1 / 21

Deconstructing Exhibits: What is an Exhibit Anyway?

Deconstructing Exhibits: What is an Exhibit Anyway?. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway?. What is an exhibit anyway?. To exhibit: to present for others to see To present in a public exhibition or contest To give evidence or an instance of; demonstrate

kathie
Download Presentation

Deconstructing Exhibits: What is an Exhibit Anyway?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Deconstructing Exhibits: What is an Exhibit Anyway?

  2. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? What is an exhibit anyway? • To exhibit: • to present for others to see • To present in a public exhibition or contest • To give evidence or an instance of; demonstrate • To present or introduce officially • To put something on public display

  3. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? • What does an exhibit do? • An exhibit raises issues visually (and maybe with other senses) so that they can be grasped quickly. • Creates “call-outs” • Can ‘call-outs’ readily be identified by the visitor? • The thoughts, feelings, and responses as you experience the exhibition as a visitor

  4. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? The reinvented museum meets its test: the authority of exhibits • “Authenticity is not about factuality of reality. It is about authority. Objects have no authority; people do… Authenticity – authority – enforces the social contract between audience and museum, a socially agreed upon reality that exists only as long as the confidence in the voice of the exhibition holds.” (Crew & Sims p.163)

  5. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? The reinvented museum meets its test: the authority of exhibits • “Although curators might hold authority over interpretations stemming from their technical and scholarly knowledge, that does not necessarily qualify them to speak to meanings that are based on nonscholarly criteria of knowing” (Lisa Roberts “Changing Practices of Interpretation”)

  6. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? McLean “Dynamics of Dialogue” Embracing the tensions “Museums are both temple and forum….exhibitions are about people communicating with each other. By embracing the tensions inherent in a dialogue,…we will become better able to articulate our issues in common.”

  7. Recall your favorite exhibit: What made it so memorable or enjoyable? Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway?

  8. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? First - Some basic ways to think about exhibits • Duration • Scale • Modes of communication • Process • Space • Experience

  9. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? On the matter of representation • To represent: • To stand for; symbolize • To indicate or communicate by signs or symbols • To depict in art; portray • To present clearly to the mind • To draw attention to by way of remonstrance or protest • To describe or put forward (a person or thing) as an embodiment of a specified quality • To serve as an example of • Museum exhibits often are “models” of very complex concepts and realities. • Selection of objects, label text, arrangement, and design all carry value and have an impact on the viewer

  10. Kinds of exhibits:Duration • Permanent • Temporary • Traveling • Mobile / Portable

  11. Kinds of Exhibits:Scale Range of scale: Blockbuster • large size (# objects, sq.ft.) • high profile • big budget Small, temporary • Few or single object focus • Low budget • Low tech (little media) • Few interactives

  12. Kinds of exhibits: modes of communication Not mutually exclusive: • Emotive (Aesthetic and Evocative) • Didactic • Interactive/ Participatory I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

  13. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? Other ways to think about exhibits:what makes them effective? • As a process • As a designed space • As an experience

  14. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? The Rules of Display • Simplicity: ‘cleanness’ and lack of complication • Simplicity is difficult • Emphasis: the stress or prominence given to an idea, object, or design element. • If all elements are of equal interest, no one of them will receive attention. • Unity: singleness of effect or style, related style, or totality of related parts • Repetition and consistencyare crucial. • Balance: the "weight force" or influence countering the effect of another element in the display • Determining the visual weight of various design elements is difficult. Derived from Sally Lancaster’s Exhibits in the Library

  15. Exhibits as process: exhibits are authored, designed, created by people Exhibit Development staff (museum staff, exhibit design firm, or combination) • Curator-centric model • Curator as expert and author with support team of assistants, designer, educator, registrar • Team model • “Core” team (curator, designer, exhibit developer, educator) • Broader team (adding one or more of the following: fund raising/development, marketing, collections manager, facilities manager, museum store manager (if merchandising is an issue), school programs coordinator, media specialists (web designer, etc.) Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway?

  16. Exhibits as process:How are exhibits created? Models for thinking about exhibit development • Film production • Varied roles on the production team • Story boarding process • Plot line and drama • Visual communication • Research paper • Main message, point of view • Supported with scholarly research • Amusement park ride • Planned experience, drama Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway?

  17. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? How are museum exhibits different from other models (films, research papers, amusement rides)? • Different goals • Different tools • Different relationship with the community

  18. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? • An exhibit mission statement? • Mission statements vs. plans • Elements of an exhibit mission statement should reflect the museum’s mission statement

  19. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? Exhibit goals “Objects, ideas, and people are met in the interpretive exhibition, a kinds of narrative form. It is a narrative concerned with re-presenting the past, making present that which is not usually present” (Crew and Sims, p.173) • Learning outcomes (changes in visitor knowledge, skills, attitudes, etc.) • Experience design (what visitors will do and feel, how they will interact

  20. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? Exhibits as a designed space: The toolkit • Objects • Images • Text • Media • Interactives • Props • Live interpreters • Audience • Design of Ambience/environment • Infrastructure

  21. Deconstructing exhibits: What is an exhibit anyway? • An exercise: • Deconstruct two online exhibits • Discuss Civil War and Edison examples • Duluth Lynchings Online Resource • An award-winning Minnesota Historical Society virtual exhibit • Native American Art: Irish American Trade • A British Museum exhibit that is the focus of an IUPUI MSTD class and a possible Eiteljorg exhibit

More Related