Archives | June 2009 | Bemusement - The Attractions Industry Blog

Monday, June 22, 2009 Waterparks: Chemicals and Safety With all the water safety instruction supplied by such institutions as the International Association of Amusement Park and Attractions, World Waterpark Association...

together with the information provided by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, I would hope that the type of incidents that occurred Thursday at the Pirate's Cove Children’s Theme Park and Rainbow Falls Waterpark in Elk Grove, Illinois would be minimized. In this instance, both facilities are operated by the Elk Grove Park District, a division of a municipal government that is charged with public safety. The June 18 Chicago Sun-Times reports that three children were hospitalized with inhalation injuries caused by a chemical reaction in the water around 1:00 PM Central Daylight time. The story quotes Elk Grove Fire Chief David Miller saying the parks “ran out of their normal chlorine and somehow it got mixed with another chemical they didn't know would create a reaction. They picked it up at some additional supplier because they didn't have enough chlorine." And simultaneously, the same two chemicals were being mixed at Rainbow Falls park but no gas was released - according to news coverage in the June 18 Chicago Daily Herald because the materials didn't mix together completely. Apparently, if the combination of chemicals did heat up enough, it could have caused a fire. Just imagine that possible scenario with the several hundreds of people at the two parks on a warm June day. To me, this story screams the need for facilities to review their staff training and step up their vigilance on the safe use of chemicals. The injuries were minimized this time, but we need to learn from the incidents. All employees may not appreciate the potential dangers of the chemicals in their workplace. It may be time to find new and fresh ways to keep staff educated on preventing chemical hazards to the best of everyone's ability, and the proper procedures to follow in the event that such a mistake should occur again.
Posted By Greg Van Gompel -- At 1:32 PM \| Comments (2) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Amusements Parks, Attractions Business, Legal/safety, Waterparks Tags chemicals, legal, safety, waterpark
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Saturday, June 20, 2009 InfoComm's Audiovisual Marketplace: The floor according to Steve Friday, June 19 was the last day of InfoComm 09. This year, the world's largest pro audiovisual marketplace celebrated its 70th anniversary and reported respectable numbers: 28,000 attendees and 850 exhibitors. Exhibitors scramble to get new products, upgrades and prototypes ready in time for this important marketplace.

As a technical designer and consultant, it's extremely useful to me to know about things that are in the pipeline, even if the cool new stuff hasn't yet been field-tested, because we're designing facilities two and three years out. That taste of a product that may not be fully deliverable today but will be in the future, especially from a company that we trust, lets us plan for our clients. That's what I had in mind when I walked the floor today, and here are some impressions. Desperately seeking 16:10 aspect ratio InfoComm 09 saw the premiere of Evans & Sutherland's new AK digital laser video display. It is a flatscreen version of the company's dome laser system featured at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium in Griffith Observatory. In general I have been critical of today's much-hyped digital cinema systems and like the presentation nerd that I am, went up and stuck my face into the screen. I was pleasantly surprised: Although it wasn't as bright as I thought it could be, there was no dot-matrix or screen-door effect. Even just a foot away from the screen, I couldn't see the projection process (although I could see the remnants of the screen, which appeared to be silvered.) More dynamic imagery would show it off better, and some computer graphics. By and large, projector manufacturers are missing a very obvious bet. Our laptops are widescreen now and have been for a few years... so why, why, why are they still coming out with 4:3 ratio products (Sanyo, for example) when widescreen ratios are 16:9 or 16:10???? One of the few manufacturers that gets it is the company simply named “projection design” (they like it all lower case) – whose projectors, with the exception of 3D models, all had the widescreen aspect ratio. To Canon's credit, they also had projectors with the widescreen ratio as well as the historical 4:3 format. Canon's LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) created a great image and in their side-by-side test display, comparing the company's LCOS and LCD projectors, the LCOS color appeared to be more realistic. DLP's new 3D chip looks promising for entertainment, gaming and product development applications. Their no-lamp (LED) light source projection engine also seems viable. It will be interesting to follow LED projection engines for brightness and color saturation. Bob Schluter, president and chief engineer of Middle Atlantic Products subsidiary ExactPower, showed off the company's new power distribution system. I found it to be a well-engineered product from a great engineer who listens to and understands the needs of the AV industry. Audio: A dearth of demos There were some new configurations and flavors in audio DSP (digital signal processing) boxes, and everybody seemed to be hawking a steerable line array, but we didn't find anything really new in the audio department. Unfortunately the presentations in the audio demonstration rooms were not up to the caliber of displays at past NSCA shows – in spite of there being so much total floor space, there were not enough dedicated rooms to provide the quantity and length of audio demos that would truly serve attendees. Now that NSCA and InfoComm are joined at the hip, InfoComm needs to learn from what NSCA and AES have done in the past. During a recession, a trade show organizer can command a lot of square footage for its money, and InfoComm's total floor area was quite generous with a lot of it unused. I would like to have seen it allocated differently. There could have been more audio demo rooms and the floor could easily and painlessly have been compressed by incorporating the lighting pavilion and eliminating some of the many lounge areas. Video vapors InfoComm's video conferencing pavilion has grown quite a bit but alas, a good chunk of that growth is vendors pushing prefabricated or pre-engineered non-solutions that fail to achieve the core goal of good video conferencing design: eye-to-eye contact. Three cameras and three displays don't automatically make it better. First and foremost, your system must get the camera and display set up for a face-to-face meeting. Some 10 years ago, at TiLE in London, we were treated to the introduction of a reflective Pepper's Ghost type conferencing display that presented life-sized, full body images floating in space from the far end, and more such systems were in good supply on the InfoComm floor this year. One exhibitor went so far as to speak of having patented the process, but when questioned further retreated to say they'd only patented the element of using a Mylar screen. While the process may have improved in such things as image resolution, it still fails to deliver a good communication experience and belongs more in the realm of entertainment than in the boardroom. The venerable Pepper's Ghost illusion has been successfully adapted for theme park attractions and museum exhibits, but it is awkward here. Missing the Dopplers As president of the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) I am pleased to note the following TEA members were exhibiting at InfoComm (advance apologies to anyone who I may have inadvertently left out – I tried to crosscheck but may have missed someone): Alcorn McBride, Community Professional Loudspeakers, Electronic Theater Controls (ETC), Electrosonic, Evans & Sutherland, Gilderfluke, Martin Professional, Medialon, Middle Atlantic Products, and Tannoy. While wandering the floor, I even ran into Steve Birket of Birket Engineering, TEA’s Eastern Division President; could he be checking out the lighting pavilion? It was hot in Orlando, but the trip to InfoComm is always worthwhile. We caught up with old friends and made some new ones, and we found some cool stuff. Surprisingly absent from the floor, however, were the Doppler projection systems. [Editor's note: satire ahead!] These are a promising new advance still in the prototype stage, developed by a few enterprising and imaginative industry members. After numerous conversations with students who were concerned about crossing projection beams of cross-firing displays, these innovators began experimenting with two projectors and offsetting them front to back. They discovered that this unique (and somewhat counterintuitive) setup has, under certain circumstances, the ability to transmit the projected image to the screen before it ever leaves the projector - hence the name Doppler projection. This has numerous advantages, including significant energy savings. Since the image arrives before it has left, no light is required, therefore no lamp is needed, and no power. Once perfected, it will in fact be the ultimate Green projection system. So who will be the first to have a working unit ready for next year's show? InfoComm will return to Las Vegas in 2010, June 9-11. See you there. See also: Technology for Entertainment, Education and Business: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm 09 Audiovisual and Acoustics Engineering: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm The Business of Audiovisual Technology: Steve Thorburn's InfoComm diary, day three
Posted By Steve Thorburn -- At 11:34 AM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Attractions Business, Trade Shows Tags a/a, audiovisual, AV, electrosonic, infocomm, Orlando
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Friday, June 19, 2009 The Business of Audiovisual Technology: Steve Thorburn's InfoComm diary, day three Get a bunch of techies together in Orlando in June and their thoughts turn naturally to the invention of fantastic new personal air conditioning devices...

From AV to AC Commiserating about the heat and humidity on the way to dinner Wednesday evening, we were treated to a description of such a device by our friend and colleague Fred Ampel of Technology Visions, with whom we've teamed up the past few years to create the Immersive Audio Experience booth at InfoComm (no IAE this year, but the team will be back soon with its successor). (See: Sound Out the Possibilities in the Immersive Audio Experience at InfoComm 08) The “Personal AC Bubble,” as Fred and some buddies imagined it earlier that day, would be a freon-charged “cone of cooling” made of electrically reactive plastic that would enclose most of a person but stop short of the feet. It would have a zipper closure and secure around your ankles with velcro. Its thermally reactive superconductor would enable it to immediately lower the air temperature within it by 20 degrees (Fahrenheit), with a simple push of the “panic cool” button. Birth of the cool? It would be nice if the new products on the floor were as inventive as Fred's imaginary personal cooling device but that's fantasy vs reality. After teaching the first half of the day, we began the tour, already feeling somewhat jaded because earlier reports lacked buzz. Perhaps the most exciting thing we discovered (so far) in the world of black boxes was the expansion of Extron's control systems, making the company a true number three in the arena of control, positioned with AMX and Crestron. Another big three for the books. At the AMX booth, our first scheduled meeting of the day, while looking at their version of a digital signage videowall, we saw Robert Simpson of Electrosonic stop and view the wall – a dramatic coincidence in view of his company's pioneering and influential efforts in video wall displays early in the game some 15 years ago - an observation lost on most of those around us. From there we trekked to the end of the hall and began working our way through, stopping at the Wolfvision booth, where we were pleased to see their continual improvement of an already excellent line of document cameras. One of the other cool things we saw today was the display at the booth of Cool Components, which makes excellent housings and fixtures to prevent heat buildup in equipment enclosures – great for racks and teaching lecterns. Ergonomics of visualization Speaking of teaching lecterns, Thorburn Associates associate principal Jim Horn is the kind of teacher who encourages student participation and as a result his session, “Building the Perfect Teaching Station,” enables people in the university field to compare notes and captures a snapshot of market needs and conditions. Two of the issues that emerged when Jim taught the class Thursday morning: 1. Shrinkage, aka disappearing inventory. As teaching stations become more sophisticated, it is increasingly important to secure their components. Wireless microphones and remotes are particularly vulnerable to wandering off unintentionally with absent-minded professors. Methods used to counter this tendency to vanish include requiring users to check them in and out, and locating a charging station in the podium. To help keep track of projectors and DVD players, which tend to mysteriously disappear, especially around the Super Bowl or other major televised events, some schools use a screamer alarm linked to a sensor and automatic email notification. 2. Although the use of AV in the classroom is widespread, relatively few people know the basic formulas for calculating optimal sightlines and distances relative to image size: the four-six-eight rule originally presented by the late Dr. Kim Milliken (right), pioneer designer of projection screens for visual displays. A great friend and educator, Kim received InfoComm's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. It works like this: image height multiplied by six equals the maximum distance to the furthest viewer. (The ratio is dictated by image height as opposed to width because it relates to text size.) In situations where the screen is destined for use as a movie or television display, multiply by eight. In situations with complex visuals such as maps or X-rays, multiply by four. The ergonomics of visualization also call for the bottom of the image to be approximately 1 meter above the floor. We're dedicating this column to Kim Milliken, whom we fondly remember and miss. In the spirit of Kim's exemplary optimistic outlook on life and the industry, and having covered only about 20% of the InfoComm floor so far, we're hopeful that our quest for inspiring and inspired new products will yet be a rewarding one. Stay tuned for our Friday report and the rest of the story. See also: Audiovisual and Acoustics Engineering: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm Technology for Entertainment, Education and Business: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm 09 Themed Design: Seven Steps of Tech Design Success Themed Design: Modern Building Design Demands Partnership between Tech Designers and Architects
Posted By Steve Thorburn -- At 8:12 AM \| Comments (3) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Attractions Business, Themed Design, Trade Shows Tags a/v, audiovisual, AV, electrosonic, infocomm, milliken
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Thursday, June 18, 2009 Audiovisual and Acoustics Engineering: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm “Audiovisual System Integration Issues for Owners/Facility Managers” was the session I taught from 8-10 am Wednesday here in Orlando at the InfoComm show, annually the largest pro audiovisual marketplace on the planet...

By Steve Thorburn. Like most sessions at InfoComm, my class was originally set up in response to suggestions from attendees, who are regularly solicited for input on what would be relevant to their needs. I have taught this one (among others) for many consecutive years and it still draws very well. Next door, Thorburn Associates president Lisa Thorburn (right) was leading the session “How to Issue an RFQ/RFP,” (see: How to Issue an RFP/RFQ : The Basic Tools of Project Development) also with a good turnout. Although these sessions are targeted primarily to owners, they attract quite a few vendors as well. Naturally, being in search of work, the latter attend partly in order to meet the former. This year, relatively few of the roughly 60 participants in Lisa's session identified themselves as owners. It could be that fewer owners are at the show this year, or that some are concealing their status in order not to be solicited – either way, a sign of the times. Can You Hear Me? There's a gripe I hear in my AV class year after year. It typically comes from a frustrated person at an educational facility, who can't get a room acoustics problem resolved or an area upgraded because certain decision-makers can't be swayed or convinced. The resistant person or people may be engaged in a power play, oblivious or resistant to technology. (In my experience, the anti-tech people don't exist in corporate America anymore – realizing the buggy was gone, the powers that be got rid of the buggywhips.) An adage that bears frequent repetition in our business is that a room with bad acoustics can't be fixed by sound reinforcement technology – it will still sound bad. Acoustics are best applied at an early stage of the design process – that's when they'll be the most effective and cost the least. We lunched with our longtime colleague, producer Ammiel Najar of Graphic Films. Ammiel specializes in giant-screen film, and in the 1990s he and I were on the founding board of the Large Format Cinema Association, which merged a few years ago with the Giant Screen Cinema Association. I was preparing for my Wednesday afternoon session - a four-hour class about basic principles of acoustics that I have been presenting at InfoComm for numerous consecutive years. Ammiel related a story about developing the campus of the USC School of Film and Television, for which project he was transition coordinator in the 1980s. They paid careful attention to acoustics, surfaces and surface treatments, Ammiel recounted, and they were so successful that the fire department required some modifications – the installation of fire annunciators - because the soundproofing of the classroom walls was so effective that students inside wouldn't be able to hear fire alarms ringing in the halls. Can You Hear Me Now? Designing rooms for videoconferencing and teaching a class on the subject, which he will do Friday morning at InfoComm, has made Thorburn Associates senior consultant Lance Sturdevant (right) extremely sensitive to human communications issues. Lance observes that most people like to establish eye contact with the other person during conversation, and that traditional videoconferencing makes this goal somewhat elusive because of the camera position. (He's also irritated by people who text-walk.) Exploring on the trade show floor, Lance pointed out the “telepresence” videoconference equipment that was featured in several booths, which uses tilted screens and concealed cameras to deliver high-res, life-sized images of conferees and closely simulate the experience of being in the same room with them. An advantage of videoconferencing, video chatting and video phoning is the ability to watch the person's face and especially their lips, if one is hard of hearing. The so-called “granny-cam” video phone is catching on in certain demographics for this reason – elderly people who may not be conversant with email or texting, may take readily to the granny-cam to stay in touch with friends and family. For the past two days we have been immersed in the educational program, but Thursday and Friday we'll be getting onto the trade show floor, and will commence to share product news: mainstays, upgrades, innovations, and vaporware. Images: top left Steve Thorburn, top right Lisa Thorburn, bottom right Lance Sturdevant See also: Technology for Entertainment, Education and Business: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm 09 Themed Design: Seven Steps of Tech Design Success Themed Design: Modern Building Design Demands Partnership between Tech Designers and Architects Reconciling Architecture and Acoustics in the LEED Era
Posted By Steve Thorburn -- At 12:45 PM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Attractions Business, Trade Shows Tags audiovisual, AV, infocomm, videoconferencing
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Technology for Entertainment, Education and Business: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm 09 Our marketing and business development specialist Meg Barham, part of Thorburn Associates' team attending InfoComm, took part in Bill Sharer's Advanced Integrated Systems Sales class yesterday and Monday. Not many years ago, this was a four-day session, recently shortened to three, and now to two days...

By Steve Thorburn InfoComm is being prudent in an uncertain economy, but we think this excellent sales class is all the more relevant and valuable in such times and would like to see it expanded back to the full four days. Nonetheless, Meg (incidentally the only female of some 15 students) gained a lot from her two days, especially the role-playing exercise where, in groups of three, participants take turns presenting, reacting to and evaluating one another's sales presentations. People with all levels of experience attend Sharer's sales class so there's quite a range of styles, skills and backgrounds to learn from and share dialog with. And it's useful to observe the different ways we approach the industry. Most of Meg's fellow students were integrators, meaning they supply and install products. Some represented design/build firms, which work on both the design and installation sides of a project. In contrast, our company is design/consulting only – our involvement with the provision, installation and commissioning of equipment is supervisory only, as an owner's rep. One thing we could all agree on was that it's a bad idea to sacrifice quality for low price. Both InfoComm's IPD (Institute for Professional Development) and “Super Tuesday” curricula used to be more extensive, but are now juxtaposed with one another and with other events. These programs were originally designed to give veterans of the industry generous training opportunities in a window of time prior to the trade show floor opening (it opens today, June 17) - a real boon to companies' senior staff who can't spare time off the floor during the show. IPD used to be held twice a year: a midwinter training event in February, and the pre-trade show event in June. Alas, the midwinter session is another casualty of schedule compression – and one that we would very much like to see restored. For some university people, February is an ideal time to take a few days for training, whereas in June many of them can't get away because of summer construction projects at their facilities. (OK I'm a little cranky about the truncated schedule, but my company's relationship with InfoComm dates back over 17 years of active teaching and participation in committees so I feel qualified to comment.) InfoComm has a full schedule of educational sessions on show days also (managed by Bill Thomas and his crew), and seven of those sessions are conducted by Thorburn Associates' senior staffers: myself, Lisa Thorburn, Jim Horn, Derek Meares and Lance Sturdevant. (see: At InfoComm, Thorburn Associates' Seven Sessions) This team is the eyes and ears of Thorburn Associates at InfoComm. We're here to network, listen and learn as well as teach, and to keep our company up to date on products and technologies at what is the world's largest pro AV show, and you will be hearing more from us in the next several days (the show runs through June 19). Tomorrow: Report from the trade show floor, some educational sessions, and more. See also: Themed Design: Seven Steps of Tech Design Success Themed Design: Modern Building Design Demands Partnership between Tech Designers and Architects Reconciling Architecture and Acoustics in the LEED Era
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Categories Attractions Business, Trade Shows Tags audiovisual, AV, infocomm, thorburn, trade show
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Thursday, June 11, 2009 Themed Design: Building a Brachiosaur- Video It’s not every day you spot the largest animal to walk the earth trying to break into a building, least of all an august institution such as the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. But watch the video, look again, this is no 50 tonne felon …

As a child my year was not complete without my mum taking a couple of friends and me down to London for the day to visit the Natural History Museum. The NHM is many people’s choice as the capital’s most beautiful building and also houses one of the world’s great collections: insects in their millions, fossils by the tonne and a shop selling those little rubbery monster things you stick on the end of your pen. It was always the dinosaurs towards which we gravitated: the enormous Diplodocus in the entrance hall towering over visitors as they enter, the Iguanodon with his pointed thumb, the Ankylosaur’s massive armoured back on which one could still make out the fine texture of the creature’s skin and of course the great predatory therapods with their still razor-sharp teeth. In truth the NHM’s display is in need of a revamp and a rethink but the fossils themselves retain their power to amaze. As Mira Cohen neatly pointed out in her recent post, Developing Uniquely 21st Century Museum Experiences , kids like “real” stuff, things they can’t see at home, things that are unique to museums. And it was the skulls, the fossilised eggs and the tracks these reptiles left in the mud that transfixed me. These things were actually alive and walking the earth, they were not constructs of some science fiction writer’s imagination but were real, living, breathing animals. I always found this amazing and seeing their skeletons up close was, to this child at least, awe inspiring each time. The mind boggling numbers fascinated me too: dinosaurs died out around 65 million years ago and such numbers have their own intrinsic thrill, hinting at the sheer vastness of prehistory. This summer sees the “Walking with Dinosaurs” tour hit the UK ( Themed Entertainment : Animatronic Dinosaurs and Proto-Feathers ) and the major daily papers are engaging in a marketing blitz to accompany the show (“Prehysteria”?). The Brachiosaur at the Children’s Museum of Illinois was not walking – indeed it arrived in pieces, by truck- but nonetheless created its own arresting spectacle as it was put in place on the museum wall. The building it seems, is literally bursting at the seams with dinosaurs and I can only imagine how many young children in the vicinity are badgering their parents for a visit... See also: Museum Design: The World's Largest Brachiosaurus at The World's Largest Children's Museum T-Rex Appeal : Prehistoric Production Notes from Walking with Dinosaurs
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Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Themed Design Tags childrens museum, Design, dinosaur, fabrication, Inidanapolis, Natural History Museum
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Monday, June 08, 2009 World Expos: US Congress Favors USA Pavilion at Shanghai The following was received today from Ruder Finn Public Relations , which represents the USA Pavilion group headed by Nick Winslow and Ellen Eliasoph. Winslow's group, which also includes BRC Imagination Arts and Norm Elder, has the official nod from the US Federal government...

(including a letter of support from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ) to develop the official US presence for the 2010 Shanghai world's fair which opens next April. What does this mean, exactly? The USA Pavilion group has made significant fundraising progress - sponsors include 3M and Yum! Brands - but still lacks the full amount needed to go forward. It's a huge challenge to raise the entire $61 million needed to build the pavilion entirely from sponsorships. A financial contribution from the Fed would really grease the wheels and be consistent with what most countries do when they participate in a world expo. However, while not delivering actual money, the Congressional resolution detailed below should give a boost to the situation. On a larger scale, the news is also encouraging because it signals a major, positive shift of attitude on the part of the US government towards expos. Hopefully the US will now also decide to rejoin the International Bureau of Expositions, which membership was allowed to lapse in recent years . “We are pleased to share with you the latest sign of support for the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo: a resolution from the United States Congress, 'Encouraging the United States to Fully Participate in the Shanghai Expo in 2010.' Commenting on the Resolution, Frank Lavin, Chairman of the Steering Committee for the USAP stated, 'We are delighted with the strong support from the U.S. House of Representatives. This resolution reminds us that as Americans learn more about the Shanghai Expo, they tend to support it. We are grateful that the U.S. Congress has adopted this resolution and we believe it will be an important boost to our efforts.' In the Resolution, The House of Representatives-- (1) expresses its support for a full United States participation in the Shanghai 2010 Expo, including the construction of a national pavilion to showcase United States innovations and culture; (2) expresses its sense that United States participation is an important application of `soft power', affording other nations and millions of citizens an opportunity to appreciate United States technological innovations, cultural traditions, participation in peaceful and beneficial global events, and national respect for other nations and cultures; and (3) encourages relevant stakeholders, including private companies, individuals, and the United States Government, to work together to ensure full United States participation in the Shanghai 2010 Expo For full Resolution, please see: Text of H. Res. 509: Encouraging the United States to fully participate in the Shanghai Expo in 2010 See also: US Government Supports 2010 World Expo USA Pavilion Initiative Good prognosis for US pavilion at Shanghai 2010 World Expo: YUM! Brands Inc. To Sponsor USA National Pavilion at 2010 Shanghai World Expo Chinese-American Community Group to Sponsor The USA National Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo
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Categories Attractions Business, Expos Tags Expo, Shanghai, winslow
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Thursday, June 04, 2009 Museums: Developing Uniquely 21st Century Museum Experiences Just the other day, I saw the future. I was invited to view the goings-on at Robert C. Fisler School at a site visit sponsored by Apple Computer. Robert C. Fisler was the first K-8 in Southern CA to integrate the use of Apple laptops 24/7 for all 2-8th graders. What did I see?

By Mira Cohen. I saw: Fifth graders creating podcasts based on interviews and photos of their trip to Sacramento. A middle school media class working in collaborative groups to create short films which were then transferred into the English teacher’s classroom where the same students were then guided through the creation of scripts for the their films. Second graders creating digital storyboards. Neat stuff. My initial impulse was parental: to find a way to pick up and move to Fullerton, CA so my own kids could attend a school that integrates the collaborative use of technological tools seamlessly into established curricula. Then I put on my professional museum educator's persona, and began to muse about the impact of sophisticated, creative and technologically advanced techniques in formal education on museums and other forms of informal education. What is the role of the class field trip, or for that matter, the family museum visit when learning at school is cool? What do museums have to offer? Do museums need to move backward or forward to meet the needs of digital kids? Do we need to: a. Move backward to the days when museums acted purely as repositories for the displays of selected collections of objects and artifacts? b. Focus on staying ahead of the technology game by integrating bigger, more exciting, more exceptional uses of technology that are not integrated into school and daily life? c. Both a and b? You probably guessed that my favorite choice is “c.” You may choose, of course, to: a. agree b. disagree c. re-write the question In a digital age, museums have an opportunity to play what may seem like two opposing roles that actually fit together. 1. Authenticity role. As more information is instantly available, museums house the real deal and have an opportunity to create and meet a growing need to experience in person objects and artifacts that have been digitally experienced. Kids want a satisfying answer to the question “Is it real?” whether it’s Spock’s costume, Dorothy’s Ruby slippers, a moon rock, a Picasso painting, or a Dead Sea Scroll (right). There is still something profoundly meaningful about an object that has been saved, preserved, studied, respected, admired, or condemned for its original purpose - five years ago or 5,000 years ago. Any ten year old knows. Real dinosaur bones are real and fake ones are fake. And they all want to see the real ones. It matters. It just feels different. Who has interpreted it? Why has it been considered important? Who should interpret it? Who contributes to the debate? These are important but different questions. Is it “real” still comes first. 2. Can't-get-it-at-home role. By the same token, when digital kids experience technology in a public space; they will expect to get something different than what they can get at home, at school, or at their fingertips just about anywhere. New ways of utilizing technology to enliven and enhance the story will pull young visitors into the museum. This is the summer blockbuster effect. While the two roles may seem disparate, what they have in common is that they both allow museum visitors to gain experiences they cannot have outside of a brick-and-mortar museum. Now is the time to seize the opportunity to draw upon the most awe inspiring artifacts from the past, the creative energy of the present and the tools of the future to develop meaningful and uniquely 21st century museum experiences. Images: 1. Bottom left - A segment of the Dead Sea Scrolls- Book of War- 11Q14, Scroll type: Non-biblical text, Date: 1st century CE (20-50 CE), Language: Hebrew, Discovered: Cave 11, 1956. - Photo courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority 2. Top right - probably not Mira Cohen. See also: Bridging the History/Art Divide: The Multi-Disciplinary Museum of the Future Museums: What do Kids Want? Themed Attractions: Visitors are Immersed, Educated and Engaged at Air Force One Discovery Center
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Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Science Centres Tags apple, authenticity, digital storyboards, education, field trip, future, podcasts, real
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009 Museum Design: Blistering Barnacles, it's Tintin and Magritte! There are famously not any famous Belgians. However, today sees the opening of a museum each for two of the Kingdom’s most celebrated sons: the acclaimed artist - and painter of floating pipes - Magritte and that intrepid boy reporter and comic strip character Tintin.

The Magritte museum , based in Brussels, will house over 250 works on 3 floors and is to be the biggest collection of the great surrealist’s work in the world. The many iconic images he has left us have been hugely influential. His delicate yet unsettling portrayals of ordinary objects juxtaposed in unusual contexts, and his fine draftsmanship distinguish his work and place him, along with Dali, among the most important of the surrealists. René Magritte's genius was perhaps all the more remarkable for the fact that he found painting a difficult endeavour with an apple bobbing around in front of his face as he stood at his easel. The Tintin museum is the €15m (£13m) Musée Hergé, designed by Pritzker-winning French architect Christian de Portzamparc (Herge being the creator of the quaffed and cherubic journalist) and is in Louvain-la-Neuveis, 20 miles south of the capital. It is to be “a microcosm of the adventures of the comic books”. These books, which relate the derring-doo and escapades of Tintin, his dog Snowy and his cantankerous friend Captain Haddock have sold over 200 million copies and the museum is set to be the first to permanently showcase the work. With a major Spielberg movie due out in a year and perhaps more filmed adventures to follow, the museum, which is financed by Herge’s second wife, seems destined to succeed. Ten thousand thundering typhoons! Image: Entrance to the new Hergé Museum in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Nicolas Borel / Atelier de Portzamparc See also: Museums: An Outpouring in Paper and Pencil - Visitors to Calif Academy Get to the Point on Climate Change Museums: Jonathan Katz, exec producer of groundbreaking “Altered State” exhibit (Cal Academy of Sciences) to speak May 30 at JFKU “Risk” colloquium At the New California Academy of Sciences, Cinnabar's Climate Change Exhibits Speak Up About State's Environment and Future
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Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Themed Design Tags art, Design, gallery, herge, magritte, tintin
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