THE SCIENCE MUSEUM

-Rolf Steier

5/9/2005

Here's a link to the Museum Of Science and Industry in Tampa (http://www.mosi.org/) . This is where I gained experience in the museum culture as a visitor, volunteer and eventually employee. Although I plan On focussing this investigation on The Exploratorium in SanFrancisco (http://www.exploratorium.edu/), MOSI provides that basis for many of my ideas.

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5/10/2005

My initial thinking for this project concerns the notion that the science museum experience has become more and more entertainment-oriented. Without a doubt, this change is at least partly the result of competetion from other family oriented experiences (Disney etc.). I know that science centers must attract guests to generate funding. While there is certainly a legitimate argument that this shift in focus towards entertainment has detracted from stated goals of science education, I feel that that aspects of this trend actually positively impact the promotion of science education/ thinking. I'd like to specifically examine how the entertainment trend has impacted the design of specific museum exhibits.

Just browsing the above websites I've made some interesting (in my mind) observations:

• 19 exclamation points on the MOSI homepage
• raffle ticket image on MOSI homepage
• various movie/ entertainment catchphrases such as "coming soon" , "coming attractions" etc. (one must note, however, that these are advertising an imax theatre)
• the Exploratorium page has bright colors with "child-drawn" icons.
• an image of children jumping and laughing on the exploratorium page.

I don't intend to critique these observations, rather, get a sense of the culture and image being promoted by the museums.

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5/11/2005

Continuing with some thoughts brought up above, here is an interesting article by Don Norman:

The Future of Education: Lessons Learned from Video Games and Museum Exhibits. (Here is my reaction to this article, as well as other thoughts on the notion of education vs entertainment)

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5/19/2005 Posted by Deborah Yun

You should definitely look at Ned Kahn's webpage.

http://nedkahn.com/

He does all kinds of phenomenal installations for science museums all over the world. Check out his portfollio!

Here is his bio: Ned Kahn, an artist who has a background in environmental science, explores natural phenomena through his art. His works typically incorporate fluid dynamics, optics, acoustics, and other features of physics. During the 1980s, he was an apprentice to physicist Frank Oppenheimer at San Francisco's Exploratorium, which Oppenheimer founded. Kahn's works include Tornado, a simulation of the chaotic phenomenon, and Gaussian Melody, whose pin array, related to the Gaussian distribution, produces a random tune. "Converting abstract principles into tangible representations, Kahn's work is accessible to a vast and diverse audience, attracting and holding the attention of children, adults, artists, and physicists alike. Working out of Ned Kahn Studios in Sebastopol, California, he has designed exhibits for museums in the US, Canada, and Japan and has completed numerous public art commissions. Kahn's exhibits strike an emotional chord, reminding the viewer of nature's capacity to inspire apprehension, serenity, wonder, and awe.

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5/22/2005

WHAT WORK DOES A SCIENCE MUSEUM DO?

Here are some related Science Museum Papers that I have written.

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5/25/2005

Here's a museum exhibit that I designed for an art class last year: Shadow Play

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5/31/2005

I've added an interview that I conducted with the president of MOSI here:

Interview with Wit Ostrenko

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6/3/2005

To narrow the scope of this investigation a little more, let's examine the museum floor of the exploratorium.

I'd like to take a closer look at one exhibit called Turntable

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Here is an article that I just now found, but it totally reinforces many of the conclusions that I have drawn from this project:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/07/19/DD249354.DTL