as well as learning about science were getting lost in the rush to hop on the maker bandwagon.

My own feeling is that this is all getting shaken out during an incredibly active time, with inevitable leaps forward (as well as howl-worthy missteps.)  Ultimately though, if the buzz around "making" can help organizations like museums (and schools, too) get motivated to provide space, tools, and materials for people to push the boundaries of their own skills and experiences, what's the downside? 

But I also think it is important to acknowledge that if you give some people a pile of tools and materials they immediately feel comfortable "jumping in" while other folks need a bit more guidance or examples to help them get started.  And it would be wrong to design a space that makes either end of this learning/personality spectrum feel excluded.

The Maker Movement is in the air both inside and outside of our museums.  I hope we can find ways to capture the core making experiences (like access to new tools and materials) inside exhibit areas without those fundamentals getting swept away by all the media hoopla.

What do you "make" of these topics?  Are you excited by the possibilities for "real making" or are you concerned about "fake make"?  Let us know in the "Comments" section below! 

(Also, if you attend the ASTC Conference --- since I'm just coming onto the Program Committee, I'd like to encourage you to submit session proposals on make (and non-make!) topics for the 2013 meeting in beautiful Albequerque.)



UNABASHED PLUG: In the whole "making" vein, I've just embarked on a collaboration with Brad Larson of Brad Larson Media (that's Brad and me pictured at the top of the post) and Jim Polk of Canstruct to create a series of "Pop-up Maker Space" exhibits and activities for museums. 

We're helping our museum partners help their visitors to make cool projects, share their ideas, and then continue creating and making at home.  You can find out more by checking out (and Liking!) our Pop-Up Maker Space Facebook page, or by going to the newly-started PopupMakerSpace.com Web site (where you can download a free animation activity to make at home.)




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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!)

Off to Columbus for ASTC 2012

The annual gathering of the international science center clans is coming up in Columbus, Ohio for the ASTC (Association of Science-Technology Centers) conference.

I'm happy to be attending the conference and presenting on one of my favorite topics: Prototyping!  

If you're in Columbus for the ASTC Conference, be sure to mark your calendar for Sunday the 14th starting at 2:15 p.m. in Rooms C123-125 of the Convention Center.  I'll be part of a rollicking session entitled:

Do You Want to Touch Me There?

From the conference program:   “Prototype” is a slippery term, but the “down and dirty” physical nature of both the prototyping process and products are essential.  Join an eclectic group of passionate exhibit makers for this showcase to examine hands-on prototype examples followed by a group discussion of practical ways for creating good prototyping experiences."

C'mon,  it's worth going to this just for the Session Title alone!

My session "show and tell" will focus on both the low-tech (Be an Office Supply Ninja!) and high-tech (Using physical computing interfaces like MaKey MaKey) aspects of exhibit prototyping.


I'll also be kicking off a cool new "Pop-up Maker Space" project in Columbus with Brad Larson of Brad Larson Media and Jim Polk of Canstruct.  We'll be showing off some fun new ways that your museum can tap into the Maker and DIY movements sweeping the planet.   (Sneak peak in the photo at the top of this post!) Your visitors will make cool projects, share their ideas, and continue creating at home with our Pop-up Maker Space exhibits and materials!  Come visit Booth 812 in the ASTC Exhibit Hall for more info and a free project to play with at home.


Last but not least, I'll be doing my best to post conference updates via Twitter (@museum_exhibits) and a conference wrap-up when I get back home.  So stay tuned!




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Inspirational Reads (for Museum Exhibit Designers)

There's something satisfying and wonderful about reading and gathering inspiration from an author's ideas, and then finding that your own work and thoughts has been influenced in the process.

Here are a few books that have stuck with me over the past few months, that I'd like to commend to your attention:

One such inspirational read is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  It's a great book that has nothing directly to do with museums, but, in a way, everything to do with the way that the objects, experiences, and social interactions possible in magical settings (like museums!) can not easily be recreated in other ways. Highly recommended.


The next two books capture the power that particular objects, or the ways through which particular objects are created, have over our imaginations and memories.  Each of these books also opens the windows into the very messy processes by which the neat finished products came to be  --- something I wish museums could show us more of.

The first book, Strapless by Deborah Davis, despite its deliberately provocative title, captures the fascinating story of one particular piece of art --- John Singer Sargent's "The Portrait of Madame X" (pictured at the top of this post.)  Davis delves into the complex interactions between artist, model, and societal attitudes, and how they caused a tremendous scandal, that, on its face, seems a bit ridiculous now.

I've always loved this Sargent painting, so it was fascinating to find out about the stories behind its creation.


The second book, in this process-oriented vein, is  Windows on Nature by Stephen Christopher Quinn. It is an exploration of the historic dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History --- how they were created, and how they continue to resonate with modern visitors and exhibit designers alike.   It is gratifying to learn of the deliberately low-tech artistry that continues to mesmerize museum visitors of all ages.

There are hundreds of beautiful photographs that show the specific locations that inspired particular dioramas as well as in-process shots showing the many diorama artists at work.  (It's also a little scary to see the photos of famous biologist, artist, and taxidermist Carl Akeley all bandaged up after being attacked by one wild animal or another on his various collecting expeditions!)


The last book is a science-oriented volume that captures the spirit that I'd like to find in every Science Museum or science-related exhibition.  The book is Stiff by Mary Roach. Starting with an unlikely subject for a book: human cadavers (hence the title) author Roach takes us for a spin through such topics as organ donation, funeral homes, and "The Body Farm."

Throughout her book, Roach acts as the reader's surrogate, asking the kinds of questions we might like to ask (if we had the nerve) and presenting the information on such potentially icky and morbid topics, in a highly readable, and at times hilarious, manner.  While all along the way helping the reader to understand the science buried (sorry!) within each topic.  She accomplishes this gracefully and without boring the reader, or worse, making them feel stupid --- a neat trick given the complexities of the subject matter.   Mary Roach would be an interesting person to work with on a science exhibit!  (She also has written a number of other best-selling science books on subjects ranging from sex to space travel.)


I hope these books might give you a little inspiration on your own museum/exhibit/design practice.   Feel free to share any books that might have inspired your own work in the "Comments" Section below.
 

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Quick Take: Finding The Spider

Did this ever happen to you?  You're at a zoo (or aquarium, or nature center, or museum ...) and you're trying to find a cool animal inside the tank or enclosure --- and then get frustrated because, try as you might, you can't see the darn thing that's supposed to be inside!

I saw a neat and simple (not to mention cheap!) solution to this problem recently inside the Spiders Alive! exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York.

The approach that AMNH takes (as you can see illustrated at the top of this post, and below this paragraph) is sticky notes!  Well, sticky arrows specifically.  It's easy and it's changeable (when the spiders move, docents or staff can move the arrows.) I can totally imagine printing larger (or slightly more elegant) arrows onto cling vinyl for larger enclosures at zoos or aquaria as well.

From a recent conversation with Museum staff, my understanding is that the arrows were originally placed on the spider tanks to help the folks who feed the arachnids to find the beasties more easily.

Staff at AMNH soon realized that the arrows made the exhibition experience better for visitors so they kept the arrows on the spider displays and have been using them ever since.


If you're in NYC in the near future, the Spiders Alive! exhibition is worth a special trip  (as you can see from my daughter's smiling face!)

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Worth A Special Trip: Children's Museum of Phoenix

Details and personality. Those are the two common threads that ran through my mind as I recalled my recent visit to the wonderful Children's Museum of Phoenix. You can tell that the people who work here and the people who visit here really love their museum.

So without further ado, let me take you on a little photographic tour and point out some of the details that really make this a museum "worth a special visit."  You can see many more photos of my Phoenix visit (and lots more of my own exhibit work photos!) on the Paul Orselli Workshop Flickr page.

As you might be able to tell from the photo at the top of this page, the Children's Museum is located in a historic renovated school building that once housed the Monroe School.  (Interesting bit of trivia: the artist Jackson Pollock attended this school when he was a child.)

I love museums that renovate and redefine existing buildings. Instead of starting with a "blank slate" (construction wise) everyone from architects to exhibit fabricators involved in a renovation project really has to enter into a sort of creative dialogue with the challenges and realities of the old space.  (Of course I'm biased since I've worked in museums that were once Victorian houses, fire stations, and historic aircraft hangars!)

A museum visit really starts from the time you park the car and enter the front door --- and here the museum starts off with a nice message by using solar panel structures in their parking lot:

and a BIG welcome as you approach the front door:

As soon as you swing past the large open admissions desk area you are struck by this huge, honking cool climbing structure:

 

It's funky, and like many things in the Museum it doesn't completely and immediately reveal itself to you. There are lots of questions that pop up as your eyes whiz around the structure, like "What's that flying bathtub over there?"

But of course the best way to find out is to get in there and start exploring! The Climber, like the vast majority of exhibits and activities in the Museum, really breaks down age barriers --- so kids (and adults!) of all ages really mix it up together and have fun.



Speaking of fun, which other Director of Exhibits do you know that has a real swing in her office (That's Nancy Stice showing off some of her non-traditional office "furniture."

It's clear (even down to the level of simple signs) that the Museum has a fun spirit, and doesn't take itself too seriously.  Here's a door sign on a currently unused classroom space:

and the toilet seat and faucet pipe signs that mark the restrooms:

The museum has also deliberately placed lots of comfy chairs around their spaces (instead of minimizing or eliminating seating as many museums do!)

A last nod regarding details --- check out the metal bead chain "water" running out of the faucet in this role-play area:

And last, but not least, in the Museum's "Art Studio" kids (and their adults!) can paint this cool rocket ship:

The activity is so popular, and such thick layers (artistic strata?) of paint build up over time that the museum has to "switch out" rockets and chip off the layers of paint (to be reused and recycled for making jewelry and other projects!)

All those little touches, and attention to detail, really add up at the Children's Museum of Phoenix. The sum total of those details and touches also send an important message to visitors: "we are having fun here and we want you to have fun here, too!"  And who could ask for more than that from a museum?



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Kid In The (Exhibit) Candy Store

As my daughter and I were wandering around the local drug store recently, I found some exhibit and prototyping inspiration:

Krank Pops!

Honestly who knows why some candy/toy designer wanted to create "An Action Lollipop" (with Sound Effect!) but both my daughter and I thought Krank Pops were cool and bought some.

After we got the Krank Pops home (and my kids ate up the lollipop part) we ended up with this:

a cheap and easy rotary crank mechanism to play around with for simple prototypes and exhibit ideas!   I certainly could whack something like this together myself, but there's a certain satisfaction in finding ways to repurpose familiar objects in unfamiliar ways.

One thing I often realize when I'm inside a drug store, or hardware store, or automotive parts store, or office supply store (see my previous post on becoming an Office Supply Ninja!) is that clever little ideas for prototype materials or exhibit design and development solutions often pop up in unexpected places.

So keep your eyes open for those unexpected finds  --- and don't forget to stop for the occasional Krank Pop!



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The "New" AAM?

Whatever.

7 Red Flags (or How NOT To Kill A Museum Project)

Why do some museum design projects succeed while other projects either spin their wheels for years or just crash and burn?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately since almost all of my current work involves "start from scratch" projects set up to create entirely new museums or installations rather than adapting or designing experiences for existing institutions.

One of these start-up projects in particular is operating under the long shadow of a recent design process that failed, and that left a lot of bad feelings (and canceled checks!) behind.  So now, in addition to working hard to create a successful new project, our design team is constantly beating back the ghosts of past mistakes in the minds of funders and stakeholders. 

One thing that's been helpful is to differentiate the parts of our creative process that are different from the previous "pain points" the client team and stake holders have experienced previously.  It really boils down to a few essential elements.

So here's a list of my seven "red flag" questions --- issues or attitudes that I really watch out for before I decide to join a project, or try to prevent from taking root during the twists and turns on the road to a successful project completion:

This Year's Model?
Are your design ideas based on community input with a mind toward project sustainability (economically, operationally, ecologically) or are you just chasing fads?  There was a time when every new museum seemingly had to open with an IMAX theater and/or a huge traveling exhibition space whether those business models made sense or not.

I love the Make(r) Movement but just slapping a "Make" sign on your old recycled art space because "Maker Spaces" are cool is a bit like putting old wine in new bottles, isn't it?   The true spirit of a sustainable and evolving Maker Space (for example) has to involve the work of connecting with local tools, people, and resources, not just latching onto the buzzwords.


Leggo That Ego?
Is one person's (or one group's) ego constantly driving the creative process?  There should be no shortage of strong opinions that get batted around during a project, but at the end of the day, are the final decisions that are being made project-oriented or personality driven?


Who's On Your Team?
Are the people in your project group "team players" in every dimension?  Do they respect each other? Do they truly want to engage the communities who will visit the museum?  Do they look for ways to creatively partner with other museums and organizations?  Or is everything a "we know best" situation?


What Does "World's Best" Mean?
I've written posts about this topic before.  It is great to set the bar high, but at least know what you're talking about.  What specifically would make your new museum "world class"?  If you can't meaningfully answer that question, you don't seem aspirational, you seem delusional.


Do You Really Need A Ferrari?
Do the design solutions you're developing really fit the project and the place where it's located?  I sincerely believe that every community should have great cultural institutions, but you don't build a Ferrari when a Ford will do the trick.  Find the right tools for the right tasks.


What's Under The Hood?
No prospective creative partner is perfect, but you owe it to your project to "check under the hood" a bit.  Ask your design team to describe a previous project that ran into a snag or two, and what steps they took to address and resolve the challenges.  If they can't come up with a credible answer or, worse yet, say that nothing like that has ever come up --- RUN! 

It's easy for everyone to be happy and excited at the beginning of a project when the schedule and budget seem great, but what happens when you all hit that first big pothole together?


Built To Last?
Let's finish where we started --- talking about sustainability.  Is your project built to last?  Are you creating true "internal capacity" (one of my favorite topics!) that will help your organization and your organization's employees and volunteers constantly grow and improve?  Or are you happy to throw your lot in with a bunch of "one stop shopping" hucksters who will promise to do all the hard work for you as long as you keep writing checks?  I can show you many new(er) museum that,  just a few years after they opened,  are sorry they made that choice.


Here's hoping there are many more "checkered flags" than "red flags" in your museum's future!

What do you think?  Did we miss any important "red flags"?  Let us know in the "Comments" Section below!



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Exhibit Design Inspiration: MaKey MaKey

Woohoo! I just received a cool red cardboard box filled with near infinite possibilities in the mail.

I was a Kickstarter backer of a neat project called MaKey MaKey.  In exchange for backing the MaKey MaKey guys (two MIT Media Lab students) I received a set of stuff like that pictured below (a MaKey MaKey board, a USB connector, and a set of alligator clips) to connect my computer to the real world with real objects (like bananas, PlayDoh, coins, or anything else that is at least a little bit conductive.)

Basically you can make a physical object act like a computer key (hence MaKey MaKey) to cause other things to happen. Watching the video at the top of this post (you can also watch it on YouTube) gives you some fun examples like an electronic piano using bananas as keys.

This is all great news for exhibit designers who don't want to become computer geeks or code monkeys.  (Even though the MaKey MaKey board is built using Arduino, an open-source way of connecting computers with the physical world.)  The idea of using physical objects as HCI (Human Computer Interfaces) isn't new, but MaKey MaKey makes it much easier and cheaper than before.  In addition,  MaKey MaKey boards are a great tool for prototyping exhibit ideas that involve electronics, computers, or other digital media.

You can find out more about any of the groups or things mentioned in this post by clicking on any of the links above, but for now I'm off to start playing with my MaKey MaKey!  (I'll show off some of my own MaKey MaKey projects in future ExhibiTricks posts, or feel free to email me if you're doing cool stuff with MaKey MaKey that you'd like to share as well!)

P.S. Even if you weren't a Kickstarter backer of MaKey Makey, you can pre-order a basic kit for just $39.99 via their website.


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On Beyond 400!

The ExhibiTricks blog recently passed 400 posts! 

You may have noticed the search box on the right-hand side of the blog --- in the spirit of discovering some goodies from the ExhibiTricks "back catalog" allow me to suggest a few search terms that will turn up some interesting and useful stuff.

INTERVIEWS
A good place to start searching the ExhibiTricks vaults is with the term "interviews."

Without a doubt, the interviews I've conducted over the years have been the most popular ExhibiTricks postings.  I always find new perspectives and ideas about museum/exhibit/design from such luminaries as Dan Spock, Nina Simon, and Lyn Wood (amongst many others.)

Do some searching around yourself, and please contact me if there are other folks (including yourself!) that you'd like me to interview.



RESOURCES
It feels great to share new (and classic!) resources with folks through the blog.

Try searching "resources" or "toolbox" to find links to design helpers and websites like Sugru or Think Anatomy or The Great Big Exhibit Resource List.

Over the years I've also added recurring features like The Exhibit Doctor  but I'm always open to suggestions! So if there are resources you'd like me to feature (or you would like to do a guest post about, just let me know.)


Who would have thought back in 2007 that I'd still be rolling along with ExhibiTricks?  I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my blog, and I hope to cross paths in person (as opposed to digitally) with ExhibiTricks readers at upcoming museum conferences!


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.

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What Can Museums Learn From The DIA?

Hooray for the Detroit Institute of Arts! ---  one of the bright spots in the sometimes grim reality of modern-day Detroit.  Since I was born and raised in Detroit (yes --- actually inside the city limits) I've followed the recent activities of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the first museums from my childhood with great interest.

Two particular aspects of the recent history of the DIA could well provide valuable lessons for museums of all types, stripes, and sizes:

1) Look Inside First
The Detroit Institute of Arts re-opened in 2007 after being closed for several years to reinvent and reinterpret (my words) itself.  As part of this process, the DIA building(s) and the collections were re-arranged and re-installed in ways to deliberately make the world-class collections more accessible to the widest range of the visiting public. 

New labels and graphics provide information for multiple ages and interests, while interactive opportunities (both low-tech and high-tech) directly related to the art/collections in each gallery foster understanding for different learning styles.  For example, a "virtual dining" experience set amidst a gallery of centuries old French silver, glass, and porcelain, gives what could be a "what's with all these old dishes?" experience much more context.

Perhaps more importantly, the DIA weaned itself (for the most part) away from big traveling "blockbuster" shows, and chose to exhibit, display, and reinterpret the wealth of its own collections.  The museum looked inside first, with much success.

Every museum has internal and community resources that it can use to its benefit, if each institution chooses to look "inside" first instead of reflexively always looking "outside."  To me that's the first lesson of building up "internal capacity" and part of what makes a museum shift from being merely good to truly great.

Unfortunately, reopening right before the world-wide economy crashed in 2008 really rocked the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Like many other museums, the DIA faced layoffs and budget cuts --- especially painful following the excitement of the "new" DIA opening.   The DIA was forced to face the "dirty little secret" that most museums try to avoid, which leads to lesson Number Two:


2) Where's The Money?
Even though the Detroit Institute of Arts has an endowment, the museum was still woefully underfunded (over time funding from the State of Michigan shrank from $16 million a year in the 1990s to zero in recent years.)  Despite being a world-class museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts might have been forced to close its doors. 

Instead the DIA successfully risked touching the political "third rail" (especially these days) of TAXES.  Fortunately, a tax millage was successfully passed in the three counties containing, or nearest to, Detroit.  In exchange for homeowners ponying up approximately twenty dollars per household per year for the next 10 years, the DIA will get around $23 million per year and provide free admission to anyone who lives in any of the three counties in question.

Several cities in the U.S. (St. Louis for example) provide ongoing governmental support to ensure the financial health of their cultural institutions.  Because that's the "dirty little secret" of museums --- most institutions, despite their optimistic projections, simply cannot sustain themselves over the long haul without the continuous, ongoing support of some private or governmental benefactors (or both!)

So what about the arguments of citizens around Detroit who opposed the tax millage?  Namely, if your museum can't be "run like a business" you shouldn't be in business in the first place?  (A view often shared by some museum trustees around the U.S.)  Should any government and/or society provide funding to sustain its cultural institutions in some way?   Even if I didn't work in museums, I'm sure my answer would be "yes." 

But what do you think? Should museums be more forthright with the public about the limitations and inherent differences of running a cultural institution "like a business"?  How might being more honest about the "dirty little secret" of museum budgets and budgeting change public funding streams?  

Let us know your thoughts in the "Comments" Section below.



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