I have been having a lot of problems with my office computer lately. I've had to call IT each time I've gone in so hopefully that gets resolved soon because I can't even get Windows to load on most occasions. It's a little surprising how much I use the computer -- especially email. In these few weeks I've emailed the University of Maryland College Park Medical Campus about procuring a set of plastinated healthy lungs for the Bodies Exhibit. Apparently a lot of the other plastinated organs that we use were loaned to us by the medical school. I was also given the task of photographing the Gas Model exhibit and email them to the Exploratorium (the well-renowned science museum in San Francisco). The Gas Model piece is actually a very cool illustration of gas molecules and pressure. Bouncy balls represent air molecules, and as they randomly bounce around they push on a piston-like piece of board. I attached some of the photos below:
The most exciting thing of recent is probably the opening of the Pirates/Shipwrecks Exhibit in the traveling exhibits hall. I was able to see the installation of all the pieces before it opened, walk through the exhibit on the first day of its public opening, and this past weekend when almost everything was finished in it. I wrote a brief review below, but be sure to check it out in person before the museum replaces it in january:
Overall, the Pirates Exhibit in the travelling exhibits hall was a very enjoyable experience -- especially for someone not very knowledgeable in archaeology or anthropology. I liked the entranceway in that it takes you to the inside of an old ship’s hull and sort of screens out the sights and sounds from the rest of the museum. However, prior to the crux of the exhibit, the introductory video was a bit lacking in attention-grabbing due to the sunlight pouring in from the outside staircase. This resulted in a lessened theater experience, and it was difficult to not just walk straight into the pirate-part of the exhibit and skip the video altogether.
Once in the pirate-portion of the exhibit, the small interactive pieces like the periscopes, guessing the treasure, and knot-tying were really nice and attractive educational pieces. I noticed that a lot of the younger museum-goers really liked the raising/lowering of the pirate flags (and also maybe the “guessing” treasure chests might be too heavy for some children). I thought this was a very creative and fun way to display examples of the Jolly Roger without simply having one hanging idle. The fake pirate corpses were also a good addition. I was a bit disappointed to not see more things in this section though.
The next little passageway to the robotics section (the area with the replica paddle-wheel) was good in that it continued the same aesthetic feel and added sounds. It would have been really engaging to have some sort of background audio throughout, but I know that was probably not possible. As for the information presented here, it was a bit less interesting than the facts on pirates in my opinion.
The robotics area was a striking contrast in terms of environmental style. However, here is where my favorite pieces were. The hurricane simulator and robotic arm were very engaging. It may have been more difficult to test these things out if there were more people, but they were fun. One of the more impressive computer-based interactives was sort of situated inconveniently in the back corner, but the simulated underwater area next to it drew me over there anyway.
The last bit of the exhibit was the artifacts. I feel like I might have passed over some interesting things because the lighting and presentation there were not very “museum-like” if you will. This is probably a limitation of the travelling exhibit, but I feel like more emphasis could have been placed on the actual objects from the shipwrecks because I definitely feel like I underappreciated them.
To conclude, I thought that the exhibit was very well-rounded. The amount of actual artifacts, interactive/hands-on displays, and facts was pretty evenly split. The one thing I might have to question is the “science” aspect of it all. It seems very anthropological, which is still nice, but I feel like the dinosaurs exhibit had a similar “hard-science” hurdle that it addressed better than this one. I also left the exhibit wanting to know more about what makes ships sink (for that information was provided on one placard) and maybe even more on pirate-punishment. I’m not sure if this applies to everyone, but the sequence of pirates-robotics-artifacts sort of decreases in appeal. However, other than that slight observation and my want for more “science”, I thought that the exhibit was an extremely enjoyable one, especially in a subject that I never really paid much attention to.
Well, that's it for now. In the coming weeks I should be helping Peter with staining/painting some of the exhibits that have had their finishes worn off from use. We were going to start that yesterday but the high traffic of patrons on Friday evening made it impossible. So far I have been able to see both the clerical and maintenance side of exhibits. It seems like everyone helps each other with aspects outside of their specific designation.
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