Have You Met Chloe?

By now, you may have stumbled across "Chloe VS History" in your social media feed or on YouTube.

If not, go take a look. I'll wait.

Chloe is an AI-generated avatar who "travels" through history, hanging out in pre-revolutionary Paris, dodging the eruption of Pompeii, and sneaking into the first-class section on the Titanic. She's got the vibe of a travel influencer: casual, enthusiastic, and a little amazed by everything. 

The YouTube channel has racked up hundreds of thousands of subscribers and millions of views, and the videos are genuinely watchable.

The person behind Chloe is Jonathan Laramie, who also runs Majestic Studios, a history channel that hit 14 million views in 90 days using AI to bring historical scenes to life. In a recent interview, Laramie, who has no background in filmmaking, talks candidly about what separates his work from the tsunami of AI garbage: trust and accuracy in sources, genuine creative investment, and a consistent storytelling voice. 

Now, before you roll your eyes and mutter something about "AI slop," I think there's something genuinely worth paying attention to here, particularly for those of us who work in history museums.

The secret sauce isn't really the AI visuals (though they're impressive). It's the perspective. Chloe works because she positions herself as a curious visitor to history, not a lecturer about it. She's learning alongside you. She reacts. She wanders. She asks the dumb-but-honest questions non-historians would ask if they felt comfortable doing so.

Sound familiar? It should. That's good interpretive design. (It's also worth noting that Laramie comes from the customer service space.)

So here's the question worth asking: what would it look like if YOUR museum used AI-generated media—not to replace human storytelling, but to model the kind of curious, visitor-centered engagement you want to spark?  A short "first visit to a Colonial kitchen" clip to play at a program intro, or an AI character who "experiences" your exhibit for the first time and invites visitors to do the same?

The AI technology is accessible. The approach is already working at scale since the Chloe Channel was built by just one guy with no film training and a lot of curiosity. 

The only thing missing is history institutions willing to experiment thoughtfully with accurate content, genuine curiosity, and real visitors in mind.

Chloe currently doesn't have all those advantages, but history museums do!

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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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Creative Inspiration: The Physics Videos of Julius Sumner Miller

"I'm Julius Sumner Miller, and physics is my business!"

So starts every short video in this wonderful series (now on YouTube) that strives to show and explain different aspects of physics.  

"Demonstrations in Physics" was an educational science series produced in Australia by ABC Television in 1969. The series was hosted by American scientist Julius Sumner Miller, who demonstrated experiments involving a wide range of physics topics.  

Despite the deliberately "old school" approach, and the rudimentary production techniques, the videos are tremendously engaging -- and yes, educational!

Professor Miller is a perfect teacher -- filled with enthusiasm, and with an array of clever homespun gizmos designed to illustrate the points of physics he discusses.

You can see an example of Professor Miller at work in the embedded video below, or by clicking over to YouTube.  Highly recommended!

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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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Celebrating Creativity During A Pandemic

Sometimes it is hard to turn away from the "pit of despair" that seems to characterize life during the July 2020 pandemic reality in the United States.

But wait!  It is not all doom-and-gloom!  Artist Federico Tobon, of wolfCat Workshop, has used paper clips, cardboard, scraps of wood, and tape to create wonderful and whimsical little mechanical sculptures, some of which are featured in this post.

Tobon also created a video collection of some creations entitled "29 automata in 6 minutes" which you can see on YouTube or embedded below.

You probably have all the materials you need at home right now to put together your own pandemic plaything -- why not give it a whirl?

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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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Let's turn "Work From Home" time into new Museum FAQ Videos!

Now that COVID-19 has turned almost every museum worker into a telecommuter, I have an idea for something that could build a resource for colleagues around the world.

Let's use our "work from home" time into creating a set of Museum FAQ videos to share with each other.

A little background -- last year I started a short-video series called Museum FAQ to provide answers to frequently asked questions I often received from clients, peers, and Emerging Museum Professionals (EMPs).

Here's an example Museum FAQ video you can view on YouTube.

Now that so many of us are working from home wouldn't it be great to create a "reference library" of free videos on museum/exhibit/design questions like, "What makes a great museum label?" or "How can I shift static content into interactive exhibit activities?" or "What's a simple unguided Maker Space activity?"  You get the idea.

I'm happy to set up times to plan and record simple Zoom conversations between myself and museum colleagues to create new Museum FAQ videos to share freely on YouTube.

If that sounds like something you'd like to be part of, please email me at info@orselli.net so we can get started!



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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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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"

Add Numberphile to Your Creative Toolbox!

I've recently fallen down the rabbit hole of Numberphile, a great math-oriented website and related YouTube channel filled with all sorts of clever ideas that should be of interest to educators and exhibit designers alike.

One of the things I like best about the Numberphile videos is that each mathematician is so enthusiastic, you can't help but get excited and interested in things like "circle inversions" that you might not have even given a passing thought to before.

While I've honestly enjoyed every Numberphile presenter I've seen, some are particular standouts.

Tadashi Tokieda often relates his math talks to toys or familiar materials.  Here's a video (embedded below or on YouTube) that shows all the fun topological ways to play with a strip of paper, some paper clips, and rubber bands.

Hannah Fry is a funny presenter who often ties the mathematics of game theory to real life situations like winning Rock, Paper, Scissors (video below or on YouTube) or Secret Santa, or making the best online dating profile.

If you are a bit "math shy" or even an avowed mathphobe, click on over to Numberphile!  I'm sure you will find something to pique your interest there.



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Exhibit Designer Toolbox: Online Tone Generator and AAPT Films

What do websites geared toward Physics Teachers have to do with developing or designing exhibits?

Well, on the surface, nothing!  But I recently bumped into two different physics-oriented websites that I think are worth bookmarking for any museum exhibit designer.

The first site is called Online Tone Generator.  It is a multi-faceted site filled with a variety of audio tools available for testing and/or download.   Some of my favorite apps on the OTG site include the "Hearing Test" which lets you generate different frequency tones to determine the range of your hearing.  (As we age, we tend to lose our ability to hear high frequency sounds.)  Simple and clean, I could easily see adapting "Hearing Test" for exhibit or program demo purposes.

The "Pitch Shifter" tool allows you to change the pitch of audio files (mp3 or wav format), without affecting the tempo. You can also save the pitch shifted files you create.  Again, this tool would be great for creating audio files for an exhibit or program.  So click on over to the Online Tone Generator site to explore the dozen or so FREE audio tools available there.

The other online tool is Physics Teacher James Lincoln's YouTube channel hosting a set of short videos called AAPT Films.   The films break down into sections, with one set called "TRY THIS EXPERIMENT NOW" which are short, punchy videos that let you perform quick (and unusual!) science demonstrations or experiments.

Two of my favorites are the "Eye Poke" video, which let's you recreate one of Sir Isaac Newton's classic experiments involving optics and the human eye.  Another fun one is the "Hear Your Muscles" video (embedded below) which demonstrates a simple techniques that anyone can use to "hear" your own muscles moving or flexing.  Cool stuff!




There are also more standard Physics classroom demonstrations featured on Lincoln's YouTube channel, but for anyone working to develop simple programs or exhibits on the Human Body, Lincoln's YouTube channel is a real gold mine of information and inspiration!


Speaking of information and inspiration, are there some particularly useful or interesting websites or online resources that you keep in your own Designer's Toolbox?   Please share in the "Comments Section" below!



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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!)