Are Museums Creating Enough Risks For Visitors?

Since I'm part of a session called "Are Science Centers Missing The Science?" at the upcoming ASTC Conference in Fort Worth, I've been pondering the roles that "danger" and "risk" play in science education and science museums.

As you can see from the video at the top of this posting, starring my pal Ian Simmons from the UK, even a discussion of the calories in food can become interesting if an element of danger (like pure oxygen and metal-cutting flames!) is introduced.

There seems to be a wonderfully subversive undercurrent of "controlled danger" in the work of William Gurstelle (through his books like Backyard Ballistics) and groups like the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.  (Of course the fine folks at United Nuclear can provide supplies for your tinkering ...)

In addition, folks like Gever Tulley (and his Tinkering School) and Lenore Skenazy (of the Free-Range Kids blog)  argue that what kids (and adults!) need to learn is MORE risk and independence, not less.

In these troubled times, when many museums seem to be "hunkering down" and waiting for the economy to improve, should we also be thinking of ways to take more risks in the programs and exhibits we develop, not less?

Before you argue that building places for open-ended, messy activities and physical risks aren't possible with a phalanx of lawyers or nervous board members around every corner, I hope you'll visit the websites of The City Museum or PATH (PlayAssociation Tower Hamlets) to get a little "risky" inspiration!

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Exhibit Design Inspiration: Hand from Above

Now here's a screen-based project to love! Artist Chris O'Shea inserted some clever computerized wizardry into very large public video screens (called, aptly enough, Big Screens) sponsored by the BBC and placed around various cities in the UK.

In O'Shea's piece, a giant cartoony hand (looking like something out of Monty Python) tickles, flicks, squashes, or removes images of pedestrians on the screen. As you can see from the embedded video at the top of this posting, rather than merely gawking at the jumbo TV, the people in the square are laughing, talking with each other (and even playfully shaking their booties!) as they interact with Hand from Above.

You can find out more about Chris O'Shea and his work by visiting his website.

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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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