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In the late 70's / early 80's the advent of laser disc players was quickly jumped on by exhibit designers. The fact that the disc information was all addressable (digitized) made it very useful for interactive programs. When I started the exhibit part of my design career in 1982 laser disc players were just starting to be sold with RS532 ports. Before that they were being custom wired.
I do not know who was the VERY first to make use of those laser discs but Edwin Schlossberg, who I worked for, was one of the first with exhibits for Macomber Farm in 1981.
Erich Rose
Erich Rose Design
807 The Living End
Austin, TX 78746
512-626-9930; [log in to unmask]
On Jan 13, 2011, at 9:56 AM, Eugene Dillenburg wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> Please excuse any cross-postings.
>
> I started teaching my Exhibits class this week and, as always, I gave the students a brief history of exhibits, borrowing heavily from Marjorie Schwarzer's chapter on "Twelve Influential Exhibits" in the AAM centennial book. She lists Carl Akeley's dioramas, the coal mine at MSI, the Holocaust Museum, and others as exhibits that have had a broad impact on the field at large.
>
> During the discussion afterward, one student asked if there were any technology-based exhibits that were also considered influential. I thought of Science on a Sphere, which is popping up in several science centers, and the AMNH biodiversity hall which has a computerized ID system that has received a lot of attention. But for the most part, no, and I came up with three reasons:
>
> 1) Digital technology simply hasn't been around long enough to for any individual application to impact the field in the same way that the Exploratorium model or Mathematica have;
>
> 2) Digital technology changes so rapidly that, even if there was something with the potential to create such an impact, it would be out of date in a few years; and
>
> 3) Exhibits have such long lead times, and tight budgets, that they cannot easily incorporate cutting-edge technology. (I suppose that's a summary of points 1 & 2).
>
> However, I have been wrong before, so I thought I'd put the question out there: have there been any exhibits whose use of digital technology has had a wide influence on the exhibit field?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eugene Dillenburg
> Exhibit Developer, Science Museum of Minnesota
> Assistant Professor and "Scholar," Michigan State University
>
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
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