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OnExhibit
Science and Art Issue
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Company Update from Jan
I want to begin with thanks to Will Chase, Carolyn DeCristofano and Sue
Stoessel for contributing articles to this issue of On Exhibit. We've
enjoyed working with each of them and hope you will find their articles
as interesting as we did.
Our company continues to grow and
evolve as we focus on the interest of our clients. Towards that end,
we would like to introduce you to our newest Associate, Dr. Peter Lacovara.
Peter is the senior curator of ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near
Eastern art at the Michael  C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. Peter's fieldwork has taken him to the Valley of the Kings
and the Pyramids of Giza. Exhibitions he has curated include:
Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb, Lost Kingdoms of the Nile: Nubian
Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Excavating Egypt: Great
Discoveries from The Petrie Museum and Mummies and Magic: The Funerary
Art of Ancient Egypt.
Welcome aboard Peter!
Larry Koolkin, our company Vice President, recently received his certificate in Museum Studies from Tufts University. Congratulations Larry!
I am delighted to announce that I am now the Incoming Co-Chair of the Exhibits Professional Affinity Group for the New England Museum Association.
In addition, I have also received my certificate for completing the
Entrepreneurial Training Program at Northern Essex Community College
this summer.
Check out our presentations at the annual New
England Museum Association conference in Nashua, NH. November 11-13.
Maureen is presenting on the Asian Long Horned Beetle infestation in
Worcester, MA. Our entire team is running a half-day workshop on
collaborative development of exhibition content. (See "Collaborating to Create" for more description on this process.)
And finally, Jan Crocker LLC is delighted to be contributing a mounted
ant nest cast to the NEMA raffle. It's a stunning 3-dimensional wall
hanging and a wonderful conversation piece! See the articles below for
more information on casting ant nests.
The end of the calendar
year is approaching. This is a time you might be making big pitches to
donors for your various projects. Please give us a call if we can help
you design a project-based fundraising package. It's not too late to
get donors on board!
LATE BREAKING NEWS! Our webcast project with The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (see On Exhibit, issue 1) went live yesterday, November 5th. 570 people participated from Vermont to Florida. You can check it out at www.lcmm.org/webcast.html  jan@jancrockerllc.com |
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Collaborating to Create
by Jan Crocker
On
recent Sunday afternoon our company set out to introduce the process of
collaborative exhibit development to a diverse group of creative
people. Invited were media producers, architects, Public Humanities
graduate students and assorted others all with the desire to be active
participants in exploring a new process.
Each team took on a
hypothetical exhibit topic - Lunchboxes, Roadside Attractions, or Body
Art. Members of Jan Crocker LLC facilitated the process of generating
ideas, capturing them into content threads and prioritizing the
concepts into a structure of messages that could be used to guide the
next stages of design and development of their "exhibit".
The
participants marveled at their own ability to create a cool concept for
their practice project and at the same time recognized that this
process brought all voices to the table. My company and I were
inspired at everyone's ability to turn their own fascination with the
topics into a content framework reflecting their team's diverse points
of view.
As participants worked on their ideas questions were
raised, such as "Were there roadside attractions in biblical times?"
and "What is today's equivalent of a roadside attraction?". Others
dove into their topic with a metaphorical spin - "Lunchboxes hold more
than Lunch" and the Body Art team created concepts that brought in the
broad range of worldviews on what body art means. The final group
presentations left everyone with the desire to take these concepts to
the next stage of development!
Some of the feedback from the day included:
" . . . . . .a terrific balance of opportunity to get our own ideas out, and then interact well as a group."
We learned "a process that helps a group solve a real problem".
"It encouraged us to think creatively . . . . . ."
"An encouraging group can do wonders for a shy person."
"Surprisingly productive for such a short time period . . . .fun and interesting!"
We look forward to leading our next workshop on the team process at this year's New England Museum Association conference in Nashua, NH on November 11. It's not too late to register!
If you are interested being on our mailing list for future workshops please just let me know. You can reach me at jan@jancrockerllc.com
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Burning Man: Ephemeral Art in the Desert
By Will Chase
For one
week out of every year, the remote Black Rock Desert of Nevada
becomes
a bustling, thriving city of nearly 50,000 people devoted to art,
community and self-expression. The Result is Black Rock City, home to Burning Man.
Black
Rock City is at once a city and unique museum for artworks that simply
cannot or would not be found in a traditional museum setting - due to
sheer scale, risk, and intensive interactivity.
Burning Man's
Executive Director Larry Harvey devises an art theme for each year's
event that artists are welcome to use as a guiding force for their
creative output, or to ignore entirely. The theme for 2009 was
"Evolution" a generously broad and potent topic, allowing for a
diversity of interpretation.
In the Burning Man setting, this
inspired artworks such as "The Wedge". This giant slide, tipped at a
45° angle and covered with Astroturf, allowed participants to scale its
50' height, and descend - at their peril - in whatever creative fashion
they dared. Informally dubbed "Darwin's Slide" based on the outcomes,
it served as a reminder that we're all big children, when given the
opportunity to relive the joy of a simpler youth.
 Some artists
chose an origin-oriented expression of the theme, such as Laura
Kimpton, whose massive steel sculpture "Who Gave Birth?" paid homage to
our common beginnings. Its giant block letters spelled the word "MOM",
from which delicate bird shapes were laser-cut. Similarly, Bryan
Tedrick's "Portal of Evolution" recreated the female reproductive
system in a 30'-tall steel structure, rendered with Dr. Seussian
whimsicality. The uterus was interpreted as a giant butterfly, which
rotated atop a climbable central pole, allowing participants to ascend
to a semi-circular bucket at its apex.
Taking the theme in
another direction entirely, artists Sean Orlando, Nathanial  Taylor and
David Schulman created the Raygun Gothic Rocketship, a 40'-tall,
fully-realized retro neo-futuristic aluminum and steel rocketship,
fashioned in the true Buck Rogers aesthetic. Participants were invited
to climb up, in and through the rocketship, enjoying its various
detailed and artistic control systems. At the same time, participants
could contemplate humankind's drive to create, to explore, and to
expand our understanding of a future about which we can only imagine.
To
provide a well-rounded sampling of the types of offerings to be found
in Black Rock City's art experience, one must consider Matisse Enzer's
"Flame Thrower Shooting Gallery" - the name of which speaks for itself
quite eloquently.
A museum like no other, Burning Man is truly a
one-of-a-kind art experience, created from out of the ashes and reborn
every year.http://www.burningman.com/
Following
many years working in Burning Man's Technology and Art Departments,
Will Chase now regales the far-flung Burning Man community with
missives from the Communications Department, where he's "low-grade
famous" for, amongst other things, penning the Jackrabbit Speaks
Newsletter.
"Portal of Evolution" by Bryan Tedrick, Glen Ellen, CA, photo courtesy Olivia Rivas and "Portal of Evolution and the Man at Sunrise" photos courtesy Ian Lauder
"Who Gave Birth" by Laura Kimpton photo courtesy Rck Egan
"Raygun Gothic Rocketship by Sean Orlando, Nathaniel Taylor, David Shulman, John Manyjohns, Oakland, CA" photos courtesy Gretjen Helene 2009 gretjenhelene
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A World Underfoot - Introduction
by Maureen McConnell
I first glimpsed the amazing sculptures in the exhibit Ants: Hidden Worlds Revealed at the California Academy of Sciences.
The
exhibit, created in 2004, was wonderful, featuring six colonies of live
ants from different continents. There were Army ants, Leaf-Cutter ants,
Carpenter Ants-even Honey Pot ants from Africa. The latter were backlit
as they hung from the roof of their enclosure like so many liquid
filled grapes. The exhibit had a sense of humor, placing the colony of
Argentine ants in a diorama in which they feasted from a stack of dirty
dishes, looking as unwelcome as they would be at the proverbial picnic.
But
what captured my imagination were the beautifully lit metal sculptures
hanging in black lined cases off to each side of the ant colonies. They
looked like jellyfish medusae frozen in time. Each artistic masterpiece
was of a different pattern, with the largest over six-feet long.
They were metal casts of ant nests created by Walter Tschinkel
of the University of Florida. A well-known ant biologist, Dr. Tschinkel
pours molten metal down the entrance holes of various species of ants,
and then excavates the resulting casts to study each species' unique
architectural style of nest construction. In the process he brings the
invisible world beneath our feet, quite literally, to light.
 Sparked
by my enthusiasm about the exhibit, Sue Stoessel of the Museum of
Science in Boston, brought Dr. Tshinkel to the museum as a speaker, and
he was generous enough to give a few of us a demonstration of his
casting technique on the museum's back lawn. To begin the process we
had to find a nest. It was late in the fall, and most of the residents
of these underground nests had already died but a solitary ant led us
to an opening. Dr. Tschinkel quickly set up a small propane stove and
crucible. Used, zinc anodes from boats were quickly added to the hot
crucible and melted. Then the hot zinc was poured into the ant nest.
We
waited, our hands on the turf, feeling the heat of the metal through
the soil as it began to dissipate. Then we started digging. We traced
one squiggle of metal, then another. Finally our buried treasure was
unearthed-a perfect cast in zinc of an underground ant city!
Inspired,
Sue went on to use one of Walter's ant sculptures as the subject of her
Master's thesis (see related article), and this past summer, I began to
use his techniques in hands-on demonstrations at the EcoTarium in
Worcester, MA.
 Each morning on the day I plan a dig, I cast a
few ant nests on museum grounds before the museum opens and then leave
the metal in place underground. Later, on the museum's stage, I give a
short introduction to the hidden worlds of ants, show photos of Dr.
Tschinkel's cast nests, and then invite the group outdoors for the
excavation.
My audiences at the EcoTarium
are usually small children with their moms during the week and families
on the weekends. Adults watch as the kids use sandbox tools, table
knives and plastic spoons to unearth the "treasure". Their parents take
pictures, ask about how we made the cast, and swap ant stories as the
digging proceeds. The more artistically inclined immediately see the
possibilities in jewelry design and sculpture.
 Their amazement
at the hidden world that ants have created underground opens the door
to a whole new realm of interest in the natural world that surrounds us every day. I know the feeling. The beauty of Walter's sculptures
inspired me in 2005. Now I feel lucky to pass on his ants-eye view to
visitors at a hands-on science center.
One of Maureen's ant nest
casts is being auctioned off at the 2009 New England Museum Association Conference. If you are interested in being
trained to cast ant nests at your own institution, please contact us at
Jan Crocker LLC.
Maureen is a Senior Exhibit Developer at Jan Crocker LLC and the Education Team Leader at the EcoTarium in Worcester, MA. |
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A World Underfoot - A Case Study
by Susan Stoessel
We
felt a bit like pirates as we crept around the grounds behind the
Museum of Science, Boston, looking for activity deep in the lumpy bits
of turf beneath our feet. This small-scale expedition was led by Dr. Walter Tschinkel,
an entomologist from the University of Florida. Our quarry was one of
the many miniscule holes created by the tiny brown ants that tunnel
beneath us every day. Through an introduction from Maureen McConnell
we were able to bring Dr. Tschinkel to the museum to learn how to
create casts from underground ant nests. In the process I gained a
research project for my master's program in Science Communication.
 The
focus of the thesis for my Masters degree was to learn more about how
visitors view the integration of art and science, and how different
settings might impact those views. Following our ant expedition I
realized that these beautiful, sculpture-like structures would make a
perfect conversation-starter.
The research took place at Museum of Science, Boston and two contemporary art museums; the outdoor sculpture park at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA and MassMoCA in North Adams MA.
We
hung the ant-nest cast on a simple black metal stand. Clipped to a
board below it was a label with a single large "?". Visitors at each
institution were allowed to interact with the nest cast purely as an
object, without initial explanation. Their questions and observations
were noted, and with permission, videotaped. Eventually the identity
of the object was revealed, which led to more observations and
questions. Visitor viewpoints regarding the display of the cast in art
and science settings were also solicited. The feedback was revealing,
and offered insights as to how science museums specifically, might best
display and interpret such objects.
Regardless of venue, I discovered that visitors began to make meaning by
using simple physical descriptions, such as color, shape & form
when first encountering the cast. They then would expand their
observations by making comparisons, most often to objects they were
familiar with in the natural world, like "coral" or "stalactites".
Inter-group dialogue stimulated further elaboration. Interestingly, at
the art museums, the visitors employed a larger vocabulary of
descriptive words when discussing the object.
Visitors enjoyed interacting
with the cast as an intriguing form but also expressed delight when the
identity of the object was revealed. One surprisingly consistent
behavior in all the settings was what I call the "Re-engagement"
moment. When the identity of the object was revealed, visitors
immediately began to re-observe the object, often more closely than the
first time. This was usually accompanied by a noticeable change in
body position and by a barrage of fresh questions!
 I also noted
some intriguingly different behaviors in the three settings. All the
MassMoCA groups avoided touching the object unless requested. In the
less formal outdoor sculpture park at DeCordova, some touching occurred
spontaneously, especially by children. At the Museum of Science, the
object was touched immediately in every case.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the two most frequently-asked questions from visitors at the art museums were, "What is it made of?" and "How was it made?" Science museum visitors, however, overwhelmingly asked, "What is it?" as their first question.
At
the art museums the "?" label was largely ignored, except by the
children at DeCordova, who would flip it over. At the Museum of
Science, all visitors flipped the label. When asked, "What are you
looking for?" the most common response was " We want to know what it
(the cast) is."
Based on these responses and other explicit
feedback from visitors, I created a list of recommendations regarding
the display of art pieces in a science museum setting:
·
Science museums should attempt to display art pieces that relate
strongly to the physical context. Although visitors will try to
construct a connection when the context and art piece are not strongly
related, eventually dissonance occurs.
· Science museum visitors expect science content, but they would like to have it revealed to them in a novel way.
· Science museums should endeavor to present "sci/art" pieces that provoke discussion and invite social interaction.
· Science/art installations that are designed to be touched are highly recommended!
·
Whenever possible, visitor input should shape the choice and design of
science/art installations. For example, one visitor I interviewed
envisioned a large cast hanging, with no labeling, and a box with an
unlabeled button below. When a button is pressed, visitors would see a
projection of video images of a colony of ants moving over the metal
cast, just as they would when the colony was active.
My casting
experiences with Maureen and Dr.Tschinkel, and the follow-up research
with visitors renewed my appreciation and respect for the power of
teaching with unique and authentic objects.
Sue
is a Senior Education Associate for exhibit and program development at
the Museum of Science, Boston. She has recently completed her MSc in
Science Communication at the University of the West of England,
Bristol, UK
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Seeing Science
"In science, seeing is not believing; it is understanding."
by Carolyn DeCristofano
Making
and using images is critical in science. As educators, developers, and
designers we use images to communicate about content. However, visualization can serve a broader role for learners. We can expand our audiences' understandings of science if we make use of a few key ideas.
 Scientists
use visualization to learn. Visualization is not just a communication
tool. It is also a probe for exploring questions and phenomena in new
ways. For example, in 1854, Dr. John Snow superimposed data about
cholera deaths on a map of London. This revealed a strong correlation
between the disease and a water pump on Broad Street. As visualization
expert Edward Tufte
points out, such a map was innovative for its time. By uniquely viewing
the data at hand, Snow unveiled new information, and changed how we
understand disease. Not just maps, but also sketches, graphs,
conceptual drawings, high-tech images, and simulations play important
roles in developing our understanding of phenomena.
  We don't all
speak the same visual language. If we forget this, we risk painting for
others a thousand words we never meant to say. For example, when asked
to draw a pendulum's motion, people create a diverse array of
visualizations, incorporating various combinations of the pendulum,
arrows, zigzags, swooshes, and dotted lines. These elements may not
signify the same thing for creators and viewers. Importantly, comparing
personal meanings serves as a bridge to a shared understanding of
established conventions. Similarly, different disciplines may utilize
unique visual "dialects". Avoiding misunderstanding involves
confronting diverse visual vocabularies.
Prompting learners to
create and use their own visualizations deepens their learning.
Consider this elegant example (from the Museum of Science, Boston). An
interactive graph of U.S. AIDS incidence ended at the "present," where
a chain was anchored. Visitors were prompted to use the chain to
predict the shape of the future graph. To do so, they sorted through
the graph's implications, as well as real-world variables that might
impact the final shape of the data. Creating their visualizations,
visitors "became" epidemiologists.
When we expand our use of visualization in exhibits and programming,
we expand our audiences' learning. Learners not only understand
content, but also engage in scientific thinking. In short, engaging
learners in multiple uses of visualization helps them see more of the
dimensions of science.
Carolyn
DeCristofano is a science educator and children's author whose projects
have included exhibit, curriculum, and professional development.
Currently, as President of Blue Heron Educational Consulting Services (http://blueheroneducation.us),
her work supports STEM and interdisciplinary learning through
collaborations with schools, museums, and other organizations. |
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