Our Real Work

I keep this poem on my phone because it helps me reflect on my museum/exhibit/design work.

“Our Real Work” by Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

What helps you reflect on your own work?  Let us know in the "Comments" section below.

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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!

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Halls or Malls?

What kind of exhibition spaces (and, by extension, museum experiences) do you want to create for your visitors -- Halls or Malls?

HALLS

Many large museums (like the Louvre or the American Museum of Natural History) can feel like an endless procession of hallways. You sense that the gallery themes and spaces are changing around you as you walk along, but the experience feels a bit like one long, continuous march.  It can also be difficult for first-time visitors to gauge the length of their visit and how to break their time into manageable chunks. You will often pass weary-looking tourists who seem determined to walk through every square foot of gallery space because "who knows when they will come back to this museum again?"

MALLS

Other museums, even though they might be quite large -- like the Indianapolis Children's Museum, for example -- break up their exhibition spaces into discrete areas akin to the way malls are divided into different shops. It becomes easier for visitors to orient themselves and "dip into" a gallery and decide how much time to spend there before moving to the next space. These differentiated spaces also build up a physical and conceptual rhythm as part of the museum experience.

So maybe instead of overwhelming our visitors with exhibition halls, we might be better served just trying to "whelm" them with exhibit malls.

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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, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

ChatGPT and the Creative Process?

I'm on the road this week, so just a quick nod to this post on Nick Cave's "The Red Hand Files" about ChatGPT and the effort essential to creative work:

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chatgpt-making-things-faster-and-easier/

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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, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

"Old School" Exhibit Inspiration

A friend recently shared this super cool article about the development of the "Zenith Space Command" television remote control (pictured at the top of this post.)

Unlike modern remote control units that use infrared light, the Space Command did not even need batteries to function! 

Instead, when you clicked a button on this "old school" remote, a little hammer struck a tuned aluminum rod that created a slight audible click, but that also sent out an ultrasound tone to the receiver unit inside the television that controlled functions like volume and changing channels!

(You can see the operation of a typical Zenith Space Command remote by watching this YouTube video.  Below is an image from that same video giving an end-on view of the metal rods inside the remote's case.)

Since we so often default to digital or electronic solutions to exhibit design challenges, the Space Command is a reminder that often ingenious mechanical or analog exhibit design solutions await.

Here's to "Old School" Exhibit Inspiration!

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, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"