Matching the Media to the Message

Matching the media to the message

Ed RodleyMuseum of Science, Boston

Tonight’s talk

Tonight’s talk

• Introduction

Tonight’s talk

• Introduction

• Overview of our exhibit development process

Tonight’s talk

• Introduction


• Star Wars!

Tonight’s talk

• Introduction


• Star Wars!

• Picking appropriate technologies

Tonight’s talk

• Introduction


• Star Wars!

• Picking appropriate technologies

• Questions (and hopefully, answers)

I’m Ed Rodley

I’m Ed Rodley

• I’m a dork

I’m Ed Rodley

• I’m a dork

• with a liberal arts bkgd

I’m Ed Rodley

• I’m a dork


• exhibit developer for 20+ years

I’m Ed Rodley

• I’m a dork


• exhibit developer for 20+ years

• current research interests include new media, mobiles, and AR

MOS exhibit development process



• Figure out the big picture with the big picture people



• Learn a bunch



• Learn a bunch

• Come up with goals with the right people



• Learn a bunch


• Educate your team



• Learn a bunch



• Come up with messages with your team and sort them



• Learn a bunch



• Come up with messages with your team and sort them



• Brainstorm experiences with your team



• Write the interpretive framework with your content team




• Prototype, prototype, prototype





• Build it





• Build it

• Open it





• Build it

• Open it

• Evaluate it. Did it “work?”

Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination

Figure out the big picture with the big

picture people

Learn a bunch

Learn a bunch

Learn a bunch

Learn a bunch

Come up with goals with the right people

Educate your team

Come up with messages with your team and sort them

Brainstorm experiences with your team




Write the interpretive framework with your

content team

Prototype, prototype, prototype





Build it

Open it

Evaluate: Did it “work?”

Picking appropriate technologies

A museum exhibition is “the medium of media”

Dan Spock


Dan Spock

An exhibition utilizes:


Dan Spock


• the written word,


Dan Spock



• sound,


Dan Spock



• sound,

• image,


Dan Spock



• sound,

• image,

• moving image,


Dan Spock



• sound,

• image,

• moving image,

• performance,


Dan Spock



• sound,

• image,

• moving image,

• performance,

• installation, and most recently,


Dan Spock



• sound,

• image,

• moving image,

• performance,


• digital electronics.


Dan Spock



• sound,

• image,

• moving image,

• performance,


• digital electronics.

120 artifacts

2,000 sq ft theater experience

object theater

PDA-based multimedia tour

25 interactives

2 hours of unique video

website

and a National Geographic book

So how’d we choose how to use all these media?

So how’d we choose how to use all these media?• We had clear goals and messages.


• We used them to make informed decisions about media.


• We used them to make informed decisions about media.

• We weren’t interested in any media for its own sake, only for the affordances it offered.

Clear goals and messages

• Make it easier to make hard decisions without it getting personal.

• Help you choose how to use technologies.

• Take the spotlight off the technologies as “the thing” and lets them be “the vehicle” instead.

Informed decisions

• We spent a long time coming up with criteria for the qualities every exhibit needed to possess.

• No exhibit can meet every criterion. However, you can make sure that each theme area contains exhibits that hit every one. It’s the mix that matters.

Criteria

Criteria• Connections

• To SW movies

• To tech and eng. standards

• To outside resources


• To SW movies



• Star Quality

• immersive

• iconic

• photogenic


• To SW movies



• Star Quality

• immersive

• iconic

• photogenic

• UD

• physcially accessible

• multisensory

• cultural connection

• gender appeal


• To SW movies



• Star Quality

• immersive

• iconic

• photogenic

• UD


• multisensory


• gender appeal

• Appeal

• kids, families

• adults w/o kids, SW fans

• teachers, students


• To SW movies



• Star Quality

• immersive

• iconic

• photogenic

• UD


• multisensory


• gender appeal

• Appeal

• kids, families



• Operations

• touring feasability

• maintenance

• artifact concerns

• staffing required


• To SW movies



• Star Quality

• immersive

• iconic

• photogenic

• UD


• multisensory


• gender appeal

• Appeal

• kids, families



• Operations


• maintenance



• Fits Tech Plan

• exposure to new tech

• engages in design process

• explores social implications


• To SW movies



• Star Quality

• immersive

• iconic

• photogenic

• UD


• multisensory


• gender appeal

• Appeal

• kids, families



• Operations


• maintenance



• Fits Tech Plan




• Fits Messages

• You can have fun using tech. skills to design a future...

• Both real and fantasy tech begin w. imagination

• It helps to know about science.

• To turn ideas into tech., you have to design, build, test.

• You need to think about implications

• New techs are being created righ tnow...


• To SW movies



• Star Quality

• immersive

• iconic

• photogenic

• UD


• multisensory


• gender appeal

• Appeal

• kids, families



• Operations


• maintenance



• Fits Tech Plan




• Fits Messages

• You can have fun using tech. skills to design a future...

• Both real and fantasy tech begin w. imagination

• It helps to know about science.

• To turn ideas into tech., you have to design, build, test.

• You need to think about implications

• New techs are being created righ tnow...

• Miscellaneous

Informed decisions - video example

• On big screens

• On small screens

• On handheld screens

• Embedded in interactives

• On website

• Display medium determined content often.

• Ex. movie clips are very wide, don’t look good on squareish PDA screens, while talking heads are squares

• Therefore SW clips ended up on big monitors in gallery and PDA got lots of ppl talking. This led to aiming the whole PDA at the folks who made the movies and the RW tech

Media for its own sake

Media for its own sake

• We wanted it to look Star Wars-y. It would’ve been expensive to build.

• We wanted the pieces to interact with each other. Hard to do physically.

• We wanted the scene to react to the choices visitors made.

• We wanted there to be people in each scenario. Imposible to do otherwise.

Why Augmented Reality?

Questions?

Education

Matching the Media to the Message