When I am working on a project I am always thinking “Big to Small”.  What are the big things that need to be finished before I can move onto the smaller and then smaller tasks.  It is all to easy to get tied up in the smaller tasks at the start of a project, so I think “Big to Small” or “Can the project open without X”, if the project can open without X, look for bigger tasks first.

An exhibition needs electricity, that’s big, the exhibition needs a complete design, that’s big, the exhibition needs a fabrication firm, that’s big.  You can open an exhibition without a photo caption, an exhibition can open without an interactive in place (yes it can open without one of the interactives in place!), an exhibition can open with a typo, an exhibition can open without all of the graphic panels, but you can’t open without the electricity!  “Big to small”

I call lots of museums.  I have become fascinated by the telephone systems of different museums, some museum telephone systems are easy to navigate and some are nerve racking and frustrating.

Exhibitions are a form of communication and the culture of the museum offers the “voice” to that communication.  Is the “voice” a friend? A teacher? An older relative?  It is fascinating the different voices that are communicated for exhibitions.  I like thinking in analogies, often I learn more about the culture of a museum from their phone system than I do from their organizational chart.  Is the phone system user friendly?  Easy to navigate? Helpful?  Able to connect me with the information in the way I want to connect?

Think about your own museum phone system and try calling as a teacher wanting to book a school trip.  Try calling as a mother wanting directions, try calling as the vendor who works on the air conditioning, for each call were your needs met?  Could you connect with the appropriate person?

In many ways a phone system is like a museum, callers are contacting the museum for information tailored to them in a welcoming fashion at their own level, a tall order, but try calling American Express and see how you feel or call Fidelity Investments and see how you feel.  Information tailored to the visitor in a pleasant and efficient manner, it can be done!

From the New York Times, July 3, 2010, By Robert Peele

A Quick Trip to the Nascar Hall of Fame

“In short, I was impressed. Glory Road, the sweeping exhibit that greets fans as they enter the museum’s Great Hall, features 18 classic Nascar vehicles parked on a track whose banking gradually increases as the cars progress into the modern era. It’s the museum’s green flag, in a sense, and it offers a neat snapshot of the history of stock car racing. Not surprisingly, cars from the sport’s earlier decades — back when they actually looked like stock cars, in other words — were the highlights. Favorites included Herb Thomas’s 1952 Hudson Hornet, Fireball Roberts’s 1963 Ford Galaxie and the Plymouth Belvedere in which Richard Petty won 27 races, including 10 in a row, in 1967.”

Great guideline from the Association of Children’s Museums 2010 Interactivity panel “The Changing Face of Technology in Children’s Museums”.

The 3/6/9/12 rule:

No computer screens before age 3, no internet before age 6, no electronic gaming until age 9 and no unsupervised internet before age 12.

“Killer Ring” By Tobias Wong, Photo Courtesy the New York Times

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Tobias Wong. Tobias was a young artist / designer living in New York City. Tobias blurred the lines between Art and Design and made us more aware of the american consumer culture.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/06/27/style/20100627WONG.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/fashion/27Wong.html

Field Museum’s focus on climate change :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Lifestyles.

“The exhibit and the plan provide a call to action on climate change,” said the Nature Conservancy’s Bob Moseley, speaking Friday at a joint launch for the show and the Climate Action Plan for Nature he helped create. “But the impact of the many things we can and should do will not be felt for another 50 to 100 years.”

My firm Mark Walhimer Exhibition Design has been hired by the Los Vaqueros Intrpretive Center to create a schematic design for their new exhibits as part of their California Proposition 84 grant proposal.  As I am going through the process I thought it might be interesting to document the steps of the schematic design process.

1. Prior to the first meeting with the client gather general information (review website, admission cost, membership cost, location, demographics of location, museum square footage)
2. First meeting review current museum exhibitions and programs, review current museum objectives and mission, review with floor staff what is working well and not working well, understand desired outcomes of new exhibition
3. While with client create initial sketches and get feedback
4. While with client discuss possible exhibition ideas
5. Photograph current exhibition spaces and space for new exhibition
6. Document findings of first meeting
7. Review meeting notes with client
8. Create photo pages of the current exhibitions and space for new exhibition.  Review objectives as part of photo pages
9. Create style boards, a visual collage representation of the new exhibition
10. Create a Venn diagram of the visitor path and content
11. Review with client, photo pages, style boards and Venn diagram
12. Make revisions to photo pages, style boards and Venn diagram
13. Create framework for final design presentation
14. Create draft exhibition walk-through.  Describe the exhibition visitor experience
15. Create budget framework
16. Create schedule framework
17. Review budget and schedule with client, often it is helpful to review budget and schedule prior to designing exhibition.
18. Draft Schematic design drawings
19. Client feedback
20. Revise budget and schedule with client feedback on drawings
21. Revise drawings
22. Assemble draft schematic design presentation containing; general museum information, exhibition objectives, exhibition walk-through, budget, schedule, schematic drawings, exhibition narrative, Venn Diagram and Style board
23. Review draft design presentation with client
24. Make revisions to design presentation
25. Print out final design presentation either 11″ x 17″ or 8.5″ x 11″
26. One copy for client, one digital copy on CD

The above effort represents between 40 hours ($5000) and 320 hours ($40,000) depending on the exhibition square footage.  In a future post I will share a complete schematic design presentation.

Photo – Current entrance to Interpretive Center

Images: Daniele Mattioli

Amazing exhibition “Seed Cathedral” at Expo 2010 Shanghai China. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick.

http://www.heatherwick.com/uk-pavilion/

http://en.expo2010.cn/c/en_gj_tpl_71.htm

1. Science Centers – Most Innovative
2. Aquariums
3. Children’s Museums
4. Natural History Museums
5. Mobile museums
6. Military and war museums
7. Corporate museums
8. State history museums
9. Art Museums
10. Zoos
11. Local History Museums
12. Living History, Farm and Agriculture Museums
13. Historic houses – Least Innovative

At a museum conference session participants became defensive about adopting technology in museum galleries.  It got me thinking, “is there a “Spectrum of Innovation in Museums ?”".  “Are some types of museum more innovative than others?”

“Spectrum of Innovation in Museums” (for the purpose of the spectrum including Science Centers, Zoos, Living History and Aquariums). Such a spectrum is an insight into the culture of different institutions.

The question I asked myself, “how likely would the museum be to adopt a new technology? (not based on budget)”

Of course this is a generalization, would love to hear feedback.

- Mark

A friend sent the attached link amazing!  What if all transportation infrastructure was kinetic sculpture?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel

Concept Video:

http://www.bennettmg.co.uk/video/falkirk_concept.htm

In Operation:

http://www.bennettmg.co.uk/video/falkirk.htm