Exhibit Designer's Toolkit: Creating The Sounds of "Gore and Squidge"

Now that many museums are creating multimedia projects in-house, being able to make your own sound effects can really help stretch tight budgets.  (Plus sound effects demos and workshops make great Halloween season activities as well!)

The Guide To Sound Effects is a simple how-to primer for creating all sorts of sound effects. Arranged alphabetically and containing everything from "flying bats" to "gore and squidge" the guide gives some simple hands-on techniques for creating interesting sounds for your projects.

But where do you go if you need a specific digital sound file of an umbrella opening, or an elephant's roar?  A great resource for your digital sonic searches is the FindSounds website. It's sort of like Google for people in search of particular digital sound files.

Simply enter a search term, like "umbrella" and FindSounds does the rest. You can additionally set parameters for particular file types, file size and sample rate as well.

Do you have a favorite web-based exhibits or multimedia tool that you couldn't live without?  Let us know your favorites in the "Comments" section below!

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Designer's Toolkit: IdeaPaint

Who hasn't had the occasional urge to write a great idea or comment on the walls of your house or a museum?

IdeaPaint can turn virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface.

As you can see on the IdeaPaint website there are a variety of colors available to create dry-erase areas,  as well as two paint formulations: an "industrial" solvent-based version called PRO that is backed by a 10-year warranty, and a "consumer" version called CRE-8 that comes as a water-based material.

IdeaPaint seems like a great way to loosen up meeting spaces and kids' rooms.  I'm just waiting for a museum to paint their entire building (inside and out!) with the stuff to collect visitor feedback on everything from the doorknobs to the exhibits inside!

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So Why Doesn't Your Museum Just Give Away Free Ice Cream?

Would better public funding mean better museums?

I know this may not be the best time, economically or otherwise, to bring up the topic of "public funding" , but I've been thinking about this a lot recently since the notion keeps popping up in projects and meetings I've been involved with.

The biggest operational trick for most non-profits, including museums, is a steady, reliable funding stream.  Without having a clear sense of your resources, realistic budgeting and planning becomes nearly impossible.

So how have museums reacted to these budget uncertainties?  Unfortunately, in many cases, by the institutional equivalent of buying lottery tickets.

All sorts of dodgy "get rich quick schemes" seem to have forced many museums into, to be charitable, exhibits, programs, and events that are "off mission."  For example, I'd love to know what showing the latest cheeseball Transformers movie on your IMAX screen has to do with history or science.  Or how turning the latest kids TV show character into a traveling exhibition practically devoid of content is best serving the needs of our visitors.

I can hear the arguments already --- "but if we bring people in with some pop culture exhibit or program, they'll stay to see the rest of the museum."  By that line of thinking you could also give away free ice cream to get people in the door, but is that really what museums should be doing?  (Also the "but they'll also look at the rest of the museum" rationalization was played out 25 years ago when planetariums started doing Pink Floyd laser shows on Friday and Saturday nights for the stoners...)

So let's do a little blue sky thinking --- if numbers (either visitation numbers or dollars) weren't the primary motivation for museum decisions, how would the look and feel of your exhibits and educational programming change?  More importantly, how would your institutional priorities change?
Share your thoughts and ideas in the "Comments Section" below!


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Could Frank Oppenheimer Get Hired To Run A Museum Today?

One tiny, but striking, section of K.C. Cole's biography of Frank Oppenheimer (the founder of The Exploratorium) entitled something incredibly wonderful happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up  is the section that quotes F. Van Kasper, the former chairman of The Exploratorium's board: 

Frank couldn't get hired to run the Exploratorium today, Van told me.  "Frank couldn't get hired to run any museum today."  And because the job of director was now seen mainly as a matter of fundraising, "he wouldn't want to be hired either."

If that doesn't sum up the current state of science centers (and perhaps all modern museums, at least in the U.S. with its execrable governmental funding structure toward cultural institutions) I don't know what does.

Part of the reason the quote about Frank Oppenheimer struck me so much is that I've been thinking about a panel I'll be part of at the upcoming ASTC Conference called "Are Science Centers Missing The Science?"   One of the thoughts I keep circling back to as I prepare my talk is the willingness of many museum directors to bring any "dog and pony show" to their institution, no matter how tangentially related to their mission, in the hopes of raising funds.

The museum field needs more passionate (and even eccentric) leaders like Frank Oppenheimer.  But the museum field also needs more funding, widely distributed to all types and sizes of museums, to allow more diverse leadership styles (and by extension, more diverse museum offerings) the space to flourish.

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The Missing MacArthur Fellow

The MacArthur Foundation just announced the class of 2009 for the "genius grants." And while I sincerely congratulate this year's winners, for the past several years I keep finding a glaring omission from the list of awardees.

That would be the artist and creator of kinetic sculptures, Arthur Ganson.

If anyone has "shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction" to quote the grant standards, it is Arthur Ganson.  To further quote from the MacArthur website: "There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work."  Again an apt description of Arthur and his work.

Rather than speak in greater detail for Arthur or his work,  I'll just direct you to his excellent website, and the wonderful video from the TED Conference embedded above.

Creative work is often un(der)appreciated work, and while many wonderful artists, craftspeople, and facile thinkers will never receive the recognition they deserve, I hope that Arthur Ganson soon becomes part of the cadre of MacArthur award winners.

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"Smaller Is Better" Project Roundup

Here's a roundup of several "Smaller Is Better" (SIB) projects that were submitted after our recent post on the subject:

• Darla Abigt from the Western Center for Archaelogy & Paleontology sent info about a "SIB" exhibit called “Art meets Science.” It was inspired by the KEVA planks that are used in the Western Center's education programs.

It's an interactive exhibit that allows visitors to employ their imaginations and creativity by building with a simple wooden block.  In addition, themed competitions and events have inspired the community to work together and create truly unique and beautiful designs in the exhibit gallery --- all while learning the rules of gravity, balance and engineering. Take a look at their Photobucket Album or the photo above for examples of visitor creations.
 

• For another "Smaller Is Better" project, Alex Hayes wrote about how the "family business" (including his father David Hayes and uncle John Hayes) worked with the city of White Plains and local developers to install 62 Large sculptures around town. You can see an example below, or check out David Hayes' website to see more examples of the White Plains project, and other installations done throughout the country with smaller cultural institutions.

• Lastly, Michael Nugent wrote about his work with the Acadiana Center for the Arts (AcA.)

Here's what Michael had to say:

"I am an artist from Lafayette, Louisiana and have been working on contract for a local museum, the Acadiana Center for the Arts (AcA), as an Exhibition Preparator. It's a great and inspiring place to visit as well as work (although I am a bit partial). The AcA has had some impressive exhibitions, even somewhat controversial and progressive for the South. A performing arts theater is currently being added which will double the square footage of the facilities - in all about 50,000 sq. ft.

Artist Heidi Cody came through the main gallery with her collection entitled "Suggested Retail Value," and transformed the space into a wonderland of abstracted modern advertising. It was the most challenging installation we've seen at the AcA.

Probably the most famous artist from Louisiana, George Rodrigue, showed a retrospective of his work at the AcA. It was overwhelming to be surrounded by the $30 million worth of artwork - installing it was quite an experience as well.

A recent exhibit, the Southern Open, displayed work by artists from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Around 400 artists submitted nearly 1000 works of art this year. 59 artists and 72 pieces of art were selected. Eleanor Heartney was the juror for the exhibition.

The previous Head Curator, Rose Courville, was responsible for these and many other great exhibits. She recently moved to Maryland with her husband, and I will miss working with her."





Great work all around!  If you would like to share information about an exhibition doing more with less, please contact me so I can let ExhibiTricks readers know about your projects as well.




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