Museum Techmuse

Engaging Visitors in the Bardic Tradition

Attended a workshop last weekend ("How to Awaken Your Inner Storyteller") led by renowned storyteller Odds Bodkin. And I have to admit that for all my focus on Storytelling Kiosk in museum exhibits, I have been...um...lacking in the story creation and storytelling department.

I managed to eke out a semi-autobiographical tale of "Gianni, the fearful storyteller" in front of the group.  And...people laughed (with me, not at me).

In this world of fragmentary media clips, storytelling is obviously a vital skill to encourage. Can we engage visitors in this? Can we get them singing and telling tales in exhibits? Actually, it is happening at the Storytelling Kiosk installation in Playspace in the Boston Children's Museum. Parents are creating puppet shows and singing songs with their children, and recording videos of this. Short little things. Not major productions, but simple things that might grow later at home...

Longevity of media interactives: best practices

I went in to Boston Children's Museum yesterday to check in on an old interactive I developed nearly ten years ago. The visitor walks into a lobster boat, and "drives" the boat by moving the throttle forward or back. The video at front, which I shot on six different boats in the Boston Harbor, speeds up and slows down in conjunction with the visitor's throttle movements.

Very fun. But, man, that boat has been chugging along for nearly 10 years in the exhibit, and finally the videodisc player (an ancient technology now) connected to the Mac 8500 (also ancient) gave out. I'm working with the Museum now to redo the installation using only digital video, no videodisc.

It got me thinking: what are the "best practices" in media development to assure that a popular interactive in exhibits or on the Web could be reconstructed at a later point, using newer technologies but the same basic content? Here are a few thoughts:

1. Keep an archive of source video footage (final edited version especially) so it can be recompressed using a future video technology.
2. Archive the source programming code, ideally on the same hard drive (or directory) as the final program if possible. Be sure the source code includes comments on its operation, and a description of any unusual programming approaches.
3. Write a document that lists any necessary system configurations (plugins, utility programs, etc) to run the program.