Are Screens Killing Museums?

Having just returned from SEGD's Sixth Annual Symposium on New Directions in Exhibition and Environment Design held at Cranbrook outside of Detroit, I was very much reminded of Nina Simon's recent post about small "camp-like" meetings instead of conferences.

The SEGD Symposium really was like a design camp with a small group of participants in Cranbrook's idyllic setting learning from each other.

I was fortunate to give a talk during the symposium about "Right Tech." Building upon the notion that museums' strengths lie with the "Triple S" of Stories, Stuff, and Social Engagement, part of my Cranbrook presentation focused on the contention that "screens" are destroying truly interactive experiences in museums. Since my thoughts seemed to elicit about 50% heads nodding in agreement, and 50% gritted teeth in the audience, I'd thought I'd share my "screed against screens" condensed into a top ten list with ExhibiTricks readers:

A SCREED AGAINST SCREENS


10) Screens are not "green".
I don't care how you slice it up, screens are not a sustainable design technology.

9) IMAX.
The biggest gateway to "cheesiness" in the museum business.

8) The "death trap" introductory theatre.
Didn't forcing people to sit through a boring movie before they get to the "fun stuff" die out with the 1964 World's Fair?

7) BIG Touch Screens/Touch Tables.
Somehow the technology that looked so cool in the Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report" has landed inside museums. Proof that bigger is not always better.

6) Individual Experiences Instead of Truly Social Experiences.
Screens hypnotize, not socialize.

5) Screens in museums emulate TV or movie experiences.
But poorly.

4) Screens in museums emulate videogame experiences.
But poorly.

3) Screens become the "easy answer."
Since visitors will stare at a screen, even if nothing is on it, screen-based technologies often become our default design choice.

2) Screens often become "electronic labels" or encyclopedias.
Screens often become a dumping ground for huge volumes of text that we would never dare stick onto a printed label.

1) Screens don't age well.
Screen-based technologies and techniques become dated very quickly, but unfortunately don't seem to get replaced as quickly.

What do you think? Are screens destroying museums or are they the last hope for engaging visitors? Feel free to hurl your bouquets or brickbats to us via the "Comments" area below.

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Exhibit Design Toolbox: JC Whitney

Since I'm speaking at the SEGD Exhibition and Environments Symposium in Detroit (my hometown and STILL the Motor City!) this week, I thought I'd highlight a great auto-related resource that's often overlooked by exhibit designers, namely the JC Whitney catalog.

JC Whitney is a great resource for odd little bearings or mirrors, as well as low voltage lights and accessories.  And, since all the items were designed for automotive use, they hold up well to the pounding museum visitors can often give exhibits.  JC Whitney's website can also be a good place to find speciality tools or paints that can be adapted to exhibit design.

So spend some cash to upgrade your exhibit "clunkers" by investigating the JC Whitney site. 

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The LEGO® Millyard Project

Last week I wrote a post about "Smaller IS Better" and asked for suggestions of museums doing innovative things in remote or smaller outposts, that normally don't get recognized. I'm happy to say I got a tremendous response, and I will be sharing news of some of those interesting projects and people in future blog postings.

For now, I'd like to share with you some details about the LEGO® Millyard Project that's on display at the SEE Science Center in Manchester, New Hampshire. Douglas Heuser and Adele Maurier were kind enough to share the photos above and below, as well as this description of the project:

"Our LEGO Millyard project is a great example of what can be accomplished using volunteers and corporate partners. The project depicts the Amoskeag Millyard circa 1900, built with more than 3 million LEGO bricks and complete with running water and trains with mini-cams. We have created school programs around the project highlighting the science and technology of the mills. It has also changed the demographics of our visitors: older visitors are now coming to SEE, unaccompanied by children, just to check out the LEGO Millyard. "



More than 3 million LEGO bricks! I'd say that makes the SEE Science Center a "museum worth a special trip"! Let us know about some of your favorite "Smaller IS Better" museum projects in the Comments Section below or by dropping us an email.

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Smaller IS Better

So here's my two-part solution to solve the ever continuing museum money/funding crisis:

1) Stop building gigantic new museums.

2) Fund small "risky" projects instead of "safe" big projects.

Most big museums were unsustainable before the current "financial crisis" and even more so now. Not to mention that many gigundo museums are filled with pockets of mediocrity or plain lousiness that gets ignored or excused or even overlooked because there are other flashier, newer segments of the rest of their elephantine museum building complex.

So why do people keep building giant museums? Sheer ego and "edifice complex" as far as I can tell. It's a lot sexier to say you're building the "world's biggest and best museum" than to actually set up the infrastructure to ensure a continually growing and evolving institution that makes best use of both staff and community resources.

If you really want to see Museum 2.0/3.0/whatever happen, then museum workers and museum organizations should advocate for more, but smaller, museums spread throughout communities like public libraries --- heck why not have every museum (that's not already doing so) partner with a local library or community center to work on exhibits and programs together?

Now, funding.

Here's a modest proposal for NSF, IMLS, NEH and the rest of the governmental alphabet soup of funding agencies: alternate every year between funding "big" projects and "little" projects.

This would have the benefit of breaking the cycle of perpetually funding "The Usual Suspects" of the same batch of museums/designers/evaluators who get funded every grant cycle.
Which would be fine, if the "The Usual Suspects" were turning out wonderful field-changing exhibitions. But mostly the funding process has turned into a gravy train for folks doing the same sort of mediocre exhibitions over and over again.

Why couldn't NSF, for example, deliberately fund 15-20 large exhibition projects one cycle, then 50-60 small exhibition projects the next?

I think part of this big vs. small dichotomy is also an issue of exposure. There are many amazing, innovative museums and museum workers doing their thing in remote or smaller outposts, so they don't get recognized in the traditional incestuous museum conference/funding world.

So, I'm going to do my part to help change that exposure thing, and I need your help. Do you know of some cool projects happening at smaller "non-famous" museums, or do you know an up-and-coming whiz kid who hasn't been able to find a real full-time with benefits job in the museum business yet?

Send me an email at info@orselli.net so I can start giving these small places and some NOT the usual suspects some publicity and the attention they deserve.


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Exhibit Designer Toolkit: LIT LEDs

LED technology continues to advance, and designers can take advantage of the high-impact of LEDs to add some punch to exhibit components and/or environments.

LIT is a company that offers some nice compact LED lighting elements, as well as some nifty interactive demos on their website that give you a sense of the possibilities that LED lighting offers.

Of course, LEDs have the double advantage of a long life span and low energy usage compared to many other light sources, making them a "greener" design choice as well.

So check out the LIT website and consider how you might be able to use LEDs in your next exhibit project.

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For Sale: INFINITY

Yes, the title of this posting is for real --- I'm offering infinity for sale.

Well, OK, it's actually a portable Infinity Room exhibit. This one of a kind piece was developed with the M.I.T Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and has been experienced by over 100,000 people (note the "undoctored"photograph of the person inside the Infinity Room above.)

The entire walls, floors and ceilings of the interior space are covered by high quality mirrors, behind which is a system of lighting units and over two miles of high quality, solid core fiber optics!
The entire all-steel mobile structure is mounted on two axles, each with dual wheels (8 tires total) on a leaf suspension. The current owners would like to sell the Infinity Room to a museum, planetarium, astronomical organization or the like.

If you are interested, or know someone who might be, please direct all inquiries to: info@orselli.net

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog.

P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like movies!)