ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Dear ASTC-ers,
I want to invite you to get involved with an exhibit development
process project I've been working on for several months.
Have you ever found yourself sitting across the table from an exhibit
developer who can't read your blueprints, or an exhibit designer who
can't convey the core idea of an exhibit? As the divide between
"developer" and "designer" increases, and as more museums are relying
on outside designers to implement their exhibits, we often end up
with communication disconnects where the "content" person and the
"design" person can't work together productively.
Here at The Tech Museum of Innovation, we've been trying out a new
way to address this divide and to get away from describing exhibits
either in words or technical specs. We're using the 3D virtual world
of Second Life to bring people together to collaborate on exhibit
prototypes real-time. While Second Life isn't as robust a design
package as an Autocad or 3D Studio Max, it's an environment where you
can quickly convey your ideas in 3D, even if you don't have previous
computer design skills. That means that educators can put together a
3D display to show how they feel the pieces should interrelate, floor
staff can contribute a fun interaction, designers can adjust color
palettes and sizes on the fly... and everyone can work together on a
shared 3D representation of the exhibit in progress. It's a social
environment, meaning that you and I can talk real-time as we design,
and the building tools are simple enough that we can make meaningful
progress in a single session. It's a prototyping tool that people
who don't have CAD skills etc. can really use.
So far, The Tech has been running this project for two months, and
we've been encouraging members of the Second Life community to design
their own exhibits with us. We're taking the best of these virtual
collaborations and turning them into concept designs for real
exhibits we're building this spring (to open in June--which means a 5
month concept-to-floor design cycle). Second Life has allowed us to
work faster, take ideas from a wider group of people, and make
prototyping (something that's getting value-engineered out of many
museums) available to everyone.
We'd like to invite you to join us--either to develop your own
exhibits or to try your hand by getting involved with ours. While
we've been focusing on generating exhibit prototypes for upcoming
Tech exhibits, our grant provides money to support helping other
museums check out this process as well. We can hand-hold you through
an introduction to Second Life, and we can help you get started
brainstorming and developing exhibits with our community of
interested creative, museum-energized Second Life exhibit designers.
We functionally can subsidize free contractor time with creative
exhibit developers working on your projects and challenges, and if
you want to get deeply involved, we have some residency opportunities
for paid work in this space.
If you would like to try this out or would like more information
about this project, please contact me. I know that all the press
about Second Life can make it seem threatening or over-hyped. But
while it may not yet be a slam-dunk as a visitor experience venue, I
do believe it's a great place to test out new ideas, to share a
common concept design language across educators, designers,
developers, fabricators, and visitors. And we'd love to do that with
you, too.
Nina
408.795.6267
[log in to unmask]
Second Life: Avi Marquez
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