Museum Techmuse

Local History and Storytelling: Oklahoma Heritage Center

Stories are an essential part of the fabric of content for local history museums. Not just well-documented stories from renowned residents -- also stories and snippets of "this is what life was like" from everyday visitors. This was our goal at the Oklahoma Heritage Center, to help draw out from visitors these quick portraits of life in Oklahoma. We ask visitors questions such as "How has Oklahoma changed in your lifetime?" and "Tell us about a place in Oklahoma that is especially important to you." Visitors record their stories, and play back those from other visitors, developing an evolving base of stories connected to the community. The StoryKiosk is part of a building-wide exhibit development led by Northern Light Productions.

Visitors record and browse other visitors' stories and can email their story home. (Click to enlarge)

National Archives Project: visitors as participants

Our new installation, developed in collaboration with Northern Light Productions and National Archives staff, places schoolgroup visitors directly in the role of participants in the research process. During the process, students record their findings about primary source documents from the Archives. Unbeknownst to them, their audio recordings are incorporated on the fly into a video "press conference" that they participate in at the conclusion of the experience (see photo).

According to staff, the middle school participants (and teacher workshops) love it -- they are "amazed" to be drawn into the process and have their own voices incorporated in the high end production. My own favorite moment: when students who are role-playing archivists (wearing National Archives research jackets with white gloves on hand) dramatically wheel in on carts the primary source documents. National Archives staff (including Marvin Pinkert, LeeAnn Potter, and Will Sandoval) have created a memorable experience for visitors, one that merges the drama of novel experience with the media we developed.

Participants at a "press conference", in which their own voices are inserted into the high-end video. (Click to enlarge)

Skirball Cultural Center: Build a Better World

This week the Noah's Ark exhibit opens at the Skirball Cultural Center in LA. And at the end of this exhibit, visitors work with staff to describe ways they can help create a better world. We used a variation of our StoryKiosk software to project the visitor's image and commitment on the wall, floating up into the sky, creating a gallery of visitor visions floating in the space. Visitors can choose to email their vision home to encourage post-visit activity related to this vision.

The exhibit as a whole is about meeting challenges (storms), finding community (arks), and creating a more hopeful world (rainbows). The Skirball Center has an extraordinary roster of programs lined up for visitors, and the hope is to use the email feature of the program to remind visitors throughout the year of programs that might help them achieve their visions. (In my mind, this comes close to what Elaine Gurian has called "the essential museum", in which the museum becomes an essential resource for visitors creating meaning in their daily lives).

Visitors' images and commitments are projected on the wall and then emailed home as a post-visit reminder. (click to enlarge).

CBS News Link: CSI Exhibit

The opening of the CSI exhibit last week was one of those "once in a lifetime" events. The cast of CSI made it to the event. Reportedly the cast was delighted to participate in this unique merging of popular culture and science exhibit learning (and as developers, we felt likewise). Here's a news link about the exhibit opening:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2845561n

The report shows people crowded around the StoryKiosk -- for about 2 seconds! (around 2:40). The development team was a dream team from around the country led by Charlie Walter and Brandi West at Fort Worth Musesum of Science and History, Nancy Seruto and Michael Kelley in LA, OMSI, Bob Weis Design Island and Juicy Temples in Florida.

Visitors record their testimony on the crime scene, and can email this statement home along with greeting from CSI cast member Paul Guilfoyle (Capt. Jim Brass). click to enlarge

CSI: The Experience opening day anticipation

I'm sitting outside under a shady tree waiting for the opening for CSI: The Experience at MSI in Chicago. We're told that the cast of CSI is showing up for the event, which adds to the anticipation. (As anyone who has worked on exhibits knows, the other element of anticipation is the recurring thought "What if something goes wrong?"). But it's all up and running and, I have to say, looking great. The StoryKiosks in the exhibit will as visitors to record their observations of the crime scenes, and to give expert testimony.

CSI: The Experience (preview at AAM)

Last week had the pleasure of installing the prototype StoryKiosk for Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's upcoming blockbuster exhibit, CSI: The Experience. The exhibit will be previewed at the Museum of Science and Industry at AAM in Chicago.  The exhibit promises to be unlike any other I've seen in terms of its integration of science content with popular culture.  Developed in conjunction with CBS Consumer Products and the CSI television show, the exhibit draws visitors in as investigators in compelling storylines running through the exhibit. And the StoryKiosk itself includes content from both CSI television characters (shot at the CSI studio in LA) and real-world forensic investigators, allowing visitors to compare observations and to email their recorded conclusions home. If you're heading to AAM, be sure to check it out!

National Scouting Museum: Be Prepared!

Who says that computers lead to sedentary living? I just finished installing a StoryKiosk at the National Scouting Museum (to record visitors' memories of Scouting) during a tornado warning. Museum staff were told they could leave at 2 pm, but on I went, installing the kiosk along with a band of committed staff.  (Actually, I can't think of a better place to be during a tornado warning. The Scouting motto is "Be Prepared!", and the museum reflects that well, with several bathrooms labelled "Severe Weather Shelter". The gift shop has plenty of books on preparedness and weather emergencies.) As I write this, a few hours later, television is running nonstop with the latest weather and info on "storm cells" and "rotational systems". (If you don't see any additional entries to this blog within a few days, please send a rescue team ;-)

Upcoming exhibit: CSI: The Experience

In LA today, sitting in on the shoot for Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's traveling exhibit, CSI: The Experience. This exhibit promises to be unlike any other, with its merging of museum and entertainment industries converging on forensic science. Actors, experts, and visitors all talking about their observations and offering their expert testimony. The exhibit opens at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago in May. More on this later.

CMOM PlayWorks: Environment for Family Learning

Installed a StoryKiosk in the Children's Museum of Manhattan's new exhibit, PlayWorks. The exhibit provides an extraordinary environment designed specifically to encourage family learing -- a major goal is encourage both adults and children to "find everyday opportunities that nurture play and a love of learning." And the StoryKiosk encourages parents and children to record stories of their experience together, recording answers to questions such as "Tell us about your favorite experience today in PlayWorks". After a family has made a recording, they can email it home, providing a post-visit reminder of their experience, and a link to further learning activities.

(click to enlarge image)

Museum of Science and Industry: Parent/Child Collaboration

Installed Storytelling Kiosk last week in the U-505 exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What a pleasure to install in this signature exhibit.

One of the issues we wanted to push in this installation was parent/child collaboration. How can we encourage parents to do an interactive with their child, drawing along with this the benefits of collaborative learning and storytelling?

One simple answer: tell them to do it together. We changed the audio prompts to make it more obvious that this is a collaborative activity. Rather than just "Choose a question. You can listen to other visitors' responses and record your own..." we added the phrase "with a friend or family member."

The favorite question among visitors: "Could your family live on a submarine for a week? What problems might you have?"

(click on thumbnail)