Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Back to the Future
1954 GM Futurliner
I was surprised to find a real gem in the paper last weekend – a photograph of a 1954 GM Futurliner. Looking over its streamlined shape, gargantuan size and in–your–face red, I was at a loss to guess its function; But it turns out that the Futurliner was used to transport General Motors’ travelling exhibition ‘Parade of Progress’.
The ‘Parade of Progress’ displayed the modern wonders of science and technology, including such marvels as microwave cooking! Yet, the actual Futurliners themselves must have also played an enormous role in attracting visitors. Just imagine an entire convoy of Futurliners rolling into town – an event that according to General Motors was always carried out ‘in daylight for maximum effect’.
A Futurliner was recently bought by a private collector for A$5.6 million! Weird huh? Perhaps, but I can kinda understand it. Just like General Motors’ Futurama, it has a sense of optimism and fun that is pretty appealing. I know I’d be absolutely gobsmacked to see a Futurliner rocking up in my neighbourhood.
Tags: museum, museums, design, futurliner |
Posted by Lisa at 11:26 AM
Friday, January 27, 2006
Short and Snappy (No. 6)
Is it time to slow down? Design Observer on why the drive to be new and different is not always the most appropriate solution.
TED blog asks whether Flickr is the museum of the future. The magazine covers that TED refers to have inspired me to scan and upload some equally charming covers rejected by the WA Medical Museum.
More covers – Today’s Front Pages features the covers of over 400 papers from 45 unique countries a day.
(Via Coolhunting)
Australian blog Information Aesthetics is up for a Bloggies Award. The site explores creative ways of visualising information. The mind truly boggles when you think about the numerous different ways that one piece of information can be communicated.
EXCITING! Bila + Design on Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin’s plans for the Lightning Ridge Opal and Fossil Centre. Plans are for the museum to be built underground with the roof covered in solar panels. I’m really interested in the impact this will have on the control of the interior’s environment in terms of conserving the objects. Excuse me for gushing, but I’m a big fan of Murcutt!
Vote for your favourite British Design Icon from this shortlist. I’m torn between voting for the Penguin paperback covers (not surprisingly) the mini and the underground map. Although without Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web, I might not be writing this here! How on earth are you supposed to compare these things anyway?!
Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, labels the current teaching of history in Australia a ‘fragmented stew’ in his speech to the National Press Club on Australia Day. Deja vu anyone?
And finally, something for Megan and Eddie who are dissecting hearts this morning – Chateau Bizzare’s oddity of the week is an ‘anatomically correct’ heart soap. Possibly not the most romantic gift for valentines.
(Via BoingBoing)
Tags: museum, museums, design, australia |
Posted by Lisa at 12:02 PM
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Designing for Emotion
Futurama, World’s Fair, New York City, 1939
‘You do not go to museums to look at things; you go to be enveloped by a mood, an ambience, a scene’
Jed Perl
One of the most difficult aspects of designing, whether for museums or otherwise, is accounting for the emotional response of the audience. A lovely post titled ‘Grandma’s Yellow Kitchen’ at IdeasOnIdeas shows just how varied responses to a design can be – in this case a client’s negative reaction to the colour yellow based on her memories of the old–fashioned yellow kitchen belonging to her grandma.
As Jed Perl’s quote suggests, the importance of how a museum connects to an audience on an emotional level should not be underestimated. In recent years, in the design-world, ‘emotion’ has been something of a buzzword. Authors such as Donald Norman  and Virginia Postrel argue that the pleasure people get from a design is equally important as functionality – in the more traditional sense of the word.
Looking back at the history of exhibition design there are many examples of designers who have used their capacity to harness emotions to connect to the audience. One of my favourite examples is Norman Bel Geddes and his exhibition ‘ Futurama ’ for General Motors at the World’s Fair, New York City, 1939. Bel Geddes took the audience on a journey into the future – a vision of a 1960s city – using theatrical techniques, spectacular lighting and a soundtrack. Focusing attention by engrossing the audience in the experience, Bel Geddes was able to achieve the effect of immersing the audience in a utopian and optimistic vision of the future.
In contemporary museum environments, immersive exhibitions are a popular means of engaging the audience’s emotions. Ralph Appelbaum Associate’s exhibits are famous for enabling visitors to take on a role, for example that of ‘victims’ at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
Immersive display methods can be powerful in creating an emotional response. However, they can also be potentially limiting if the intention is to provoke a more individual response to the information presented.
The important thing to remember is that everything in a display, whether it be the colour yellow, or a mannequin with blue eye-shadow communicate at an emotional level. And that these reactions help build the museum experience.
If there are any museum experiences of your own that provoked strong emotions, MODE would love to hear about them. |
Posted by Lisa at 1:26 PM
Monday, January 16, 2006
A Good Egg
I hear ya!
Do–re–mi
Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
Now in most jobs you start on a salary
In museums at first you work for free
Work for free?
The first three years are voluntary
Work for free?
(spoken) Let’s see if I can make it easy…
Dough, I fear, we lack my dears
Raids from elsewhere left us short
Meetings on more budget cuts
Far, far worse than I had thought
So forget what I have said
Laugh as if you didn’t know
Teetering right on the edge
And it all comes back to dough…
(spoken) Now, meetings and budgets and so on are only the tools we use to build a service. Once you have the notes in your heads, you can sing a million different tunes by mixing them up. Like this…
When you know the notes to sing
You can get project funding
From the anonymous author of The Curator’s Egg |
Posted by Lisa at 3:49 PM
Friday, January 13, 2006
Me: Photo Mad, Festival Happy
I’ve become a little obsessive about photography. In my spare time, I can be found taking photos, uploading to Flickr or being inspired by Wrkshy and her Phototrippin’ adventures. Needless to say, this has been a distraction from other important stuff in my life – like MODE!
So, I was pretty excited yesterday to find out that there’s something coming up that combines both photography with some museum– exhibition– goodness – FotoFreo. The brochure describes this festival as ‘one of the most important photographic events in the Southern Hemisphere’. I was a tad sceptical about this claim, but one look at the website will confirm that this event is Big.
The festival includes a day-long conference on the 25th of March. The keynote address is by Mark Haworth-Booth, Senior Curator of Photography at the V&A from 1970 to 2004. Gael Newton, the National Gallery’s Senior Curator of Photography, will also be speaking.
As well as the conference, there will be many exhibitions held everywhere from Gino’s Cafe to the Fremantle Prison. One of the ‘fringe’ exhibitions that caught my eye is the work of museum photographer Pat Barker, at the Shipwreck Galleries, along with a ‘fascinating collection of historic underwater cameras’.
Can’t wait! |
Posted by Lisa at 11:01 AM
Monday, January 09, 2006
Short and Snappy (No. 5)
Eliza, my littlest little sister, at the WA Medical Museum Open Day.
Has visiting museums and galleries in Sydney become cheaper? The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) thinks so…
Also in the SMH, the Powerhouse Museum’s Kevin Fewster argues against any notion that the Powerhouse is ‘dumbing down’.
Andrew Goodrich from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has written to inform MODE that they have now launched podcasts. Andrew has also asked for your feedback which you can email to asksfmoma@sfmoma.org
Thanks to Carrie Kilpin for pointing out that the New York Times recently featured an article on Perth, museums and all.
‘pretty rad’ is the description Treehugger gives for the Centre for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) – not only do they produce exhibitions but they also have an extensive database.
Bila + Design – a new Sydney based blog on contemporary design.
Another way to browse the world’s museums – Flickr’s Museum Clusters.
‘…selected for technical innovation, aesthetic excellence and cultural significance and mobility, speed, rebellion, desire, freedom, love, sex and danger’ the Orlando Museum of Art will be displaying 80 motorcycles from 1884 to 2005. You can also contribute by sending in your own motorcycle story.
(via Core 77).
And HAPPY NEW YEAR!! There are a number of new projects in the works for MODE, so keep your eye out for these in the coming weeks… |
Posted by Lisa at 1:55 PM
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