Exhibition Design: Why Your Project Costs Too Much

I've just gotten the details on another RFP that I've been short-listed on. Whoopee!

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm has waned now that the actual exhibition scopes and budgets have been released.

I'm all for inexpensive exhibits and production budgets that are frugal, yet allow for creativity. (There's a reason I edited The Cheapbooks for ASTC!)

That being said, it is clear from following the time and money trails backward, that a large part of the client's funding that could have gone into "hard goods" (that is to say ACTUAL EXHIBITS) instead were frittered away on fancy master plans and consultants.

Let me pause the blog to state "THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!"

Clearly, every exhibition project needs money and often fundraisers and consultants to help raise that money. But you have to wonder when the majority of a project's funds go into overhead, consultants, fancy fundraising packets, etc. rather than the exhibits and programs for visitors.

If you want great exhibits, spend your time and money on the exhibits!

William Gibson: EBay as Guest Curator?

William Gibson, the godfather of cyberspace has a cool interview in the Washington Post.

In it, Mr. Gibson contends that there is a great opportunity for people to become connoisseurs due to the inadvertent curatorial power of eBay: "Every hair is being numbered -- eBay has every grain of sand. EBay is serving this very, very powerful function which nobody ever intended for it. EBay in the hands of humanity is sorting every last Dick Tracy wrist radio cereal premium sticker that ever existed. It's like some sort of vast unconscious curatorial movement."

Maybe eBay is another way to deploy the power of "Web 2.0" into museums?

In any event, an interesting interview.

Instructables.Com = Exhibit Inspiration

If you don't already know about "Instructables.com" check it out!

This site gives step-by-step instructions for all sorts of cool and wacky projects ranging from a Giant Match(!) to simple mechanical devices and technology hacks.

If you ever get stuck for exhibit inspiration or programmatic ideas this site is a great resource.

Have fun ... and be careful!

Road Posting: Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum

A quick posting from the road, as my family and I vacation in Michigan.

We had fun visiting the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, a great museum that started out in a historic 1882 Fire House and has continued to expand to take up most of the block and adjoining buildings in the past 25 years. Well worth a visit!

Two Music Tools From Apple

Here are two music-related tools available from Apple that should be of interest to exhibit developers. I could imagine either program being fun to noodle around with in a Music Gallery or a Multi-Media Lab.

The first tool, Logic, is actually a tool that's been around since the Atari days and has recently been acquired by Apple. Some people have described Logic (or its current incarnation, Logic Pro) as "Photoshop for music." I suppose that's because there is a strong visual underpinning to how Logic works. In any event, it seems like a great tool to let museum visitors play around with.

The other music tool (coincidentally with a strong visual component as well) is the new part of Apple's GarageBand program called "Magic GarageBand." Magic Garage Band lets you move visual representations of musical instruments on or off a "stage" to build up (and then record and/or transcribe) musical compositions. It's just been released, so I've only just started fooling around with Magic GarageBand, but it seems to hold great potential.

Trackstick: A New Visitor Studies Tool For Museum Evaluators?

The website called Trackstick.com has listed an interesting GPS-enabled app called "Trackstick."

Basically, it's a clip-on battery-powered device about the size of a pack of gum that tracks and records movements (tech specs say it has a 2.5-meter accuracy.)

The really slick thing though, is that the Trackstick coordinates with Google Earth (and similar online mapping programs) to create a visual record of the path(s) that anyone wearing a particular Trackstick traveled!

This seems like a great tool for evaluators and exhibit developers to get a handle on where visitors travel in zoos, botanical gardens, and large outdoor historical sites as well as around museum sites.

Has anyone out there tried one of these? I'll present my own impressions in a future posting.