ExhibiTricks

Exhibit Inspiration: Golden Ray Migration Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:40:00 +0000

I admit it, the header photo and the link to the complete photo set mentioned below, are only tangentially related to exhibits know-how.

But they are just amazingly cool!

Amateur photographer Sandra Critelli came across the migrating rays while looking for whale sharks. The complete photo set is viewable at the Telegraph (UK) Newspaper site. Enjoy!

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Another Cautionary Tale For Museums: What Happened To The Millennium Dome?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:44:00 +0000

I happened upon the Danny's Land blog today, and aside from the fact that Dan Howland points out both Laurie Anderson's and Thomas Dolby's favorite oddball amusement parks (That would be "Dollywood" for Laurie and "Diggerland" for Thomas) he also offers a free PDF download of a treatise called "Dome and Domer: The Increasingly Stupid Story of the Millennium Dome."

The premise of the Millennium Dome: "Let's spend lots of money to build a ginormous new attraction with lots of flashy technology --- so many visitors will come, that it will be self-supporting!" certainly sounds familiar to museum people.

Unfortunately, initial bursts of civic enthusiasm and bucketfuls of municipal money do not make for long-term, sustainable business plans for museums. (See our previous posts on COSI Toledo and The Mark Twain House.)

Some of the important lessons learned from The Millennium Dome fiasco outlined in "Dome and Domer" are obvious in retrospect: the people who designed it weren't the people who had to run it, there was no cohesive "vision" to the entire enterprise, simple things like throughput and lines weren't taken into consideration, and tons of money was frittered away on bozo ideas like robotic pubic lice (!)

Obvious though such points about the 'Dome may be, there are still many museum projects hoping to survive on good intentions rather than sound business fundamentals.

Rather than detail here the many hilarious (and scary!) goofups that ultimately doomed the 'Dome, I'll let you download and read "Dome and Domer" for yourself.

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Exhibit Design Inspiration: Olafur Eliasson

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:11:00 +0000

I first read about the artist Olafur Eliasson in a review on the ExhibitFiles website of his exhibition called "Take Your Time." Clearly, everyone who saw and commented on Eliasson's work was enthusiastic, if not blown away.

Well now I know why.

I was fortunate enough to see the version of "Take Your Time" on display at MoMA in New York with my 13 year old son, and we both were delighted, amazed, and yes, blown away. Most of the installations in the exhibition were rooms or small spaces that used elements of light, color, optics, and geometry that really forced you to "take your time" (in a pleasant way) to appreciate truly magical and subtle effects.

Afterwards, I couldn't help comparing these high-profile ART pieces with phenomenological exhibit pieces I've made for, or seen in, science museums. (For instance, I loved the piece called "Ventilator" --- it was sort of like a funky, technological version of a Foucault Pendulum except that the pendulum bob was replaced by an electric fan that created ever-changing arcs.)

The majority of Olafur Eliasson's pieces were more subtle, and inpired a sort of hushed reverence in visitors, than most science center exhibit components. Also, to be quite honest, the unprotected nature of expensive (and hot!) lighting equipment just made me cringe. I even told my son at one point, "This stuff would last about 5 minutes in a science center before it got destroyed."

But maybe those of us who design exhibits and experiences in the often frenetic, high-tech, super saturated world of science centers could take a page from Mr. Eliasson and strive for ways to create more intimate exhibit environments that whisper, rather than shout, our messages.

But, don't take my word for it, search out Eliasson's work to experience in person. And ... take your time.

If you'd like to read further about some thoughtful efforts to think about shifting the design of both exhibit components and museum environments to increase visitor engagement, I could not more highly recommend the book, "Fostering Active Prolonged Engagement: The Art of Creating APE Exhibits" available from ASTC.

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What Can Museums Learn From Disney? Mickey's 10 Commandments

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:30:00 +0000

Many folks in the Museum World have a lot of animosity toward Disney. Personally, I see lots of good reasons for both museums and theme parks to exist. In fact, I think Museums can learn many useful things from the likes of Disney, Six Flags, and Universal.

With that in mind, here are "Mickey's 1o Commandments" as outlined by Walt Disney Imagineering President Marty Sklar:

1. Know your audience - Don't bore people, talk down to them or lose them by assuming that they know what you know.

2. Wear your guest's shoes - Insist that designers, staff and your board members experience your facility as visitors as often as possible.

3. Organize the flow of people and ideas - Use good story telling techniques, tell good stories not lectures, lay out your exhibit with a clear logic.

4. Create a "weenie" - Lead visitors from one area to another by creating visual magnets and giving visitors rewards for making the journey.

5. Communicate with visual literacy - Make good use of all the non-verbal ways of communication - color, shape, form, texture.

6. Avoid overload - Resist the temptation to tell too much, to have too many objects, don't force people to swallow more than they can digest, try to stimulate and provide guidance to those who want more.

7. Tell one story at a time - If you have a lot of information divide it into distinct, logical, organized stories, people can absorb and retain information more clearly if the path to the next concept is clear and logical.

8. Avoid contradiction - Clear institutional identity helps give you the competitive edge. Public needs to know who you are and what differentiates you from other institutions they may have seen.

9. For every ounce of treatment , provide a ton of fun - How do you woo people from all other temptations? Give people plenty of opportunity to enjoy themselves by emphasizing ways that let people participate in the experience and by making your environment rich and appealing to all senses.

10. Keep it up - Never underestimate the importance of cleanliness and routine maintenance, people expect to get a good show every time, people will comment more on broken and dirty stuff.

I'd be happy to give a new exhibit designer or developer a copy of Mickey's 10 Commandments. In fact, I think even the "old pros" could benefit by reminding themselves of the importance of knowing the audience, keeping things simple, and applying as much effort to upkeep as creation.

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Clean Is Good

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:51:00 +0000

Welcome to the 100th post on ExhibiTricks!

Since ExhibiTricks is geared toward providing tricks and resources for creating better exhibits, I thought it would be appropriate to share a few tips on fighting the never-ending battle against dirt.

One downside of "hands-on" exhibits is that visitors hands can be pretty dirty! Nothing makes a museum or exhibit component look "poorly maintained" than grime and stains. I really think exhibit vandalism happens less in well-cared for and clean environments, so here are a few favorite tools to help you keep things looking fresh:

Kiss-Off Desperation drove me to Kiss-Off Stain Remover. I had tried every way I knew to remove old marker stains from a clear acrylic partition in a children's museum exhibit, and was unsuccessful. One day while shopping for materials in an Artist's Supply store, I noticed these things that looked like glue sticks labeled "KISS OFF" in bright red letters.

A clerk told me "that stuff gets ANY stain off anything!" So, I bought a stick and presto! the acrylic got clean! (And every other "stuck" stain in the museum too!)

To use Kiss-Off, just wet the non-toxic stick and rub it on the offending stain. Kiss-Off works on hard surfaces as well as carpet or fabric. A must have for any maker's toolkit.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser As discussed on the Ms. Exhibits Blog, The Magic Eraser is another must have for neat freaks. It just works. The only downsideAnother simple "just add water" tool to keep on hand at all times.

The Crayola Stain Guide is like a downloadable Wikipedia for stain removal. Who better to provide information for removing stains inside museums, or on exhibits, than the folks who make the things like crayons, paints, and markers that can create museum havoc as well as artistic masterpieces? One of my favorite tips from their downloadable PDFs? WD-40 easily removes crayon marks from walls.

Hopefully, the resources above will help your exhibits shine!

What's your museum clean-up secret weapon? Let us know in the Comments Section below. (I'd be especially interested to hear about effective green/eco-friendly solutions.)

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Fun Museum Resource: Food Safety Music Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:29:00 +0000

Dr. Carl Winter is the Director of the FoodSafe Program and an Extension Food Toxicologist in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California at Davis. He has assembled a hilarious set of animated music videos about food safety (and lots of other great information) on his Food Safety Music website.

Dr. Winter's videos can also be seen on YouTube.

Good stuff for health-related exhibits or programs in museums!Publish Post

Exhibit Designer Toolbox: The Sticky Subject Of Tape

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:45:00 +0000

Tape is one of those things that you often use, but rarely think about.

For now, I thought I'd highlight some unusual tapes for you to add to your exhibits (and prototyping!) toolkit:

3M SOLAS Tape

"SOLAS" stands for "Safety Of Life At Sea" and it is super-durable reflective tape that was designed originally to be used by the Coast Guard. It's strong. It's shiny. What more could you want? It may also be useful outside your exhibit pursuits on bikes, backpacks, or cars.

Available here

Gaffer's Tape

If you think duct tape is useful, try Gaffer's tape. You can think of Gaffer's Tape as duct tape without the sticky residue. It's the standard tape in the film and theater worlds. Best of all, the adhesive is designed to not rip off paint. You can leave Gaffer's tape stuck to a wall for days, and then remove it without tearing up the wall surface or leaving sticky gunk behind.

Available here

Vypar X-Treme Tape

X-treme tape is a non-adhesive, self-bonding wrap. It's not really "tape" since it's not sticky. But it really grips and wraps around wet stuff or slimy stuff --- think water exhibits, hoses, bubble exhibits, etc. Once it's in place -- it is NOT coming off! You just pull on the tape and it fuses to itself under tension. As a bonus it comes in a range of colors as well.

Available here

And now, two variations on good old reliable duct tape:

Gorilla Tape

Gorilla Tape is like regular duct tape on steroids. Sure, it's much stickier, but it also adheres to uneven/rough surfaces.

Available here

Clear Duct Tape

From the creative minds of 3M comes "clear "duct tape! It is less noticeable than standard duct tape, but more importantly, 3M claims it lasts 6 times longer than the standard variety, having been engineered for extreme temperatures and UV exposure.

Available here

Any discussion of tapes, and especially duct tape, would be incomplete if we didn't mention the annual "Duck" brand duct tape "Stuck At Prom" Scholarship Contest. Duck makes duct tape (a little confusing, I know) and holds an annual contest for couples to create a complete set of prom outfits using duct tape! (You can see one example at the top of this blog posting.) Also check out the completely mind-boggling array of past contest entries at the Duck Tape website.

Have any favorite tapes that we've missed? Leave us the info in a comment below!

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Museum Exhibit Design: "Unexhibitable" Topics?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:56:00 +0000

The question about "taboo exhibit topics" recently came up on the ExhibitFiles Blog: "Are there topics you, or others you know, consider “unexhibitable”? The AAM’s National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME) wants to hear about them. The Fall 2008 issue of the NAME journal, Exhibitionist, will consider this and related questions, and the editor, Gretchen Jennings, and Boston Museum of Science exhibit developer Maureen McConnell are looking for comments and reflections..."

Personally, I think any topic, if handled thoughtfully, is "exhibitable."

I recently came across many wonderful examples of just about any topic being fair game for an exhibition while judging the final projects of the graduating students from the Fashion Institute of Technology's Graduate Exhibition Design program. The students created proposals, models, and graphics packages for topics ranging from "Cheese" to "Air and Giving Birth" to "Chopsticks". All of the presentations were excellent!

While one might think that sensitive topics involving sex or human cruelty would be difficult to exhibit, there are of course entire museums on Sexuality, Medical Oddities, and The Holocaust that disprove such a premise.

What do you think? Let us know in the Comments Section below or check out (or add to!) the very interesting comments and discussion on the ExhibitFiles Blog, or contact Gretchen Jennings directly (Her email is: gretchenjennings@rcn.com) if you would like to contribute your thoughts to the upcoming issue of Exhibitionist.

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Sustainable Museums Part 3: Goodbye Mark Twain House?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:47:00 +0000

I've written previously of the tricky business of not just opening, but also sustaining, museums in posts about COSI Toledo.

A recent article in the NY Times describes how Mark Twain's historic home (and museum) in Hartford, CT may now be in danger of closing due to lack of funds. This is a shame since I know from visiting Twain's home that it is beautiful and obviously of historic and cultural importance.

However, reading between the lines of the Times article, one has to wonder if the museum designed by "starchitect" Robert A.M. Stern (which cost $19 million, almost double the initial projections!) needed to be as large and grand as it ultimately became. Also, if your museum was losing money and cutting staff, would you eliminate key marketing and development positions?

There is also something unseemly when museums play the same sort of "chicken" game that the owners of sports stadiums pull --- "if you don't give us more money, we'll close the place down!" The Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island, which was funded largely by Nassau County, recently tried to make a similar argument.

The leadership in Nassau County told the Aviation Museum to "go fly a kite" and forced them to change their top management as well as institute a more aggressive fund raising plan.

It will be interesting to see how the greater Hartford community responds to the financial crisis at the Twain House and Museum.

(On a somewhat related note, I am offering a prize to anyone who can point me to a complete and definitive list of museums which received "earmarks" in the most recent Federal Budgets.)

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Museums From The Other Side Of The Pond: An Interview With Harry White

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:15:00 +0000

After serving for many years as the Director of Exhibits, Harry White is now the "Science Centre Consultant" at TechniQuest Science Center (also known as TQ) in Cardiff, Wales. I've had the pleasure of visiting Harry in Wales, and I've always been interested in the different take that our museum colleagues in the UK and Europe have on interactive exhibits and science centers (or "centres"!) I thought readers of the ExhibiTricks blog could benefit from Harry's responses to my interview questions:

What’s your academic background?
An electronics degree, a spell as a medical physicist followed by a Masters in Laser Anemometry and 12 years in a university engineering faculty sticking computers on anything that needed it, or often didn’t. Then 23 years in Techniquest. As you can see I’m still waiting for a proper job.

How/Why did you get started in Museums?
I was happily vegetating at the University when a memo came around about some unknown thing called a “Science Centre”. Like any academic faced with the prospect of work, I followed standard procedure and sent a student to the first meeting. She reported back that “They’re mad, you’d fit right in” and the rest is history.

Were you a “science geek” as a kid?
Yes I suppose I was, I have a wonderful aunt who taught mathematics and if you showed an interest in science she would send you expensive Christmas presents. So I was bribed into “geekdom”, but I’m eternally grateful to her for warping my young mind.

A friend and I used to make weedkiller explosives and try them out in the park, another opportunity for enrichment activity taken from our kids by the war on terror.

What new museum trends are you most excited about?
In 2004, I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Exploratorium’s APE workshops. I’m still processing some of that information, but something that resonated with me immediately was the concept of shifting authority to the visitor. It just seems like the next step, on-line we have Wikipedia, why not a WikiScienceCentre?

I took my first steps towards this in Bergen, Norway when I was consulting to create VILVITE in 2006/7. We planned and implemented a personalisation system so that the Visitors could “Do in the Science Centre what the Science Centre does best” ie: provide memorable experiences and then link those experiences on-line to the didactic content that is best done on-line.

In providing information about the exhibits that they had used, we structured it as FAQs and provided five for each exhibit ranging from the standard “Why does that ball stay in the air?” to the deliberately flippant “It’s a nice trick, but why should I care?” If the Visitor has another question they can post it and we will answer it. If the Visitor doesn’t like our answer, then they can post their own. We moderate it and acknowledge their contribution on line. Let’s hope that one day all our original text will be gone and replaced with something far better.

Tell us about your card deck of exhibit aphorisms.
In 1996, Techniquest started the UK’s first Masters course in Science Communication based in a Science Centre. It was a great success with students from all around the world, graduates were snapped up by most of the new UK science centres. I taught the Exhibits module, but after a year of PowerPointing them into submission, I felt that it just wasn’t appropriate to teach a degree about informal education, formally. Also, whenever I ran out of material for a session, just saying something deliberately controversial would start a debate that would fill the time and engage the students.

So I started collecting these quotations, jokes and provocations as aphorisms and put 52 of the best/most annoying onto a deck of cards. When the sessions flagged, I’d ask someone to pick a card, read it out and then the group would try and fathom what I was getting at. Most times a heated debate would ensue.

So you’d like some examples. There are over 200 so bear with me and I’ll pick some of the better ones. You may notice I’ve sneaked one in already in italics above.

The first is from Ken Gleason, at one time it was up on the wall in our workshop.

The Three Ways an Exhibit Must Work.
1. Attraction
If they don't use it, it can't achieve anything.

2. Function.
It must work, keep working and be safe.

3. Education.
What we're for, and why we're doing it. 1 & 2 lead here.

And from Ian Simmons
"The Survival of the Dullest"
Good exhibits are popular, get used and therefore break down.
Dull exhibits don't get used, and so don't break down.
Therefore all interactive exhibitions, without maintenance, eventually tend towards the dull.

Others are shorter and reflect bitter experience:

Sufficient ruggedisation of loose parts turns them into weapons.

For every hole or gap there is a corresponding human limb or appendage to get wedged in it.

Making easy exhibits is difficult.
Making easy exhibits difficult is easy.

Then some come in pairs:

Any component which is ideal, cheap and universally available will be discontinued by the time the exhibit that uses it is fully developed.

Any component that doesn't exist, so you have to devise it at great cost, will be in the next RS (McMaster Carr) catalogue.

Not all are about exhibits:

Nobody cares who the Director is.
(As you may imagine this was more forcefully put, the point being that however hard the administration works it’s the people on the front line that the Visitors meet and our job is to support them.)

“Give a visitor a fact and they know one thing,
Give them curiosity and they will learn endless things.”
Ian Russell

“Nobody flunked a Science Centre.”
Frank Oppenheimer

“The probability of somebody doing the absolutely inconceivable is never exactly zero.”
H. Richard Crane

“Visitors come to a Science Centre because it’s cheaper than the movies and less exhausting than the swimming pool.”
Gillian Thomas

You can know the science from a book,
You can know the engineering from experience,
But to find out what it makes people think you have to ask them.

Exhibits are about the phenomena, if the Visitor notices that the design is good, then it’s not good enough

The interactive content of an exhibit is inversely proportional to the area and expense of the graphic surrounding it

And so on, and on and on…………….

The idea of an Aphorism is to put some core truth in a memorably flippant way so that people who are “in the know” recognize it and those who don’t think about it. As an instructional tool this has a fatal flaw in that any one who “gets” it doesn’t need it and those that need it, don’t get it.

So I have started writing explanations of the Aphorisms to go with them. I use them a lot in consulting with other centres because they are memorable and anti-intuitive, a bit like good exhibits really.

A consultant is a person who borrows your watch and then charges to tell you the time.

Is there a “UK style” of museum exhibits? Is there a TQ “style”?
Short answer is that there used to be, but now I’m not so sure. Pre-millennium the centres were small but had individual identities. The Millennium boom happened so fast and didn’t involve many people who were in the business already and so the centres, with a few noble exceptions, tended to be made by Museum design companies who naturally had an eye on the deadlines and couldn’t take risks or learn from their mistakes. This bred a certain uniformity that upsets the professionally-obsessed science centre geek in me.

The scene is still shaking down and the centres that have survived are developing their own styles but it’s slow, most are expected to break-even operationally and so they don’t have the money to develop exhibits. Because they are all so big, their failures are very public. Techniquest had the great advantage of starting small and making our mistakes when nobody was looking.

Techniquest grew through three phases, each time building on what went before. When it opened in 1995, Techniquest’s third phase was the only purpose-built science centre in the UK and by far the largest. (See photo below.) I was acutely aware that we could go from “those nice people doing great things on a shoestring” to “the people that got all that money and produced a pile of rubbish”. Plus Cardiff has a tendency to underrate itself and it was important that what we did was obviously of quality. “You can’t tell kids ‘Hey!, Science is great, you can do it!, if you had to buy it in.” So I wanted TQ to look like it came from one mind, the design should be good but shouldn’t get in the way of the phenomena.

I love the homebuilt feel of the Exploratorium but that wouldn’t have done for Cardiff. There’s a thin line between “Hey!, I could do that!” which means that you have empowered your visitor and a bad response “Huh! I could have done that myself!” which means your visitor feels they have been fleeced. I deal with this by including what I call “Points of Contact” in exhibits so whilst the exhibit itself is a glossy professional product it might include an item from the kitchen at home, eg. the “Roll Uphill” double cone illusion exhibit uses two kitchen funnels back to back, which means that not only are they recognisable items but the spouts make a good handle.

Can you say a few words about BIG, and the BIG Fabricator's weeks?
BIG, the British Interactive Group, is an ironic name as it represents the individuals who work in the Hands-on business rather than ECSITE and ASTC who represent the big organisations those individuals work for. It’s not a trade union and it’s main activities are centred around the professional development of those working in the interactives field. A group of us, mainly Bhagwant Singh, set it up in the early 90’s when subscriptions to ECSITE were too much for the nascent centres that existed in the UK at that time.

The BIG Fabricators Event grew out of the Nuffield Interactive Science Project led by the remarkable Melanie Quin. These brought famous fabricators, Bernie Zubrowski, Ilan Chabay, Bill Walton and others over for a week to make exhibits assisted by Brits who would learn their trade from them.

BIG’s Fabricator’s week fulfils a similar but different need and allows exhibits people to get together and build a working prototype in a week on a shoestring. I’ve done quite a few and usually I get to try to realise an idea that has been in my mind for sometime. For me, it’s a chance to get around to what, professionally, I won’t ever get around to.

What is the role and relationship (if any) of ECSITE to ASTC?
ECSITE and ASTC work very closely together. Pele Persson was recently chair of ASTC, and Walter Stavelos, ex-ECSITE now works for ASTC. Global projects like IGLO require this close collaboration and so this brings in ASPAC, CASC, Red-Pop etc. as well.

To me it seems that ECSITE has a more diverse membership, perhaps because the US has more organisations like ACM, AAM etc., ASTC just seems, by comparison, more focused on science centres.

What differences do you see in different countries approach (especially in the UK and Europe) toward museums and museum exhibits?
Pele Persson said that “The difference between a science museum and a science centre is a line drawn in water.” Europe generally has more museums and a more collections-based approach but there are also many more science centres opening.

When we took Techniquest’s exhibits to Japan there was a great deal of focus on doing every exhibit thoroughly in turn but the visitors still enjoyed it just as much. Our exhibits worked well for Commquest in the townships of South Africa. In the UAE, the approach is more didactic and focussed on content but everywhere I’ve been, giving control to the Visitor has worked, just in slightly different ways. We’ve sold exhibits in more than 40 countries and no returns as yet.

What can a parent do to encourage a child’s interest in science?
Do it in front of them, get them to join in and bribe them with scientific goodies. Stand up and testify- “I am a science geek!”

Are there fun MATH exhibits?
Yes, definitely some of the best exhibits are maths exhibits.
I did one called Gone Vest which was just a jacket with a very stretchy waistcoat (or vest) to go underneath it. Visitors just followed the cartoon instructions to take the waistcoat off whilst leaving the jacket on. It was really popular, but couldn’t get them to hang the coats up afterwards.

One day I will do the “Monte Carlo” methods for "Pi" exhibit which was in the 1984 Swiss Phenomena book. It’s just a 1 metre Perspex cylinder inside a 1 metre Perspex square column. You throw balls randomly into the assembly and number that fall in the circle divided by the number that fall in the square is Pi/4. The more balls you throw, the more accurate the estimation.

In 1991, the same team did a building called Polyédre which was a Octahedron with hinged corners that opened up into a cube-octahedron with open squares for some sides. The icing on that particular cake was the brass band that played on a hydraulic platform inside the structure.

Other topological puzzles like the halo puzzles in Puzzlequest are endlessly popular and have been copied all over the world.

Was there ever an exhibit you were sure would be a hit that never (or hasn’t yet) taken off?
Well, every one you start you think is going to be a hit, otherwise you wouldn’t start it.

Magnetic Needle, was a big sewing needle’s eye with north pole magnets arranged around it pointing inwards. Around this were threads with a north pole, a south pole, a non-magnetised iron end and a wooden end. I thought it would be interesting to explore the effects, but in the end no one really noticed even though the South pole was pulled out of their hands. We took it off the floor quite quickly and I’m sure my colleagues have moved it toward the skip (dumpster).

There’s an aphorism for that too, of course:
If you can’t stand seeing your exhibit in the skip, you’re in the wrong business.

What’s you favorite museum?
It changes all the time, it would be a bad thing to have just one favourite. The geek in me loves the National Motor Museum, the Robin Opie, Packaging Museum in Gloucester and the Pencil Museum in Cumbria. When I visit the states, I usually enthuse about a Children’s Museum, Acton, San Jose, Indianapolis. Play for its own sake and the breadth of their approach is so liberating.

I also like The ARC in York. After the Jorvik Viking Centre was a big success, the city council passed a bylaw saying that developers had to preserve the contents of building excavations
for archaeological evaluation. This ended up with the Developers having warehouses full of numbered boxes of soil, far more than all the archaeologists in the UK could ever sift through. So Dr. Andrew Jones aka "Jones the Bones" founded the Archeological Resource Centre where the public can sift through the boxes and call a resident archaeologist if they find something interesting. The Visitor is credited with the find and the work gets done.

And of course, the Exploratorium is the spiritual home of the Fabricator in me. The Science Museum of Minnesota and Science North take the lab aspect further than anyone else and then there’s Agents of Change at the OSC. I love them all, my long-suffering wife has to ask the travel agent for countries without a science centre just to get some peace.

As a professional I’m always impressed by novelty and I loved Tehnoannas Pagrabi
(The Technician’s Cellars) in Riga, Latvia. It’s run on a shoe-string by Alvis and Dace Balodi but has wonderful, unique exhibits. For example, a giant birdhouse on the fourth floor, you can sit on a perch and they take the floor away leaving only a steel net between you and the ground 40 feet below, they have knitted exhibits on the solar system and in one part of the loft they had a quite serious fire but thought it looked better afterwards so they lacquered the burnt beams and you can now walk through it.

What’s your favourite science-related experience? (Either as a child or an adult.)
Everytime I switch on something I’ve made and it still works.

In 1966 Professor Eric Laithwaite was invited to do the prestigious Royal Institution Children's Christmas Lectures. These have been given annually since 1852 by famous scientists including Faraday, Tyndall, Bragg etc.

In the first lecture Laithwaite, who developed the linear induction motor and maglev train, showed a large aluminium sphere about 5 feet in diameter and said that throughout the week’s lectures he would construct a levitating coil and make this ball float. The striking point to me being that he had never done this before and he was going to attempt it for the first time ever in front of an audience of 400+ children. This was real science being done for real.

What are the best and worst trends from US exhibit making that have informed your work in the UK?
The best trends that I’ve mentioned already are the APE work and the breadth of the Children’s Museum approach. The worst is a result of the larger market in the US, in that there tends to be a limited number of commercial firms who, in an entirely valid attempt to reduce risk for the customer and give value, tend to repeat what they have done before, so innovation is stifled in the interests of the client. In Europe, the converse happens, I get asked to help with content ideas and then the ideas are given to a design company to build instead of buying them from the original source who know all the subtleties of the exhibit.

To decline the verb to inspire: I am inspired, you copy me, they ripped us off.

Thanks again to Harry White for sharing his ideas and insights with the ExhibiTricks readers!

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Museum Exhibit Inspiration: The Work Of Arthur Ganson

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Wed, 28 May 2008 11:20:00 +0000

One of my favorite artists is Arthur Ganson. I've been a big fan of Arthur and his work ever since I met him many years ago while working in the Boston area. (And I can take some small credit for bringing Arthur to Austin for a show that led to the inspiration for his toy called "Toobers and Zots.")

Speaking of Boston, if you find yourself within striking distance of the MIT Museum, you should see Arthur's ongoing exhibition called Gestural Engineering. It's a magical collection of his witty and intricate sculptures.

The video below is from a talk Arthur gave at the TED conference that gives a nice overview of his work and approach. Enjoy!

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Museum Exhibit Design: Be On The Lookout For Unusual Sources!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:51:00 +0000

Sometimes exhibit resources and exhibit materials show up in unexpected places.

A recent posting on the Dinosaurs and Robot Blog by Todd Lapin highlights this.

While working on his house, Todd came across AW Direct, a mail order catalog that sells parts and equipment for tow trucks. One of the non-traditional uses he made of a tow truck step was as a soap dish for his shower! It just goes to show that interesting design possibilities can pop up in the most interesting places.

I love finding interesting exhibit possibilities in the aisles of stores, like the new "green" line of toys from Toys R Us, or in catalogs or websites, like Sublime Stitching (for glow-in-the-dark string) or United Nuclear (for "dangerous" science supplies.)

What are some of your favorite "non-traditional" museum exhibit design sources? Let us know in the "Comments Section" below.

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Playing Around With Science: An Interview with Peter Rea

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:15:00 +0000

Peter Rea is the founder and president of Arbor Scientific, a company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan that imports, develops, and sells science education products and toys to teachers as well as the general public.

I first met Peter nearly twenty years ago at an MDSTA (Metro Detroit Science Teacher’s Association) meeting where he was demonstrating the Genecon hand-held generator from Japan. Since then, I’ve used many of Arbor Scientific’s products in museum programs and exhibits, so I thought readers of the ExhibiTricks blog might benefit from Peter’s take on science and science education.

Another great resource from Arbor Scientific of particular interest to museum folks is their CoolStuff Newsletter. You can view the CoolStuff Newsletter via the ArborSci website or subscribe via email. The Newsletter offers demo ideas, lesson plans, and free downloads of other fun science stuff. One of my favorite entries featured Anamorphic Art and other Optical Phenomena.

So after you enjoy my interview with Peter, check out the Arbor Scientific website and the CoolStuff Newsletter!

What’s your academic background?
I have a BA in Economics from Albion College and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

How did you start Arbor Scientific?
I started Arbor Scientific with a friend who had worked as a sales representative for one of the large science supply houses. He had discovered some very innovative products coming out of Japan that weren’t available in the US. These products, which included the Genecon and Magnetic Field Observation Box were an immediate success and started our reputation for having the “cool” science toys.

Were you a “science geek” as a kid?
I wouldn’t say that I was or am a “science geek”. I’m very inquisitive and have a real interest in how and why things work. My dad had a PhD in Engineering, but it was my older brother who became the physics teacher. My passion is for customer service --- which to me means finding the best new products and offering them at the best value to our customers. I’m fortunate to have met and established relationships with some of the best science teachers in the country. They’re a constant source of inspiration for new products and wanting to give teachers the tools that will help them do a better job.

What new products are you most excited about?
Two years ago we were the first company in the US to import and sell a model hydrogen fuel cell car kit that produced its own hydrogen. We’ve sold close to a thousand of them since, and are very excited about a new bioenergy product from the same company. In addition we will be carrying a laser viewing tank that was developed by science teacher in California that is very cool.

Do you handle particular products that you think would be useful for museums?
Many of our products are used in science museums, primarily in hands on demonstrations and outreach programs. The Genecon and Visual Electricity Demonstrator have been very popular, as well as the Hand Crank Van De Graaff Generator.

What trends in science products do you see coming down the road?
I don’t think we will see very much change in the products themselves. The change will come in how teachers learn how to use the products. Although we have for years provided curriculum ideas along with our products, the web allows us to use video to show them how to best use our products. We are in the process of producing video clips that will teach the teachers how to use these products.

What can a parent do to encourage a child’s interest in science?
Visit science museums, buy science related toys, and most importantly encourage their involvement in science classes, especially as they get older.

What’s you favorite museum?
The Exploratorium in San Francisco is my favorite, and we have a great hands-on museum here in Ann Arbor.

What’s your favorite science-related experience?
I chaperoned a group of high school physics students to an amusement park for “Physics Day” It was great to see the enthusiasm displayed in completing their assignments. It also gave me a greater appreciation of the creativity teachers express in teaching their students.

Was there ever a product you were sure would be a hit that never (or hasn’t yet) taken off?
I’m fortunate to have a brother who is an award winning physics teacher. Many ideas for new products have come from him. A number of years ago he suggested we sell a product for teaching projectile motion that he had obtained at a physics teachers meeting but was no longer being sold. After a couple of years of pushing this idea, I capitulated and introduced it in our catalog. The Air Powered Projectile quickly became one of our best selling products.

Thanks again to Peter for his candor and insights!

You can find out more about Arbor Scientific by visiting their website.

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InterfaCE: An Art/Science Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:46:00 +0000

How can an artist's sensitive pastel drawings of Antarctic topography be useful in creating new nano-surfaces for micro-biological forms to grow?

Cynthia Pannucci, the founder/director of Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI), a 20-year old nonprofit organization based in New York serving the international art-sci-tech field recently told me about the unusual, on-going, collaboration of New Zealand artist, Claire Beynon, and New York-based polar research biologist, Sam Bowser.

Their work is highlighted on this month's ASCI Featured Member Page

Claire and Sam's collaborative art-science work began with several field research trips to Antarctica, but fundamentally it is distinguished by a unique collaborative process in which each has embraced and been influenced by the other's work and process (in the field, laboratory, studio, and gallery settings.) Most artist-scientist collaborations that I have seen over the years involve the artist being inspired by the scientist's research and/or helping the scientist visualize his/her research. Rarely does it move in the other direction of influence!

Sam studies an ancient group of unicellular creatures called Foraminifera ("forams"), in an attempt to understand their role in the functioning of marine ecosystems.

In their novel art/science collaboration, Claire's artwork, inspired by a season's research in Antarctica with Sam's team, is taken by Sam and miniaturized through nanolithographic methods and used as a template to produce a feature-rich growth substrate for forams to inhabit. Information on their motile behavior and structure is gathered using time-lapse video light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, which in turn is applied to generate scientific hypotheses for more formal experimental tests. Claire then utilizes these scientific images as prompts for new artwork.

To their knowledge, this work is the first to explore ways in which Antarctic microorganisms are influenced by topographic features similar in scale to that of their native environments. By cycling information through artistic, scientific, and microbial processes in a way that is analogous to how energy and resources flow through Antarctic ecosystems, they believe their collaborative process presents a new creative paradigm that will be widely applicable to other life science disciplines.

The various iterative art/science products and collaborative dynamics of the Beynon/Bowser team were recently presented via INTERFACE, a visual display and lecture at the Frances Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York on May 2, 2008.

Please contact Cynthia Pannucci, ASCI Founder/Director if you have any questions.

ASCI has an open membership of artists, scientists, technologists, and those interested in the intersection of these fields.

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Exhibit Design: Museum SketchUp Group?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:42:00 +0000

Lucky me! I got invited to attend SketchUp Basecamp coming up in June at Google's Headquarters (aka, The GooglePlex) in Silicon Valley. (If you're not already familiar with SketchUp, check out this previous posting.)

I mention SketchUp Basecamp, not to regale you with my upcoming travel schedule, but rather to solicit interest in a Museum/Exhibits related SketchUp group. Do you use SketchUp? Would you be willing to share and trade ideas, and SketchUp renderings in one handy accessible spot? If there is enough interest, I'd love to set up a Google SketchUp group for Museum and Exhibits folks. Leave your contact info in the Comments Section below, or send me an email to indicate your interest.

UPDATE: A Museum and Exhibits SketchUp Group has been created! Get more info by clicking here. Also check out the Museum and Exhibits Collection in the Google 3D Warehouse as well.

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Museum Design: Where's Your Workshop?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:44:00 +0000

It used to be that every museum had an "exhibits workshop." An unsettling trend (to me at least) is the continuing wave of museums that have deliberately left exhibit workshops (staff access, not visitor access spaces) out of the mix.

Can any museum that features interactive exhibits, or really any type of exhibits, ever become great (as opposed to just good) without some sort of workshop?

Let me be clear, I don't think every museum needs a full cabinet-making workshop with full welding capabilities and paint booth. But if you don't have at least one place with a bench and basic tools to tinker, to prototype, or to just pull busted exhibits off the floor while you repair them, can your museum's exhibit program ever be living up to its full potential? Workshop spaces build and increase your museum's internal exhibit development capacity and create a tremendous staff feeling of "ownership." Especially as it relates to "we built that here" exhibits and the entire exhibit development process.

I'm afraid that if you don't have a funky space to create, and explore exhibit ideas, your museum will inevitably cede some (or all!) of this important exhibit development process and skill-set to outsiders. And outsiders, including many architects with exhibit developer aspirations, are often the ones most responsible for eliminating workshop spaces from new building plans. If your designers and architects don't give you a workshop space with convenient loading/unloading access to the outdoors they are starting you and your museum off at a disadvantage.

I'll never forget a visit a few years ago to a beautiful new children's museum. After walking around the space with the Director of Exhibits, I innocently asked to see the "exhibits workshop." He ushered me into a small rectangular office with a desk and chair wedged into the far end. One entire remaining length of wall was lined with deep shelves holding the cans for the 26(or more!) different colors of paint that the architect had used throughout the building. I was dumbfounded. I asked, "Where do you build new exhibits?" The answer: "We don't build new exhibits. We just hire other people to build them for us." Then I asked, "What happens if an exhibit breaks?" The answer: "Most of the time, we just put an "OUT OF ORDER" sign on the exhibit and call somebody to come and fix it." I worried then, and I worry now, about what the long-term effects of "workshopless" museums will be --- both for visitors and the museum field itself.

How do you handle exhibit workshop space(s) in your museum or in museum projects you've helped create? Are workshop spaces a neccessity, or am I just hopelessly "old school"? Let us know in the "Comments Section" below.

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Exhibit Tech: Tekno Bubbles

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:44:00 +0000

As a follow-up to my posting about learning about bubbles that "glow in the dark" under UV light during the recent museum conferences in Denver, I should point out that the Tekno Bubbles company sells the special formulation that makes the bubbles that glow under a blacklight. As far as I can tell, the (very cool!) effect doesn't work with regular bubble solution.

Check out the Tekno Bubbles website for more info.

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FREE Exhibit Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:37:00 +0000

With a recent redesign of the POW! website, I wanted to make folks aware of a new batch of FREE exhibit resources on the site.

Need some exhibit ideas? Trying to find the perfect vendor for fake food or UV lights? Do you want to add to your professional resource library by downloading some articles about topics like Prototyping? You'll find all these and more at the Free Exhibit Resources section of the POW! Website.

If there are additional resources you'd like to see, let us know in the Comments Section below.

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The Most Important Stuff I Learned at ACM This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:36:00 +0000

The Association of Children's Museums (ACM) held their annual conference last week in Denver. Here are some of my takeaways, in no particular order:

• Joan Almon, of the Alliance for Childhood, related this scary statistic: School-age children in the U.S. spend 44 hours per week in front of screens (computer, TV, GameBoys, etc.) but only 30 minutes per week playing outside.

• Don't visit the Denver Art Museum with a briefcase or laptop bag.

• Soap bubble solution can be made to glow under "Black Light".

• Great museums have all the right people "on the bus".

• Conversational presentations are STILL better than PowerPoint sessions!

What were some of your takeaways from this year's ACM or AAM conferences? Share your thoughts in the Comments Section below!

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Exhibit Inspiration: Hacking The Wii With Johnny Lee

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Orselli) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Johnny Lee is currently a Graduate PhD student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University who, amongst his other projects, has been sharing ways to "hack" (in the positive, original sense of the word) the Wii Remote (Wiimote) to create amazing low-cost projects like digital whiteboards and desktop Virtual Reality displays.

Johnny is sharing his computer code in a totally open source way and also uses YouTube to disseminate his projects and research! Check out his "Procrastineering" blog as well.

What does this have to do with museums? Well, Exhibit Developers, Museum Educators (and Visitors!) constantly struggle with creative and appropriate uses of technology in museums. (Which when most people use the word "technology" in an exhibit context, inevitably means "computers".) This is especially true given the scary statistic that school-age children in the United States spend on average 44 hours per week using "screen based" (TV, GameBoys, Computers, etc.) technologies, but only 30 minutes engaging in outdoor activities! Do we really need to provide more screen time for young visitors to museums?

From the standpoint of both cost (Wiimotes run about $40, and the other materials Johnny Lee uses for his hacks are of the Radio Shack variety) and creativity (even thoughtful computer software is not nearly as engaging as messing around with a "cool" technology like the Wii remote to make new creations) consider how you could replace some of the staid technology in your museum with a place to hack Wii remotes!

What are some of your favorite "non screen-based" uses of technology in museum exhibits? Let us know in the Comments Section below!

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