Caps, Gowns, and Grand Openings

It's graduation season. Everywhere you look: folding chairs in gymnasium-sized rooms, proud families squinting at tiny figures crossing a stage, and someone in charge at a podium declaring that this is only the beginning.

Sound familiar?

Think about the last exhibition opening you attended. The speeches. The ribbon cutting. The board members beaming in the front row. The champagne (or, let's be honest, the warm Chardonnay in plastic cups).

Both events share the same fundamental illusion: that the hard work is "done."

It isn't, of course. The grad still has to get a job, pay rent, and figure out what they actually "do" with that degree. And your shiny new exhibition? Visitors are going to touch things they shouldn't, break things they definitely shouldn't, and completely ignore the interpretive panel you agonized over for three months.

Here's the real parallel: graduation and an exhibition opening are both "beginnings," not endings. The diploma is just a ticket to the next set of challenges. The opening night ribbon is just the starting gun.

The best museums know this. They treat "Day Two" -- when the real visitors (not the donors) show up as more important than opening night. They watch, they listen, they fix things. They iterate.

So by all means, enjoy your opening. Pop that (warm) Chardonnay. Take the group photo.

And then get back to work.

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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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Every Train, A Note

Let me bring to your attention the website called Train Jazz.

Here's the premise: designer Joshua Wolk assigned a jazz instrument to every active NYC subway line, then mapped them against the MTA's open real-time transit data. Every note you hear is triggered by where an actual train is along its route. Bass, piano, sax, vibes, brushes all playing together as a kind of jazz combo. 

Eight hundred trains, give or take, forming a small jazz combo that has been "playing" without pause for over a hundred years. 

This is a perfect example of taking something people walk right past every day (a subway map, a stream of transit data) and making it audible in a way that suddenly reveals all the hidden rhythm underneath.

Museum folks, take note. What's the "Train Jazz" version of your collection? What data stream, what pattern of visitor movement, what overlooked system in your building is just waiting to be turned into something a visitor could hear or feel or interact with in a completely new way?

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"