museums, exhibits and other curiosities.....

The Butterfly Collector

2019-07-08T11:26:00.003-07:00

The Butterfly Collector
I have always been fascinated with 18th and 19th century Cabinets of Curiosity. I also disagree with the attitude that we should kill things just to satisfy our own curiosity.

The Dodo's Last Mile

2019-07-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

The Dod0's Last Mile
A reminder of what we have lost.

Automaton - The Walrus's Picnic

2019-07-08T11:19:00.001-07:00

The Walrus's Picnic
This automata took me a couple of years to finish because I kept having to travel out of the country for work. It remained in bits and pieces on my work bench reminding me every-time I came home that I needed to focus on finishing it.

Automaton "Milo's Dinner"

2013-05-29T10:17:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted anything here as I've been travelling and working abroad. Now I've become fascinated with automatons and just finished my first one. "Milo's Dinner" You occasionally see these in Children's museums where they always draw a crowd but now designers focus on touchscreens and multi media which is too bad. Sometimes the old stuff still has a place.

Local website and exhibits celebrate tacky tourist photos

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Jumping amid the stoic-faced Easter Island heads. Wearing the Eiffel Tower like a dunce cap. Swallowing the Washington Monument or munching on the Golden Gate Bridge.

These are the irreverent, goofy, and often absurdly creative alternatives to the typical beaming-and-grouped-together-in-front-of-a-famous-landmark tourist shot that fills up so many family albums (either the digital kind or the sort you tuck away on a bookshelf). And now, they’re getting their art debut - the “art’’ part admittedly being up for interpretation - in area exhibits culled from the online homage to kitsch, tackytouristphotos.com, a submission-centric, locally founded website.

Artist Miguel Endara's drawings

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

Artist Miquel Endara created an incredible stipple drawing, using 3.2 million dots using assorted Micron pens to recreate this image of his father on paper.

Watch the process condensing 210 hours of drawing in this video.
Hero from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

Kinetic Sculpture

2012-01-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco

Thirty-five years ago artist Scott Weaver began his work on an insanely complex kinetic sculpture, Rolling through the Bay.

If you are in San Francisco this year it can be seen at the American Visionary Art Museum until September 2012

New Button Museum opens

2011-12-02T09:27:00.001-08:00

“People are like buttons. Each one has a unique story to tell about where it
has been and how it came to be.” The Button Room is intended to not only
showcase the extensive antique button collection of the late lifelong Gurnee
resident Elizabeth “Peg” Hewitt, but also to educate visitors and provide a
place for button enthusiasts to congregate.

More Info: www.thebuttonroom.org

Button museum opens in Gurnee - Lake County News-Sun

Rene Magritte Museum

2011-10-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

Though done in 2009 this is still a wonderful opening announcement for the Rene Magritte Museum in Brussels Belgium. It hits all the right notes and iconic images that people know of his work. I find it really entices me to go see the collection.

Science Centers are failing adults

2011-10-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Science Centers are failing grown-ups. This is the title of a recent article on BoingBoing.net and definitely worth reading. It's a provocative title but after reading the article I had to agree with the basic premise as I too feel somewhat out of place in most science centers that I have visited. They definately have a "children's playground" feel about them. Generally cavernous, they are loud and madly hectic. I always feel I've drunk one of Alice's potions "to make me small" and I've ended up inside a pin ball machine. Even the sound effects of many exhibits have a pin ball resonance. Yet this does not have to be the case. Zoos's, aquariums and natural history museums are science centers and they usually do not require an aspirin and a good stiff drink at the end of a visit. In fact many have a serene quality about them. So why then do most science centers take a different approach. Why do we as exhibit designers assume that children want or need to be in a noisy distracting environment to learn about physics or chemistry. Is it not possible to design a science center that leaves one feeling calm, refreshed and a little bit more knowledgeable after visiting?
Many science centers have started holding very successful "Adult only" events at night which is a great start but the exhibits are still designed primarily for children. I think it's time for science centers to include exhibits and programs specifically designed for adults. Let me know what you think. I'd also love to hear about any science centers that take this approach.

I've found a few but I haven't visited them all yet:

Dana Centre in England
Science Gallery in Dublin Ireland
The Wellcome Collection in England

Dutch National Maritime Museum

2011-10-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

This is a brilliant way to promote a museum. Rather than trying to be serious the designers went out on a limb and created something funny and compelling. I would have loved to been at the presentation to the museum board when they saw this. I hope the museum exhibits designed by German designer Uwe Brückner who comes from the world of opera, take this same irreverent approach to history. It will certainly catch peoples attention.

Outdoor interpretive signs

2011-10-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

To often outdoor interpretive signs seem a little lackluster. A map, a faded photo and a bunch of rather boring text describing what you see in the distance. Perhaps this is a result of most outdoor interpretation being commissioned by government agencies who don't want to offend anybody or touch on anything that might be remotely controversial.

It's a pity because often the most interesting stories about a place are those that might be considered slightly impolitic. So it was with a real sense of delight that I discovered the outdoor interpretive signs that have been placed around the new Vancouver Convention Centre. Not only are they a rather innovative design but the choice of stories and the way they are written makes these signs stand out to visitors. Attached to the railings on the seawall walk that wraps around the new building. The signs tell stories of some of the unique characters who made came to British Columbia to find fame or fortune and some of the important events that happened in Vancouver's harbour.

Exceptionally well written interesting stories are what makes these interpretive signs so compelling to read but the design also contributes to their success. The images are transparencies sandwiched between glass allowing the light reflecting off the water to illuminate them. This is such a refreshing change from the standard resin impregnated outdoor sign. The text is clear and a good size for reading from a bit of distance. The convention centre attracts thousands of visitors every year. It offers unparalleled views of the harbour and the North Shore mountains but despite the stunning views I have noticed that once a visitor reads one story they have to read the rest.

This is an amazing story. Check out the video

Curious Obsessions

2011-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a fantastic TED video by Adam Savage from Myth Busters talking about his obsessive nature when it comes to collecting. While he talks about recreating objects of fascination if he can't purchase them his obsession to have them is like so many collectors in the past who would do anything to own an object that they desired. It is people like Adam who have built up the amazing collections that we go to museums today to look at. If he had lived 150 years ago I believe he would have built one of the great cabinets of curiosity. He also demonstrates how objects come with so many stories attached to them. It would be interesting to have him curate an exhibit. I'm sure it would be a memorable experience to visit.

Museum stories

2011-09-26T14:57:00.000-07:00

As part of my interest in all things museums and curiosities I set up an online newspaper that produces a daily digest of stories about museums, exhibits and curious things. Funny, that's what I called it, just like this blog. Anyway check it out, everyday there's something new and interesting. Here's the link Museums, exhibits & curious things
And if you like it please subscribe.

Curious collections - Joker Playing Cards, one man's obsession

2011-09-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

Filed under curious things:

Last night at an art opening in North Vancouver I happened upon an amazing collection of thousands of Joker playing cards.

The collection consists of playing cards going back almost 100 years up to the present collected by Greg Beaudin. A small portion of the collection can be viewed at jokerworld.com It's definitely a collection worthy of any museum.

Museum of Socialist Art

2011-09-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

Bulgaria opens its first Museum of Socialist Art

Photograph by: Nikolay Doychinov, Getty Images

Bulgaria has just opened the first-ever museum of the state-sponsored, propaganda art characteristic of that era. "It was high time to put that era where it belongs - in a museum," Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov said at the opening. I'm sure that for those that lived through this time walking amongst these sculptures will be extremely memorable. They are certainly powerful images filled with all sorts of meaning.

See more photos here Museum of Socialist Art

Guidelines for Good Interpretive text panels

2011-09-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

A month ago I asked the question “Do visitors read text panels anymore” on a discussion group on Linkedin. I would like to thank the fifty-two people who took the time to contribute one hundred and nine carefully considered comments to what has been a very interesting and sometimes spirited discussion on this topic.

It was suggested that someone should summarize what was discussed in this discussion and as I was the one that started it and I had a couple of spare hours I decided to tackle it. I have attempted to summarize the main points that have been brought up. I know that there are many other points but this comes from our conversations on LinkedIn and I thought it would be worth posting here.

This comment really put my original question in perspective.

“Very, very few people read all of the labels in an exhibition. I don't think we as exhibition designers and producers should; expect them to, think they should, or feel that we have failed if they do not. People will read what they are interested in. It is our job to spark interest in the subject matter of the display through artifacts, Images, props and scenic work, so some visitors are interested enough to read the text block or listen to an audio piece. Both of which are larger commitments than reading the title and first couple of lines of a text block." Ian Swope, Boston

It is interesting to me that despite so many experienced exhibit designers in the world we still find so many exhibits that continue to make the same basic mistakes. Here is the summary of the main points from the discussion:

EXHIBIT LAYOUT
Traffic Flow will effect how and if visitors read the text panels

Text panels, especially introductory panels, can cause bottle necks if badly laid out.
Using an interactive label would be especially inappropriate and disruptive in such cases.
Visitors will not read a text panel if too many people are clustered around it. This also effects the HVAC which impacts the visitors comfort level.

Positioning of text panels and labels is critical for readability

Labels in front of the object are more comfortable to read, then those placed on the side
Watch out for glare on reflective surfaces The distance between text panel and object is important
Ensure that text is properly lit

LABEL AND PANEL DESIGN
Good typographic layout is critical

Avoid lengthy text, small fonts, excessively long line lengths, poor color selections that make readability difficult.
Large fonts and outlines with bullet points are best.

Be cognizant of all visitors needs

People with (various grades of) dyslexia are helped a lot by using 'clear slightly rounded' fonts. Like the Comic Sans, choice of font can influence how easy it is to keep focussed (non tiring) on a text panel
Check out http://www.dyslexic.com/fonts
Older visitors may need larger fonts to read easily
When picking colours be aware of visitors with colour blindness Make sure the contrast between the background and the font is strong

WRITING
Hire FANTASTIC writers

Interesting, concise writing and editing is key
Use a 3 level hierarchical approach; KIDS, GENERAL, SPECIALIZED (streakers, skimmers and scholars or divers, swimmers and waders )
Keep text panels short enough that they can be read without the well-known feeling of impatience for moving ones focus to the object on exhibit
Keep paragraphs to under a hundred words.
Group paragraphs into twos or threes with subheads.
A good guide line to follow is a 65 word maximum length

Supplement labels

Have handouts in each area for more detailed text
Consider selling a printed exhibition guide for visitors who want the “book” to take home

USING TECHNOLOGY
Audioguides or mobile devices NEVER replace labels

Audioguides replace in-exhibition catalogues books, and replace live tour guides.The media are different, because the purpose is different.
Interactive labels can provide detailed levels of information but they restrict the enjoyment of the object to one person and although that one person may get a lot out of it, other visitors may simply miss it because they can't be bothered to wait.

FINALLY
Never forget that People go to exhibitions to see 'objects'

Too often it is the background components to the exhibition not the objects that take centre stage. Allow the objects to speak first.

For most people involved with creating exhibits these points are common knowledge yet it seems that we all keep running across exhibits where even the basics get forgotten. So perhaps a Guideline should be posted in every museum and exhibit consultancy as a reminder that we owe our visitors the best experience possible.

Love to hear your thoughts. Please comment.

Mobile Museum

2011-09-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

What a great idea. Remember when a mobile museum came in a truck or bus and not on your phone.

As a kid I grew up in an area that didn't have a public library close by so once a week the Library Mobile came by and our family all walked down after dinner to take back books and get new ones for the upcoming week. How fantastic if the Museum Mobile came by also. Since it's in your neighborhood all your friends and neighbors would be there. It would be very social and encourage people to talk to each other about what they'd seen. Read more....Museums on the move

Here's a few more examples of Mobile Museums, if you know of more please send me the link.

The Science Matters Mobile Museum

PIAG Museum on Wheels

Muse Mobile: Museum on Wheels

The Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum

Arkansas Museum on Wheels

Enhancing the Museum Experience

2011-09-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

I just ran across this news release from last year and I'm not sure how feel about it. Frankly it sounds a titch Orwellian. I have to say up front I haven't seen the exhibit so I'm responding only to what I read in the press release.

I do like the idea that a visitors language preference would automatically come up but to assume that I want the information targeted means that I will only be exposed to some of what is available. This eliminates the opportunity for me to see something I wouldn't ordinarily look at or read about on an interpretive text panel and that's part of the reason I go to museums, to be surprised! I guess time will tell if this is what visitors really want in their museum experience.. I just hope the evaluators have taken into account the technological novelty factor when they determine success or failure of this. If anyone knows how it was recieved please let me know. Thanks

" The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC), a Smithsonian Affiliate, and Charles J. Simon, founder of pioneering technology companies and nationally recognized software developer, announced today the innovative pilot project PassPort to Discovery™. It is an interactive exhibit system designed to customize the visitor experience at museums and exhibit venues. Onscreen talking avatars greet visitors by name and can paraphrase the exhibit content. A unique gaming element allows visitors to answer questions and earn points - high scores are displayed.

"This unique technology was created to allow museum visitors to enjoy their exploration more by creating a totally customized and unique experience," said Charles Simon, developer of PassPort to Discovery™. "This is the only exhibit technology allowing visitors to capture their experience on their own ID card and have it remember their individual preferences every time they visit."

PassPort to Discovery™ opens September 1 at the MAC in combination with a new exhibit 100 Curious Things. This exhibit marks the start of a major effort to increase public digital access to MAC Collection materials.

This prototype includes touch screen computers associated with various pieces in the Spokane Timeline exhibit and unique visitor passes that can be sensed by the computers. Each of the exhibit's four interactive kiosks offers in-depth information on an aspect of Spokane history. The touch screens can target visitors' specific interests, grade level and language.

"This PassPort system enhances the learning process through a uniquely engaging experience using audio, video, animations, questions, and competition," said Ron Rector, MAC Executive Director."

Screen Based Interpretation

2011-09-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

In previous posts I have expressed concern over the rush to install screen based interpretation because I fear it takes the visitor away from the "real" experience in a museum exhibit. But this application from Microsoft on a multi touch table has some great possibilities if the content is carefully developed. I can imagine using this to present a very holistic discussion of an object; from what it was used for, who made it and how, the science behind the materials used and the significance it played in its moment in time and place among other topics. The possibilities are endless, the constraints only time and money for development. The question though, is all this technology and money providing more value and a better visitor experience than traditional methods of interpretation. I'm not sure but it is definitely cool and that might be the inherent problem in putting these in museums. How long will it take before this type of screen based interpretation gets passed the “novelty” stage, before visitors will stop playing with them and instead use them to actually explore the content with the intent to learn about the objects they have come to the museum to see. Maybe this will happen if they become as ubiquitous as current interpretive text panels, however, because of the cost I suspect this will be quite a few years yet.

In the meantime I can still enjoy the fun factor, play with the different screens and get my information from a book when I go home.

New York Times R&D Lab: The kitchen table of the Future from Nieman Journalism Lab.

Adobe Museum of Digital Media

2011-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Is this a look into the future of Virtual Museums?
The Adobe Museum of Digital Media is an exciting new approach to increasing access to museum exhibits and more importantly the curators and experts thinking behind the exhibitions. Perhaps museums could consider using this approach as a teaser to generate excitement around a particular exhibit. Or as a way of bringing additional meaning to the objects on display. Of particular interest to me was John Maeda's presentation A + B = C about the history of digital media and where it is going. John is always interesting and the design and approach of this presentation was very intriguing. Taking material you could expect at a TED Talk but presenting it in a way more in keeping with the theme of digital media.

An image of the Digital Museum

This is the kind of content and interesting presentation that would be worth paying for. With the new HD / internet ready televisions museums curators and exhibit designers might want to consider this as a way to reach out beyond their geographic catch basins. The trick here is to put serious thought into taking the presentation beyond the National Geographic norm and create something very cool and compelling to the new generation who were born with an wireless internet connection and a digital tablet in their cribs.

Check out the Adobe Museum of Digital Media

Harvard Museum of Natural History

2011-09-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

"This Object Has Been Removed" an exhibition at the HMNH

In conjunction with "Bizarre Animals" at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Jen Bervin and Christina Davis (with the instrumental and ingenious assistance of poets from Harvard and the literary community at large) created "This Object Has Been Removed" which opened on April 8, 2011. A fun slightly irreverent look at interpretive text panels. It's good to see exhibit designers with a great sense of humor. Perhaps using humor like this is a way to attract and encourage more visitors to read the interpretive text panels.

Here's a link to the Flickr set by Christina Davis

Mobile screen based interpretation

2011-09-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

I've recently mentioned my concerns about the rush to implement screen based experiences in museums at what seems to be the expense of "real" visitor experiences. See previous post "Visitor Experience, when did it become screen based". In reviewing what many museums are doing in this regard I know it is their focus for the future and I only hope that in this rush to embrace mobile interpretation the joy of viewing a "real" object is not lost. My fear is that moving the interpretation to mobiles will increase visitors distraction from the actual "real" object.

I came across the "Museums and Mobile Survey 2011...objectives, challenges and future of mobile interpretation" which clearly shows the trend.

Museums & Mobile 2011, Survey Results.

Courtesy of Pocket-Proof & LearningTimes

As designers we are going to have to come to grips with mobile technology and how we can use it to enhance the visitors experience. It will be up to us to approach this desire on the part of museums to participate with creating a quality visitor experience and not approaching it from a UXD,(user experience design)point of view.

Found this and couldn't resist even with the spelling mistakes

I would love to hear from others about their experiences and thoughts on this.

Designers studios

2011-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Posted under the curiosities label....

from the web site Where They Create

Where They Create an intriguing look into designers studios. A good way to spend an hour browsing the web with your morning coffee.

Visitor Experience, when did it become screen based?

2011-08-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

Awhile ago I posted the question “Do visitors still read text panels” on a Linkedin group for museum professionals and discussed it in this blog.

It resulted in a very spirited and interesting conversation about the use of text panels in exhibits and brought up many important issues that museum personnel notice that discourage visitors reading the text in an exhibit. The conclusion of most participants was yes, visitors do read text panels, though not all the panels and not all the text but some of the information is being read.

The conversation identified two big issues for me. The first is fairly straight forward to resolve and involves purely mechanical design issues. These are:

too much text in an exhibit. Panels with more than 150 words are not uncommon and some exhibits have up to 100 panels. Exhibits like these become known as a book on the wall and are one of the major causes of museum fatigue.
font size is often too small to read especially by older people whose eye sight is not 20/20 anymore, and sometimes the choice of font colour provides no contrast with the background.
low lighting required in many exhibits combined with either of the above two points compound the problems for reading.

All these can be resolved if the exhibit designers follow established accessibility guidelines and therefore should not be an issue in a well designed exhibit. But I fear that these issues, important as they are, do not resolve the second thing that came to mind while reading the replies on Linkedin. That is, have we lost the “wow” factor in exhibits by relying so much on text to convey the exhibit message?

I have notice that more and more exhibits in museums and interpretive centers have sameness about them. A few objects artfully arranged and a whole lot of graphic panels with photos and text. They are becoming three-dimensional books. Lost is the feeling of wonder when the visitor first enters an exhibit when you gaze at something never before seen and questions flood your mind, what is it, how does it work, why does it exist?

Perhaps it’s a product of “our age of information” where everything has been put on the television or internet. But isn’t the job of the design team to create something that stops the visitor dead in their tracks? Or has it become to provide a venue for more text? Often it seems like the latter. According to ICOM, the International Council of Museums the definition of museums is:

A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.

There’s no question that they are doing their job incredibly well but with so much information available to me nowadays I expect something more from a museum exhibit. I want to be “wowed and amazed” when I walk through those big imposing doors not invited to come in and read that’s why I go to the library. Maybe it’s the emphasis on education and study that’s driving the change. In the good old days a tiny hand written label with the name, location and date collected and material used would suffice. The artefact was the focus. If the visitor was intrigued enough the library was just around the corner. Now it seems the text and recently video information provided is the focus and the artefact or exhibit is merely the jumping off point.

Many museums are turning to using mobile technology to supply even more information. See post "Mobile screen based interpretation". The discussion now in design meetings is how we add more multimedia, text and make it accessible on a mobile platform. Our discussions about creating a visitor experience center on UXD, how visitors play with the text and video and not on how they experience the actual artefact. Our “WOW” visitor experience is becoming something centered on screens and has nothing to do with the “real” artefacts on display. The object is no longer enough, now we have to layer an augmented reality piece over it to make it exhibit worthy. I admit I love this stuff but I worry about the future of exhibits focused on screen based technology to deliver the experience when the technology in a twelve-year olds bedroom is more advanced than we can ever put in a museum.

I’m curious to hear what others think. I welcome your comments.