ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Hi, Jennie:  As the VP of the National Association for Museum  
Exhibition, I certainly agree with you, and our own exhibits services  
director raised a similar point.  I believe that the Exploratorium's  
recent work on Active Prolonged Engagement addresses some of the  
factors you are mentioning.

I am currently looking into something different,  not floor staff as  
interpreters of exhibitions, but a separate type of programs in which  
people, aided by props, multimedia, whatever, are the primary  
deliverers of the message.  For example, the Current Science program  
at MOS in Boston has a rather elaborate multimedia armature, but is  
fundamentally dependent on the staff person conducting the talk.   
Similarly with "science lunch counters" demos, and science theater.

I have no doubt that human interaction adds to the impact of  
exhibitions, though I am grateful for research leads on this (thanks  
to those who have provided it).  In this instance, I am casting about  
for the impact and audience attractiveness of these other genre of  
programs, the HDE (the birth of an acronym).

Eric Siegel
New York Hall of Science
[log in to unmask]
(718) 699-0005 x 317



On Jul 7, 2006, at 8:55 AM, Jennie Zehmer wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> ********************************************************************** 
> *******
>
> This is a little aside to the subject of HDE, but I feel like typical
> interactive experiences are getting the short end of the stick  
> here! And as
> a professional exhibitionist, I just want ot address it.
>
> One of the attitudes that designers/developers can take is that  
> interactive
> exhibits are an interaction between the device and the visitor.  
> What if we
> caem from a different place? What if the interactive were considered a
> starting point for interaction between visitors? What if it were a
> conversation starter acknowledging the science knowledge/ability in  
> each
> person? What is great about the HDE described so far is that people  
> can talk
> and ask questions of a facilitator. What if exhibit interactives  
> inspired
> people to talk to one another!? I have designed such exhibits for  
> other
> genres of museums and had high dwell times - it works!
>
> Jennie Zehmer
> Director of Exhibit Services & Development
> The Franklin Institute Science Museum
> 222 N. 20th Street
> Philadelphia, PA 19103
> PH (215) 448-1128
> Fax(215) 448-1188
> http://www.fi.edu/exhibitservices
> http://www.ezibits.com
>
> ********************************************************************** 
> *
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http:// 
> www.astc.org.
> To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
> message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
> [log in to unmask]
>


***********************************************************************
More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]