Towering work in a brown paper wrapper

March 8, 2010 at 10:54 am
Filed under Design education, Exhibit Design, Green Related, Materials, Placemaking, Public Art

A ten-meter tower made entirely of recyclable cardboard, brought to the Carton Plein! exhibit in a small delivery truck, and erected in nine hours with no scaffolding.  Oh, and it’s student work. — A.M.

iMuseum anyone?

February 1, 2010 at 8:47 am
Filed under Architecture, Exhibit Design, Technology, museum

The flood of iPad-inspired applications is inevitable, of course. And it’s already started, way ahead of the devices actually being available for purchase.

Melbourne architects ClarkeHopkinsClarke, for example, has mocked up a wall of iPads that can be used in myriad ways in libraries, museums, or other cultural/public spaces. With their relatively low price tag and sophisticated, customizable features, an iPad array could be more flexible and less costly than a huge single LCD display, say the architects.

“Interchangeable wallpaper pattern [and] video is just the beginning, but imagin[e] a giant jigsaw that you can play using multitouch, an interactive aquarium scene, digital graffiti, interactive speaker wall, even a life sized digital bookcase for your iBooks!” We can, we can. — P.M.K.

Museum of disgraced statues

January 28, 2010 at 10:25 am
Filed under Exhibit Design

Berlin’s iconic statue of Lenin hasn’t been seen since 1991, when it was ceremoniously buried. But now the giant granite visage will be dug up to keep company with about 100 other disgraced statues in an exhibition titled “Unveiled: Berlin and its Monuments.”

Like Budapest with its Statue Park and Moscow with its Fallen Monuments Park, Berlin seems ready to acknowledge painful history—now that enough years have passed. The exhibition, to be staged in the Spandau Citadel, “won’t be a site for worship,” warned the project director. Instead, the exhibition will “explain and challenge the cult of monuments.” Lenin will be joined by Prussian royalty as well as Communist and Nazi leaders. — P.M.K.

Sound Playground

January 27, 2010 at 11:55 am
Filed under Collaboration, Exhibit Design, Interactive, Lighting

Toronto-based interaction design firm, Aesthetec Studio, designed the electronics and interfaces for Sound Playground at the Connecticut Science Center. The interactive sculptures allow visitors to compose music. There are four colorful digital instruments: “a ‘rhythm’ sequencer with 64 touch-sensitive key controls, a ‘melody’ fret board with 13 touch-sensitive frets, ‘harmony’ wheels whose tops spin to make, well, harmony, and an upright bass. The exhibit is meant for several people to play together.” Project collaborators include:  Jeff Kennedy Associates and AV&C.

Find great work-in-progress pics on flickr. — S.N.

Sound Playground at Connecticut Science Center from Aesthetec Studio on Vimeo.

MiaSci’s Living Core

January 22, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Filed under Architecture, Collaboration, Design Process, Exhibit Design, museum

The Miami Science Museum slated to begin construction this year will share the city’s Museum Park with the Miami Art Museum. The MiaSci building designed by Grimshaw Architects is “structured around a lushly landscaped indoor and outdoor ‘living core’ of terrestrial and aquatic exhibits, featuring one-of-a-kind aquarium components, a state-of-the-art digital dome, hands-on exhibits and interactive digital technology.” This week, marine experts from around South Florida met with the exhibit design team from Thinc Design for a brainstorming workshop focused on advancing the design of the aquarium components.

According to the MiaSci blog: “The workshop was the kickoff to an intensive period of exhibit development that will begin next month, drawing on the experts to refine the key messages and content areas of the Living Core. In particular, the group identified specific opportunities for connecting the exhibits to current research; how the exhibits could be used to explore the broad environmental and social impacts of such topics as aquaculture and climate change; ways to use technology to enhance the experience, and ways to engage the public in ongoing research and solutions to environmental challenges.”

For a full list of collaborators and updates on the project click here. — S.N.

View from the Living Core

Cooper-Hewitt goes iPod Touch

January 19, 2010 at 9:39 am
Filed under Exhibit Design, Interactive, Technology, Wayfinding, museum

“‘Design USA: Contemporary Innovation’ at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is less an exhibition than an extra-large design seminar in your head.

The show offers an array of objects and oddities, from household appliances to models for the sets of the musical “Hairspray,” punctuated by screens showing Web sites in action, among them one that locates pickup basketball games in New York. But the bulk of the exhibition takes place in the palm of your hand, on a specially programmed iPod Touch, the nonphone (but wireless-enabled) version of the iPhone. Apple has lent the museum a hundred of the devices in what is either a brilliant promotional move or — given the Cooper-Hewitt’s design-minded demographic — a case of pushing to the converted. They provide access to a wealth of interviews, slide shows and snippets of performances, all related to the 78 architects and designers represented in the show. Available free, this device sends the traditional audio guide the way of the one-horse buggy.” — L.G.D.

Mirror, Mirror

December 22, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Filed under Exhibit Design, Lighting, Public Art, Uncategorized

The Victoria & Albert’s new digital design exhibition (Decode: Digital Design Sensations) includes a site-specific installation by London-based designer Jason Bruges. Mirror, Mirror—an exploration of narcissism—is set in the V&A’s John Madesjki Garden pond. An arrangement of white dot digital matrices seem to float on the pond, lighting up as visitors approach and, via cameras mounted inside, capture activity and reflect it back to viewers. The animated images are mirrored again in the surface of the pond, creating reflections ad infinitum.

Bruges’ cross-disciplinary studio of architects and lighting, interaction, and industrial designers create works that “sit between the worlds of architecture, site-specific installations art, and interaction design.” Other projects include the 2007 Wind To Light project, which visualized the power of wind by using 500 mini turbines to generate the power to illuminate hundreds of tiny firefly-like LEDs. Smaller-scale projects include a 2007 lighting installation for Greenpeace and Get a Word In (2009), a permanent public art piece at Cambridge Regional College that allows students to share their messages, stories, opinions, and poetry on a custom double-sided scrolling screen. –P.M.K.

Refuse Probes Project

December 5, 2009 at 9:23 am
Filed under Exhibit Design, Green Related, Placemaking, Politics, Public Art, Social Issues

“At this year’s Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (SZHKB), LOT-EK  will be presenting their Refuse Probes Project. It is a physical and social device that visually questions the relationship between the artificial/manmade and the natural. The concept looks to the local waste of shenzhen’s manufacturing landscape. Using this refuse LOT-EK has produced vertical units, stacks which are a visual representation aspects of packing, shipping transformation and the movement and trade of goods within the area. They are cut and extracted out of the ground to reveal the layers of refuse accumulated under the top soil of the land.” — A.M.

El Museo del Barrio

October 27, 2009 at 11:29 am
Filed under Arts and Crafts, Exhibit Design, museum

El Museo del Barrio in New York brought in C&G Partners to help create two exhibits for the museum’s grand re-opening. Following a year and a half make-over in conjunction with the museum’s 40th anniversary, C&G created the inaugural and permanent-collection exhibitions: “Nexus New York” connects Latin American art in the early 20th century to the history of New York, and “Voces y Visiones” showcases the museum’s collection which directly links it to the East Harlem barrio a few blocks away.

To enhance gallery visitors’ experience of the exhibits and fulfill its mission to educate, celebrate and promote Latino culture, C&G Partners integrated audio-visual displays that augment and interpret both exhibits, along with text, large-scale quotes and images.

“The exhibit design is a balance between viewing the works of art and narrating the historical context. Interpretive displays exist on a horizontal plane so as not to interfere with the art on the walls. Since the art is varied in style and medium, the interpretive layer provides an essential link that aids understanding and represents the Latino voice,” says C&G Partners founding partner, Jonathan Alger, who led the design team. (source: ArtDaily.org)

Good Housekeeping on the road

October 26, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Filed under Branding, Exhibit Design

“Human Condition designed and produced a state-of-the-art, museum quality traveling exhibit for Good Housekeeping in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the magazine and the 100th anniversary of the Good Housekeeping Seal. The exhibit will tour cities across the U.S. and offer a multi-sensory replication of the GHRI facility and its seven labs by featuring interactive engagements, multimedia timelines, a kids’ lab, full IKEA kitchen facility-and more-all housed within a first-of-its-kind 28′ x 48′ inflatable dome. The structure’s state-of-the art design reflects the modern environmental values of the GHRI while providing a unique experience to visitors.

The traveling exhibit, themed “The Science Behind the Seal”, launched on September 26, 2009 in Tampa, FL. The tour also includes cities such as Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Chicago between September 2009 and May 2010. For more information and a tour schedule, visit Good Housekeeping on Tour.” — S.N.