Off to Bulgaria!

Muzeiko Building Exterior

Through an award from the U.S. State Department's Fulbright Specialist Program, I'll soon be off to Bulgaria to work with wonderful colleagues at Muzeiko, the amazing children's science museum located in the capital of Sofia.

My work in Bulgaria will focus on increasing internal capacity at Muzeiko, especially as it relates to exhibit design and development.

If you'd like to keep track of my trip and what I learn in Bulgaria, check out my Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram pages!

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, please help support ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Re:Frame -- The Smithsonian's Smart New Video Series About Art (and More!)

Re:Frame is a smart new video series from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (or SAAM for short)  that helps viewers find the interconnections between art and other disciplines.

From their YouTube channel description:

Re:Frame is a video series that brings together art historians and researchers from across the Smithsonian–think zoologists, geologists, musicologists, and astronomers–to explore art’s many meanings. Join host Melissa as she crisscrosses the Smithsonian making connections, exploring diverse perspectives, and proving that American art is for everyone.

One of my favorite episodes of Re:Frame is the one that explores the physical properties of graphite (with a Smithsonian geologist!) in relation to the work "Nocturnal (Horizon Line)" by Teresita Fernandez and how she employed those same physical properties in her artwork.

(Watch the entire Graphite! video on YouTube or embedded below.)





Re:Frame does what every great method of museum interpretation does, namely, helps the visitor better appreciate and understand a museum object or experience.

I'd highly recommend clicking over to the Re:Frame YouTube channel to experience all the short, insightful, and well-produced videos in the series.

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, please help support ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Museum/Exhibit/Design Inspiration: Music Animation Machine

Composer, musician, and software engineer Stephen Malinowski invented a cool way of visualizing music called the "Music Animation Machine."

Basically, Malinowski creates visualizations of music using a system of colored shapes, taking information from a MIDI file.  You can see a still frame of one of his Music Animation Machine videos above, representing a section of Bach's Double Violin Concerto in D Minor.

What I like most about the Music Animation Machine presentations is that they help viewers/listeners appreciate what may be very familiar pieces of classical music in very new and different ways.

For me, a non-musician, listening and viewing really helps me appreciate the structure of a composition and the interplay of different instruments even more forcefully than simply listening alone.

Malinowski's work certainly makes me think of the possibilities for museum exhibitions, but also helps me consider how to engage multiple senses of visitors in my work.

Click over to YouTube to experience a whole series of Music Animation Machine videos. (I've also embedded a nice example 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 "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, please help support ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"