Exhibiting Action:
Engagement, New Media and Public Space
by Jessica Taylor
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts
to the Gallatin School of Individualized Study
New York University
May 2013
ABSTRACT
The study of engagement has been an inquiry that has captivated both academics and
professionals in the fields of psychology, marketing, education, design and anthropology
for a long time. However, with the technological revolution and the new possibilities for
interaction and participation made possible through new media, the concept of
engagement within this new landscape takes a fascinating turn.
In this study, I examine how new media initiatives are used in the informal learning
environments of museum exhibition spaces. Specifically, I focus on social-action themed
exhibitions that not only strive to fulfill educational goals but to also inspire visitors
around a social mission.
Guided by Serrell’s Judging Exhibitions: A Framework for Assessing Excellence (2006),
I describe and dissect the major new media initiative at three current social-action themed
exhibitions, while weaving in a multidisciplinary survey of engagement theories and an
examination of the phenomenology of optimal experience.
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I. ENGAGEMENT AND THE 21ST CENTURY AUDIENCE
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STUDY OF THE VISITOR:
CONSIDERING THE AUDIENCE AS PART OF THE ACT OF DESIGN ................................................................... 9
CRYSTALIZING INTERACTIONS:
THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING IN PUBLIC SPACES .................................................................................... 12
FINDING FLOW:
THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ENJOYMENT ...................................................................................................... 16
II. DESIGNED EXPERIENCES
20
THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY:
A CASE FOR ‘EDUTAINMENT’........................................................................................................................ 20
THE NEW NARRATIVE:
RESTORING EARTH’S GREEN WALL AND
FROM MEMORY TO ACTION’S INTERACTIVE STORY TABLE ........................................................................ 23
SOCIAL GAMING:
HALF THE SKY MOVEMENT: THE GAME ....................................................................................................... 28
STORYTELLING FOR IMPACT:
WOMEN HOLD UP HALF THE SKY'S DIGITAL MICRO-LOAN KIOSKS .......................................................... 34
PERSONALIZATION:
RESTORING EARTH'S MINI-COLLECTIONS .................................................................................................. 37
III. THE LASTING CALL
42
WEBS OF INFLUENCE .................................................................................................................................... 42
MASS CREATIVITY FOR COLLECTIVE ACTION ........................................................................................... 47
CONCLUSION
51
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We certainly have come a long way since the days of cabinets of curiosities and
the unilateral perspectives of the elite that dominated the exhibitionary complex in
the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today, museum audiences have
truly taken on the role of part curator and nowhere is this more evident than in the
type of exhibitions that combine art and display with interactive technologies to
drive a social mission.
Consider From Memory to Action: Meeting the Challenge of Genocide, an
exhibition that opened in April of 2009 at the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, D.C. Thanks to new media and the innovative
partnerships between the museum and seven interactive design firms, the role of
advocate in the quest to end genocide around the world is no longer reserved for
activists, aid workers and politicians. The exhibition issues a call to all visitors as
they enter to “Take Action!” and in a single-room gallery space, weaves together
the details and stories of three contemporary genocide cases from Rwanda,
Bosnia, and the Darfur region of Sudan. Through televised news clips, chilling
oral history accounts from survivors, rescuers, and journalists, and a digitallyprojected cloud of interactive and provoking quotes and images, visitors are not
only presented with the concept of genocide but are urged to take action.
This is a radically new type of exhibition, but it is not technology alone that sets it
apart. Rather, the masterminds behind From Memory to Action and others like it
subscribe to a new way of thinking. They use interactive new media to not only
educate visitors but to also give them opportunities to share their perspectives and
shape the exhibition itself. They incorporate digital tools not for their flashy
properties or as a way to appeal to modern audiences but rather for their
extraordinary ability to provide an engaging interaction and extend the visitor’s
experience long after she has left the physical exhibition space.
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But of course, as with most things, this is easier said than done. While there is
little argument that new media can enhance an exhibition, incorporating effective
technology is a delicate proposition. Some installations prove successful at
capturing the audience’s attention and fulfilling the expectations of the designers,
while others miss their mark.
So what’s the magic formula?
Through this study of engagement and the twenty-first century audience, I pose
this rhetorical question within the framework of social-action themed exhibitions.
My aim is to not only explore what makes a visitor stop and take notice, but more
importantly, what turns that spark of interest into a measurable call to action that
extends far beyond the walls of the physical exhibition space.
Guided by Beverly Serrell’s Judging Exhibitions: A Framework for Assessing
Excellence (2006), an audience-centered assessment tool developed by members
of the Chicago Museum Exhibitors Group, I embarked on a trip to visit and
evaluate the new media initiatives at institutions across the country in an attempt
to answer the question at the heart of my inquiry:
How is new media used to enhance visitor experience and activate a network of
individuals around a common social mission?
The “Framework”, which was developed in response to what was perceived as
missing from the AAM Standards for Museum Exhibitions, is an exclusive and
in-depth focus on visitor-centered issues and places the researcher in the role of
visitor. The analysis requires the researcher to judge an exhibition based on the
following four criteria: Comfort, Engagement, Reinforcement, and
Meaningfulness, where the “ratings are based on the presence or absence of
evidence of the Framework’s Aspects seen by the assessor in the exhibition.”
(Serrell, 2006, p.18) The researcher gathers data while assuming the role of visitor
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rather than observing or asking patrons about their experiences because it
“requires some familiarity with visitor studies, informal education, education
theory, exhibit planning and design, interpretive strategies, exhibit evaluation,
cognitive psychology, and other related fields.” (Serrell, 2006, p.108)
In the following pages, organized around specific components of engagement, as
theorized by leaders in the fields of psychology, marketing, economics and
cyberculture, I will dissect the new media interactions I encountered. I will
discuss my first-hand impressions as researcher in the role of visitor, while
weaving in theoretical perspectives from a variety of disciplines, insights from
media experts, and the voices of the curators and designers responsible for
bringing my highlighted exhibitions to fruition.
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I. Engagement and the 21st Century Audience
There is an inherent challenge in developing social-action themed exhibitions:
balancing the serious and often despairing subject matter with messages of hope
and possibility in the minds of the visitor.
Karina White, consulting curator for the Women Hold Up Half the Sky exhibition,
encountered this issue. “It was a challenge…to take these really overwhelming
and devastating issues and think about how to present them to inspire people to
action.” (Strickland, 2012)
Women Hold Up Half the Sky is a traveling show (currently on view at the
Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio) that originally opened in October of 2011 at
the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. The exhibition, based on the 2009 New York
Times best seller by Nicholas D. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, takes on
women’s issues in developing countries and is organized thematically in the space
around the topics of maternal mortality, trafficking, and gender-based violence.
The idea to transform the book into an exhibition arose when Dr. Robert
Kirschner, Museum Director at the Skirball Center, made a cold call to Kristof
after reading an article about him in the New York Times. Two years later, the
curatorial team at the Skirball Center, along with multimedia artist Ben Rubin and
the architect firm Layer have collaborated to produce, what Kirschner refers to as
“a unique hybrid of gallery installation and community engagement project,
affording visitors multiple opportunities to learn, participate, advocate and give.”
(Skirball Cultural Center, 2011) Kirschner differentiates Women Hold Up Half the
Sky from other shows in saying that it is an exhibition about ideas and about
social conscience, rather than an exhibition based around a collection of artifacts.
(Strickland, 2012)
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My third case study, a show that also takes on the challenge of exhibiting the
intangible, is Abbott Hall of Conservation: Restoring Earth, a permanent
exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago that opened in November of 2011.
Restoring Earth is a large-scale exhibition detailing the conservation efforts of
museum scientists through floor-to-ceiling videos, a Green Wall interactive
touchscreen, an augmented reality station that responds to a physical object in the
hands of the viewer by digitally projecting words and images on a mirror in front
of her, and even an opportunity to explore the collections digitally through
physical body gestures.
...
‘You can’t save what you don’t know’ is a favorite quotation among the curatorial
team and scientists responsible for the Restoring Earth exhibition. In reality,
though, the saying echoes the themes of the other two exhibitions: From Memory
to Action and Women Hold Up Half the Sky just as well. Despite their different
topics, media strategies, and budgets, the idea is the same: narrowing the gap
between an American audience and a pressing issue that the vast majority will
never personally see. It is about granting access to locations too remote or too
dangerous to visit. (And in the case of Women Hold Up Half the Sky, it also
means granting access to a topic without the effort of flipping through 320 pages
of Kristof and WuDunn’s book!)
Kristof acknowledges the advantage of tapping into the museum audience. “At
the end of the day,” he says, “you have to have some pre-existing interest in the
subject to pick up a book and read it. In contrast, you can go to a museum exhibit
by accident, and then it can nurture an interest in the subject, and awaken one to
an issue…For [co-author, Sheryl WuDunn] and me, it’s very important that we
reach beyond the choir.” (Biddle, 2011)
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Study of the Visitor:
Considering the audience as part of the act of design
Each of the social-action themed exhibitions that I studied incorporates at least
two major new media experiences designed with this goal of “reaching beyond
the choir.” Although they presented with varying degrees of success, it is evident
by their novel, interactive, and ‘sharable’ nature that the ultimate goal of the
designers was to not only turn visitors into advocates, but also more importantly,
to turn advocates into activists. Understanding the audience is the most important
consideration in fulfilling that mission.
How does an audience assemble from various parts of a society?
What are the means by which an audience is signaled that this
book, movie, or event is for them? Why does an audience pay
attention to a performance? What is it that encourages individuals
and groups to allocate time and resources to an event or to a work
of art? How and why does the audience continue paying attention,
and what makes them stop? What signals determine the
relationship that will or will not exist with the work of art?
(Schlossberg, 1998, p.5)
These questions, proposed by Dr. Edwin Schlossberg in his book, Interactive
Excellence (1998), drive what he refers to as “the discipline of looking at the
audience as part of the act of composition or design.” (p.5)
I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Schlossberg after reading his book. He
discussed some of the projects commissioned through his New York City based
design firm ESI and shared his wisdom from years as an “experience” designer.
He describes his process, “When I think to make something, I try to imagine how
all different groups in the audience will actually experience what I make…I also
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try to understand what each individual and each small group will consider to be
their role during the experience−how they will learn or have fun experiencing the
content and the design.” (p.15)
Schlossberg’s background as an artist shows through in his writings and ideas.
His concern when it comes to the audience is not to produce a comfortable, feelgood experience, but rather to help audiences become better as audiences. He
stresses the importance of museums and other types of public institutions for their
role in serving as a “theater in which and through which society and its cultures
can converse.” (p.71)
Institutions enable a diverse audience to have common experiences
that give them not only the resources and a sense of belonging, but
also the background ideas and information that enable them to
further develop themselves and their individual roles in the culture.
(p.71)
This concept of exhibition as venue and forum for conversation is definitely
apparent in all three exhibitions. While each offers completely different new
media experiences, they share a fundamental similarity. Each one provides the
visitor with an opportunity to create something personal within the physical
exhibition gallery that can be carried over to the virtual space after leaving the
museum. The purpose, of course, is to continue the interaction after the visit has
ended.
Schlossberg warns against the temptation to use technology to create flashy
artificial realities, a concern that was apparent on the minds of the designers who
produced all three exhibitions that I visited.
Some designers try to lure audiences by telling a mythlike story
that includes overwhelming special effects and makes full use of
intense sound, speed, and imagined danger…It is done brilliantly,
but underneath the gloss, these theme parks do nothing to prepare
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people for the complex changing and demanding roles of people in
the twenty-first century. (pp. 70-71)
This is an issue that theorists Kristine Morrissey and Douglas Worts (1998) also
stress in their article on negotiating the role of technology in museums. Despite
being written nearly 15 years ago, the article makes a fundamental point that will
never be dated.
Instead of asking ‘How can I use computers or multimedia in this
exhibit?’ or ‘How can I show off our collections, our research?’
we ask, ‘How will visitors relate to this object? What type of
interaction will illuminate or enhance the relationship between
visitors and this object? How will they experience the exhibit, the
museum, or their environment differently after this exhibition?
(p.156)
This is a consideration especially pertinent to social-action themed exhibitions
because of the sensitive nature of their subject matter. New media is inherently
impressive and there is a tendency to design with a “bigger is better” mentality.
As Skirball Museum director Dr. Kirschner questions, “How [do we] make an
exhibition without making it exhibitionistic?” (Strickland, 2012)
Rather than focusing on the technological or physical components inherent to the
media, all three exhibitions that I researched handled this concern through designs
that focus on the behavior and “the relationship between the data and the visitor.”
(Morrissey & Worts, 1998, p.18) Not surprisingly, designers for the two
exhibitions with the most somber subjects, Memory to Action and Women Hold
Up Half the Sky, seemed to be hyper-aware of the need for restraint. Accordingly,
they incorporated more play between analog and digital media highlighting a need
for both interactive and reflective experiences. From Memory to Action curator,
Bridget Conley-Zilkic said that her goal was to communicate that tensions are
“exposed, but not resolved” and her strategy to find this balance was to mix
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traditional forms of media with high-tech interactive formats. (Conley-Zilkic &
Gillette, 2011, p.36)
Crystalizing Interactions:
The experience of learning in public spaces
In an article co-authored by Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi and his colleague, Kim
Hermanson titled, “Intrinsic Motivation in Museums: Why Does One Want to
Learn?” (1999), it is argued that many people have ‘crystalizing experiences’ in
museum settings, meaning that visitors can often trace their desire to explore and
learn about some aspect of the world because of a specific moment in a museum.
(p.146)
John Falk, one of the most prolific writers on the subject of informal learning
environments, would agree. In his book, Museum Experiences (1992), Falk
discusses the experience of learning within public spaces. I emphasize the word
‘experience’ because, as Falk argues, the material being presented is just one of
many considerations in designing fulfilling and effective informal learning
environments.
One of Falk’s greatest contributions to the field is his own framework for
analyzing museum experiences (which is an assessment tool similar to the Serrell
“Framework for Judging Exhibitions” that I used to guide my visits). He calls
this the Interactive Experience Model, “a lens through which we view and try to
make sense of museum visits and experiences.” (Falk, 1992, p.2) The basis of this
model is that every single visit revolves around the interaction between three
contexts:
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1. The Personal Context–the agenda and prior learning with which the
visitor arrives
2. The Social Context–the groups and crowds that influence the
individual’s experience
3. The Physical Context–the smell, availability of benches, ambience,
objects, proximity of services, and even the gift shop
Visitors come into every experience with a set of expectations and a ‘personal
reservoir’ of prior knowledge and attitudes. This poses a significant challenge in
curating and designing any type of exhibition. When it is a social-action themed
exhibition addressing issues that are uncomfortable and possibly polarizing, it is
an even greater task. The curators and media designers for Restoring Earth, From
Memory to Action, and Women Hold Up Half the Sky not only have to
acknowledge that visitors are coming in with different levels of familiarity, but
that they are coming from different interest groups too.
I noticed this challenge is reconciled in the way that visitors are invited to leave
their own marks on the exhibition. Not surprisingly, the two exhibitions with the
most controversial subject matters incorporated greater opportunities for
individuals to shape the exhibition by providing their own ‘data’ in a less
structured or predictable way. In From Memory to Action, this took the form of
the card asking visitors the open-ended question: What will you do to meet the
challenge of genocide today? Constrained only by its physical size, visitors are
free to write anything they wish on their cards before inserting them into a special
slot in an illuminated glass vitrine that acts as the centerpiece of the space. Once
past the threshold, for better or worse, the visitors’ words become part of the
exhibition and their messages are instantly digitized, uncensored, on giant floorto-ceiling video screens. Through new media, their contributions become
permanent, physical and virtual artifacts of the museum and a personal,
contemplative activity becomes a public experience, shared at once with everyone
in the gallery and with visitors online.
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In Women Hold Up Half the Sky, visitors are presented with multiple ways to
make an impact on the exhibition, yet in a more controlled manner than in From
Memory to Action. Visitors can choose a recipient for a micro-loan, they can mail
a prewritten and addressed postcard to their Congress representative, and in a
similar concept to the pledge card in From Memory to Action, they can handwrite
a ‘wish’ for women and girls on a piece of colorful paper. With the goal to
“catalyze visitors to express reactions,” the messages are periodically inserted into
the pockets of an overhanging canopy designed by Lisa Little and Emily White
from the architect firm Layer. (Strickland, 2012)
While Kirschner, director of the Skirball Center, was pleased with the piece
saying that it “has turned out to be an effective, dramatic way to symbolize the
power of collective action,” I question what is meant by effectiveness. The
canopy of wishes makes for a poignant and visually stunning symbol, but it
misses out on the opportunity to act as a piece for conversation and potential
catalyst for action in the way that the digitized pledge cards in From Memory to
Action do. While some experiences certainly lend themselves to analog media,
this is one with which the immediacy of the digital is crucial. By the time the
visitor’s wish becomes part of the exhibition, she has long since left the space and
her words (presumably) vetted by museum staff. This creates distance between
the visitor and her pledge, reducing its impact.
Also, asking visitors to pen a thought-oriented ‘wish’ rather than an actionoriented statement strikes me as playing it too safe. While the activity may
promote sympathy, it fails to challenge the visitor to place herself within the
framework of the problem. It causes me to question the motives behind such an
installation. Does it actually serve to ignite social-action or at least promote
community? Or is it more of a feel-good activity aimed at appeasing visitors by
rewarding them for minimal efforts?
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This strategy to include the audience as part curator also touches on one of the
biggest challenges that face designers when producing an exhibition that
highlights problems in a culture that is not the audience’s own. Karina White,
curator for Women Hold Up Half the Sky worked with an advisory committee
made up of different advocacy groups and nongovernmental organizations to
minimize the danger of appearing paternalistic. It is not an issue that is easily
reconciled and even though the designers were apparently cognizant of this
problem, Women Hold Up Half the Sky definitely presents from a western point of
view in that it stresses economic oriented solutions for society based problems.
This is something that I did not notice as much during my visit to the From
Memory to Action exhibition.
Again, my impression was that the freer, unstructured interaction afforded by the
digitized pledge card in From Memory to Action works better to address this
problem than the guided interactions offered by Women Hold Up Half the Sky. In
this case, the curator provides limited framework and then encourages individuals
to share their perspectives without intervention. This serves to diffuse the
perspectives and lessen the responsibility on the designers, thereby reinforcing the
message that one voice or one action is not inherently better than another.
Unfortunately, this also makes it more difficult to assess effectiveness and keep
the exhibition on topic.
In Women Hold Up Half the Sky, museum staff can track, for example, how many
postcards were mailed to Congress or measure the impact of a small-business
owner’s story by adding up the number of micro-loans she collects. But when
most of the data comes in the form of nebulous pledges such as, “I will read the
newspaper” or “I will learn more about genocide,” how do designers measure
impact?
As Morrissey and Worts (1998) discuss, museums are most useful when they not
only focus on providing information but when they help the visitor to make sense
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of that information as well. (p.153) In contrast to the specific ideas for action
found in Women Hold Up Half the Sky, visitors to From Memory to Action are left
to come up with their own solutions. While analyzing this exhibition from the
perspective of the visitor and considering my own contribution to the pledge wall,
I had doubts whether the exhibit adequately prepares visitors to take on such a
difficult question as the one posed: What will you do to meet the challenge of
genocide today?
Nina Simon, an expert in participatory museum experiences whom I met at the
National Arts Marketing Project Conference in 2012, validates my skepticism.
She theorizes,
On a conceptual level, I’m curious about what kinds of responses
people might have to a question as complex and heady as “What
will you do to the meet the challenge of genocide today?” Is this
really a question that visitors can answer? The exhibit doesn’t
provide answers—it mostly provides devastating stories about the
challenges. (Simon, 2009)
Finding Flow:
The phenomenology of enjoyment
What is important about Falk’s (1992) contributions to the canon of literature and
to my particular study is that he brings up the commonalities that are constant to
engagement and learning no matter where it is taking place. Of course, providing
opportunities for learning and interaction is futile unless the visitor is compelled
to spend time and devote attention to the subject matter.
In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csikszentmihalyi
(1990) introduces his frequently cited concept by the same name. As a professor
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of psychology at the University of Chicago, Csikszentmihalyi’s area of research is
in the study of optimal experience and the phenomenology of enjoyment. His
theory of flow, which serves to explain why some experiences are so gratifying
and provide such an intense sensation of enjoyment that people “feel that
expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it,” has
exciting implications for the study of audiences and engagement in informal
learning environments. (p.49)
In his book, Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as a condition in which
“concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about
anything irrelevant, or to worry about problems. Self-consciousness disappears,
and the sense of time becomes distorted.” (p.49) He identifies the following eight
elements of a flow experience:
1. There is an opportunity to actually complete the activity; the skills of
the individual match the challenge presented and the participant is
suspended in the area between boredom and anxiety.
2. The participant has the ability to concentrate on the activity.
3. There are clear goals and subgoals.
4. Immediate feedback is provided and there are ways to measure
progress.
5. The activity allows for deep but effortless involvement; the individual’s
worries and frustrations concerning the outside world are subdued.
6. The participant feels a sense of control over her actions.
7. The concern for self disappears. However, the sense of self reappears
stronger after the experience.
8. The participant’s sense of time is altered.
In describing the ideal environment for learning in the exhibition setting,
Csiksentmihalyi and Hermanson (1999) go on to expand on the basic list of
human motivators to include “novelty, curiosity, and competence drives.” (p.145)
They argue that humans have a natural motivation to learn and that this can “be
17
rekindled by supportive environments; by meaningful activities; by being freed of
anxiety [and] fear” and by being presented with challenges that meet one’s skills.
(p.147) They define the elements, differentiation and integration as those that
evoke the flow-like state in museum visits. “When we fully attend to something,
we connect with life and thus fulfill the basic human need for relatedness.
Meaningful experiences are those that are both differentiated and integrated.”
(p.152)
The From Memory to Action exhibition’s main interactive feature, the digitized
pledge card is a good example of interactive media that serves to fulfill the needs
of both differentiation and integration. Simon (2009) calls the installation a
bridging of the “best of both worlds, inviting a personal, physical ritualization of
[the] promise mixed with dynamic digital representation and recombination”. She
observes,
Signing a pledge in your own handwriting ritualizes the
experience. Adding your slip of paper to a physical, growing,
highly visible archive makes you part of a larger community. I
watched several visitors as they went through this process, which
ends with your card being reproduced digitally, letter by letter, on
a large projection wall in front of the kiosks. People were
captivated by the slow animation of their pledges being added to
the wall, and that slowness sealed a deliberate interaction.
Simon also brings up an interesting point regarding the play between analog and
digital elements in this new media experience and theorizes about the impact.
Why require visitors to hand-write their pledges rather than keying
them in on a keyboard? It certainly would have been easier for the
museum to digitize and project visitors’ entries if they were typed
in, and it wouldn’t have wasted so much (expensive, digital) paper.
But it wouldn’t have been nearly as powerful…I think it also
relates to the personal way we connect to the words we write by
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hand, which are different from those we type. The digital world
doesn’t seem ‘real’ in the same way that pen and paper does.
I definitely could relate to this idea as I was experiencing the exhibition in the role
of visitor. The mix between analog and digital components intensifies the
effectiveness of the interaction and I found the design of the pledge card to be
symbolic of the personal yet social nature of the experience. Once the pledge
card is filled out, it is perforated and torn in half. The personal, handwritten
pledge is digitized to become part of the public sphere. Whereas, the part of the
card with a digital access code to unlock web content becomes private. It serves
as a tangible personal memento, reflecting ownership of the pledge, and is
something that the visitor can physically carry around.
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II. Designed Experiences
The Experience Economy:
A case for ‘edutainment’
Designing experiences to optimize flow is as much about the physical space
surrounding the material as it is about the subject matter. As Falk (1992)
theorizes, during a museum visit audience members are attracted to the
uniqueness and unusualness of the display and what they attend to becomes part
of his or her “constructed experience.” (p.4) While Falk uses the word museum,
he clarifies that his theories on engagement cross over to a wide range of
educational institutions including art, history and science museums, zoos,
botanical gardens, and even historical homes–essentially, any locale where
informal learning takes place in the public sphere. “People learn within settings
that are at once physical and psychological constructs. The light, the ambiance,
the ‘feel’, and even the smell of an environment influence learning.” (p.100)
Needless to say, the pressure is on for museum professionals to get it right. This
is especially true for those designing social-action themed exhibitions with goals
of societal impact in addition to fostering the visitor’s learning and personal
fulfillment.
Enter the field of interaction and experience design. Visitors have come to expect
flow-inducing interactions during their leisure activities, and informal learning in
arenas of public space fall into this category. It is a phenomenon that can be
traced to a shift in focus away from traditional commodity and service-based
economies, as Joseph Pine and James Gilmore (1999), leading experts in the study
of experiences, describe. We are in the midst of an experience economy where
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the key to future economic growth is in “recognizing experiences as a distinct
economic offering.”(prologue) Customers are looking for more than a product or
service and the organizations with the foresight to differentiate themselves are
developing experiences to fulfill this need and stand out from the competition.
Pine and Gilmore (1999) use a theatrical metaphor to drive this point, “At every
level in every company, workers need to understand that in the Experience
Economy every business is a stage, and therefore work is theater.” (Prologue)
Pine and Gilmore trace the origin of the experience economy to Walt Disney.
“For every guest, cast members (never ‘employees’) stage a complete production
of sights, sounds, tastes, aromas, and textures to create a unique experience.” (p.3)
While Disney is, of course, a commercial example, museums could benefit from
this way of thinking. This is a proposition that makes museum professionals wary
with a fear that framing the museum visit in these terms, traditionally used to
describe commercial-based experiences, will shift the focus away from the
institution’s educational mission.
This is a concern acknowledged by Sarah Thelwall, a strategist for Creative
Industries whom I met in London last year. Thelwall consults with museum
professionals to help them identify ways to increase attendance and encourage
repeat visitors. During our discussion, she stressed the critical need for museum
decision-makers to consider their roles as more than just facilitators of
educational experiences. As argued by George MacDonald and Stephen Alsford
(1995) in their controversial article “Museums and Theme Parks: Worlds in
Collision?,” public institutions need to stop viewing their competition as other
museums and start recognizing that they are competing with all other leisure
pursuits for the attention (and dollars) of the public. Importantly, Pine and
Gilmore (1999) emphasize the point that experiences should not be thought of
strictly in terms of entertainment. “Entertainment is only one aspect of an
experience. Rather, [institutions] stage an experience whenever they engage
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customer [or visitors], connecting with them in a personal, memorable way.” (p.3)
They are careful to stress the word “engage”, not entertain.
Along with entertainment, the authors lay out three other types of experiences
(escapist, esthetic, educational) that can be organized along two dimensions. In
Pine and Gilmore’s Experience Realms Diagram, the horizontal axis corresponds
to the level of guest participation. This is illustrated as a continuum stretching
from passive participation to active participation based on how directly the
audience affects or influences the performance. The vertical dimension
corresponds to connection and the environmental relationship. Here, on one side
of the continuum we find absorption while on the other end we find immersion.
Absorbing interactions bring the experience into the mind of the participant while
in immersive experiences, the participant becomes “physically (or virtually)” a
part of the experience itself. (p.32)
Most experiences, and certainly the major initiatives that I observed, blur these
boundaries (e.g. ‘edutainment). Pine and Gilmore describe ideal experiences
similarly to the ways that Csikszentmihalyi (1990) does in Flow,
The sweet spot for any compelling experience-incorporating
entertainment, educational, escapist, and esthetic elements into
otherwise generic space–is similarly a mnemonic place, a tool
aiding in the creation of memories, distinct from the normally
uneventful world of goods and services. Its very design invites you
to enter, and to return again and again. Its space is layered with
amenities–props–that correspond with how the space is used and
rid of any features that do not follow this function. (p.43)
As Jon Sundbo and Per Darmer reiterate in Creating Experiences in the
Experience Economy (2008), their follow-up book based on Pine’s earlier
theories, “Experiences are more than a product to be produced…[they are]
experiences to be constructed.” (p.4) As cultural agencies, exhibitions “must be
22
able to adapt to the changing values, tastes, interests, and needs of their various
audiences, if they expect to continue to draw those audiences.” (McDonald &
Alsford, 1995, p.131) To say that technology has changed the audience is an
understatement. Thanks to the pervasiveness of new media, visitors are not only
drawn to personalized, interactive, social and on-demand experiences, they expect
them.
The New Narrative:
Restoring Earth’s Green Wall and
From Memory to Action’s Interactive Story Table
One form of storytelling present in both Restoring Earth and From Memory to
Action can be classified as the new narrative. As Frank Rose discusses in his
book The Art of Immersion (2011), the way that we tell stories has evolved. This
new form of narrative is nonlinear and blurs the boundaries between game and
story, between story and marketing, between storyteller and audience, and finally,
between illusion and reality.
New media initiatives like the award-winning Green Wall in Restoring Earth and
the interactive story table in From Memory to Action use this new storytelling
strategy to personalize the visit and provide the visitor with a less authoritativedirected experience. They are both installations that turn the table on the
traditional model of communication within museums. The viewer is not on the
‘receiving’ end of the information. Rather, she is the one seeking it out. She does
not follow a storyline, but instead creates one based on her own agenda by
probing the material as deeply or as superficially as she wants.
If stories themselves are universal, the way we tell them changes
with the technology at hand…just as we’d gotten used to
consuming sequential narratives in a carefully prescribed, point-
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by-point fashion, [along] came the Internet. The Internet is a
chameleon. It is the first medium that can act like all media- it can
be text, or audio, or video, or all of the above. It is nonlinear,
thanks to the World Wide Web and the revolutionary convention of
hyperlinking. It is inherently participatory-not just interactive, in
the sense that it responds to your commands, but an instigator
constantly encouraging you to comment, to contribute, to join
in. And it is immersive-meaning that you can use it to drill down
as deeply as you like about anything you care to. (Rose, 2011, p.2)
The Green Wall, designed by the firm Bluecadet, is a vertical floor-to-ceiling
interactive storyboard that utilizes three large touchscreens to allow for the
simultaneous participation of multiple visitors. Through a high-definition display,
visitors are presented visually with the stunning backdrop of the Yaguas in the
luxuriant Peruvian rainforest. During their interaction, “users can journey with
their fingertips to the depths of the lush grounds, and discover the rare and
exquisite creatures living” within the trees, land and sea. (Bluecadet, 2012) By
zooming in on an area, visitors are presented with multiple touch-activated
pathways. They can call up information about various species, peruse field notes,
watch interviews, and read the profiles of biologists assigned to the rainforest
conservation project. Most selections present the visitor with even more options
so she can explore the material as broadly or a specifically as she wishes. The
result is a completely non-linear experience personalized to the specific interests
and familiarity of the visitor.
The Green Wall is seamlessly integrated into the rest of Restoring Earth and is a
design that reflects the theme of the exhibition incredibly effectively. Restoring
Earth was conceptualized with the goal of showcasing the behind-the-scenes
work of the Field Museum biologists. As Debra Moskovits, head of the
Department of Environment, Culture and Conservation tells, “We put science into
action, and this is what we wanted this exhibit to convey…We realized people
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didn’t know about all the science that is happening in this building and nobody
was telling the story of conservation and our role in it.” (Mullen, 2011) The result
is an exhibition that packs in almost two decades worth of data in the form of
scientific research and in the anecdotal experiences of the passionate group of
scientists who have devoted their careers to the mission of conservation. These
“field researchers are presented as modern-day action heroes, dropping from
helicopters into the jungle or getting up close and personal with wild animals.”
(Spak, 2011) The Green Wall is so effective because it synthesizes a huge amount of data and
guides the viewer in ‘packaging’ this data into a story form for herself that is both
manageable and entertaining. The ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ type of story
progression reflects the moral foundation of the exhibition. Restoring Earth’s
goal is to facilitate conversations about decision-making, a key component of
conservation. Accordingly, the installation places the visitor in control. The
“exhibition doesn’t lecture, telling visitors what’s right and wrong… Instead,
visitors hear scientists’ own words–describing the work they do and the passion
and urgency that drive them.” (The Field Museum, n.d.)
The interactive and self-directed quality of the Green Wall also helps to turn
visitors into activists or as Restoring Earth curators call them, “citizen scientists.”
(Mullen, 2011) As is the motto of the exhibition staff, “You can’t save what you
don’t know.” The Green Wall installation attempts to bridge that connection for
visitors by helping them get as close to the location and action as possible,
without of course as Moskovits jokes, the mosquito bites and sweat in their eyes.
(Spak, 2011) While it is not a quintessential example of an immersive experience,
the Green Wall does present with a common multi-sensory characteristic.
“Visitors have the feeling of being there, hearing jungle sounds in the
background, as scientists describe the adventure and discovery of ‘on the ground’
conservation work.” (The Field Museum, n.d) The installation is so seamlessly
integrated into the physical environment of the exhibition space that even the
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audio bleed from a nearby video installation contributes positively to the
experience. As Rose (2011) argues, this combination of new narrative mixed with
immersive experience is ideal for learning because it promotes an emotional
response that has “nothing to do with logic or reason or linear thought.” (p.267)
This serves the goal of The Field Museum’s design director, Alvaro Amat who
says, “We want to effect an attitude change-to make people care about nature
instead of just learning about it. We’re trying to inspire…[with an] experience
that goes beyond just information.” (The Field Museum, n.d)
…
From Memory to Action too offers an experience for visitors to participate in this
new narrative type of interactive storytelling. The design firm Potion worked
with museum curators to create an interactive story table situated in the middle of
the exhibition space. Like the Green Wall, visitors access content through
touch. Caroline Oh, a graphic designer who specializes in interactive and
narrative projects describes the endeavor, “Through a large scale communal
interactive projection, visitors can explore images and evidence to further
investigate each story…While exploring a story, visitors can swipe [their Take
Action pledge cards] into individual slots around the table to learn more
online.” A symbolic gesture, tells Oh that “encourages visitors to carry what they
have learned beyond the museum walls.”
This idea of taking the story with them, while poignant, functions better in
concept than within in the real-life exhibition space. After activating the
technology through an initial touch, the projection illuminates with a message
urging the visitor to insert her card into a slot at the edge of the wood table. The
idea is that visitors are able to save the content that resonates with them and
access it online post-visit.
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During my analysis, however, I encountered a few problems. On my initial survey
of From Memory to Action, I did not realize that this was an interactive
installation. I misunderstood the expectations of the designers and considered the
quotations merely an aesthetic supplement to the space. I suspect that other
visitors will encounter this issue as well given the newness of this type of
technology and the fact that museums are behavior settings with traditionally
‘hands-off’ expectations. (Falk, 1992) Once the visitor realizes that she can touch
the words and save content, an additional problem arises. There is no guidance to
inserting the card nor is feedback provided to let the visitor know if her story has
been properly collected. I found the process unclear and judging from the
crumbled up cards I discovered stuck in the slots, this was a common problem.
During my post-visit analysis, it was disappointing to realize that my card had
failed to collect any stories. This has been a flaw in the media design since the
exhibition’s inception. Simon (2009) describes her observations during a visit not
long after the exhibition was debuted to the public four years ago,
While I saw many visitors intuitively and successfully using the
cards to make pledges, the table interaction was confusing…The
table had no comparable physical analog to help people
understand how to connect their cards to the multimedia content.
Despite this issue (that could likely be improved with better signage or behavior
modeling), From Memory to Action’s interactive story table is an engaging and
beautiful way to connect visitor with data. This can also be said for Restoring
Earth’s Green Wall as both installations are examples of data visualization, a term
used to describe the visual representation of information when data is abstracted
for the purpose of presenting it graphically and aesthetically. The Green Wall
makes for an inspiring example of this because the new media essentially serves
to transform pages of field notes and data collected over months and even years
into an exciting, rugged adventure that places the visitor right in the action.
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Most profoundly, both installations serve to improve the experience for the visitor
by reflecting at once, the content as well as the physical context of the exhibition.
In his article “Designing Hybrid Environments: Integrating Media in Exhibition
Space,” Semper (1998) emphasizes that not only should media be a reflection of
the physical environment but of the qualities of the public space experience too
(“three-dimensional and spatial”). (p.119) Accordingly, while the interaction itself
is completed individually, the experience is not. The designers’ choices in
location and materials (large video panels and a wide open table in the middle of
the space) ensure that the action will play-out in full view of other visitors, which
serves (even if passively) to bring them into the experience.
Social Gaming:
Half the Sky Movement: The Game
I observed one of the most direct methods for encouraging visitors to engage with
exhibition content post-visit during my analysis of Women Hold Up Half the Sky.
In the ‘action’ section of the gallery, Half the Sky Movement: The Game is
introduced via two iPads so visitors can start their online game experience within
the gallery before continuing at home.
The interactive experience, designed by Canadian design firm Frima Studios and
produced by Games for Change, an innovative non-profit organization that
designs digital games for social impact, takes the player on a global journey that
begins in India and moves on to Kenya, Vietnam and Afghanistan before
finishing in the United States. After initiating the game through Facebook,
players are introduced to Radhika, a mother of two whose daughter is critically ill
because the family could not afford a vaccine. The game leads players through
quests such as harvesting mangos to pay the doctor for the daughter’s treatment,
collecting books for the children’s school, attending a women’s empowerment
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meeting, and applying for a micro-loan with other players. The gameplay is
reminiscent of the ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ type of stories where the player
assumes the role of protagonist and must decide how to react in a variety of
different situations and conversations in order to advance the story. The
interactive challenges are based on real-world scenarios and as she advances
through the game, the player unlocks actual donations from partner organizations.
Additionally, she can give money directly through a “one-click gift” or by
purchasing ‘energy’ and special in-game bonuses for her character.
Half the Sky Movement: The Game is not the first game to incorporate
philanthropy with gaming. In FreeRice and the now defunct (lil) Green Patch,
corporations donated grains of rice as players moved up in levels. It is, however,
the pioneering “social game that introduces direct virtual-to-real translation of
giving and awareness.” It’s “the first one to create content that directly aligns with
the donation,” says Asi Burak, co-president of Games for Change. He adds that
it’s not about moving money from A to B, rather there is a whole engagement
model that fellow co-producer, Michelle Byrd calls “a shining example for the
field of social gaming.” (Casserly, 2013)
Because of this play between the virtual and the real, Half the Sky Movement: The
Game falls into a revolutionary new category made possible through new media
called pervasive games. This relatively new genre is one in which the boundaries
that define “the magic circle,” a term coined by theorist, Erik Kristiansen to
describe a game’s rules, space, time and players, are blurred by mixing the game
world with the real world. This blurring can happen spatially (the city becomes
the game locale), socially (new players are invited in and non-players collaborate
with players), and temporally (games play out over weeks). (Sundbo & Darmer,
2008, p.54)
When it comes to studying flow and the components of audience engagement,
looking at games is illuminating. As Csikszentmihalyi (1990) explains, games
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make for ideal examples of flow experiences because they are innately “designed
to make optimal experience easier to achieve.” They provide “a sense of
discovery [and] a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality.”
Ultimately, games push the player to a higher level of performance and in doing
so make the self more complex. “In this growth of the self lies the key to flow
activities.” (p.74) One of the most interesting characteristics of games is that they
“facilitate concentration and involvement by making the activity as distinct as
possible from the so-called ‘paramount reality’ of everyday existence.” (p.72)
Games are also innately tied into the physiological effects of immersion. In The
Art of Immersion, Rose (2011) focuses on the work of three neuroscientists, Dr.
Kent Berridge, Dr. Joseph LeDoux, and Dr. Paul Howard-Jones, all of who study
the dopamine response in humans in the midst of immersive experiences.
Dopamine orients our attention and, interestingly, it is released more during the
seeking than in the attainment of a goal. This is key in explaining the success of
immersive marketing campaigns disguised as alternate reality games and provides
support for the recognition of gaming as a worthy area of academic inquiry as it
relates to both informal learning and philanthropic motivations. Charles
Leadbeater (2007), a theorist in the areas of cyberculture and mass creativity,
touches on this idea in an incredibly poignant musing,
So if some ingenious west coast game designers can create the
conditions in which thousands of people around the world
collaborate to solve a trivial puzzle, could we do something similar
to defeat bird flu, tackle global warming, keep communities safe,
provide support for disaster victims, lend and borrow
money…?(p.12)
The game was designed, like the exhibition, to further the goal of “reaching
beyond the choir.” In a press release for the game’s launch, Kristof and WuDunn
state, “We want to reach a broader audience for these issues we care deeply about.
We hope that a Facebook game that is fun and viral can be a way to do that,
30
reaching people who aren’t now interested in women’s empowerment.” (Games
for Change, 2013) Having the initial invitation to this game within the space of
the exhibition is important. While it seems like an obvious strategy, this strong tie
between the physical and virtual spaces is missing from most other social-action
themed exhibitions. As the game’s producer Michelle Byrd says, “The first
priority is getting Facebook users to install the game. They, in turn, become
advocates and assets for the continued outreach of the game to new users.”
(Casserly, 2013)
By incorporating the game as one of the new media elements in the Women Hold
Up Half the Sky exhibition, the curators are lessening the burden of the invitation,
a topic that Schlossberg (1998) discusses in his book Interactive Excellence. He
stresses the importance of the invitation, something that is often overlooked by
media designers. “There is always a strain on the audience when experiencing
something new,” Schlossberg reminds. (p.17) This installation not only introduces
the visitor to the online content, but also more importantly, gets her invested in it
while still enveloped in the experience.
This is a strategy that From Memory to Action should consider given the concerns
expressed by Sara Weisman (2009), Outreach Coordinator for the Holocaust
Museum’s Committee on Conscience,
While visitors to the installation at the Museum have been engaged
and made pledges, very few visitors have taken the next step to log
in to the Web site, lean more and access our resources. Some have
suggested it would be helpful to collect the email addresses of
people who make pledges so that we may follow up with visitors
but we worry this would make visitors less likely to participate.
We also currently have many fields required to log into the Web
site, which could be responsible for deterring visitors.
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While a game in the traditional sense may not be appropriate or feasible for From
Memory to Action’s content or budget, it is possible to dissect the components of
online gameplay as they relate to engagement. One fascinating area that Rose
(2011) considers is electronic foraging, a term used to describe the phenomenon
of why people are willing to devote a great deal of time and attention to
collaborative, participatory media projects without any obvious or tangible
rewards. “Anything that invites us to participate and promises some sort of
reward can become a game – including, as participatory media proliferate,
storytelling itself.” (p.273) This speaks to the impact of designing media touch
points that visitors seek out rather than those in which the experience is initiated
by the institution.
Of course, this game will not come without criticism, especially given the
newness of the field of social gaming and the fact that it endeavors to combine a
traditionally light-hearted and ‘fun’ activity with a topic that is real, complex, and
overwhelmingly sad. The game’s producer, Asi Burak acknowledges the
challenge, “To treat games as a medium rather than just entertainment or a
pastime, even that is a jump for certain people.” (Wolonick, 2013) While it is
apparent that the designers aim to cross boundaries, to consider this piece at once
within the realms of game, fund-raising platform, and even art form, it is my
perception that the game design reverts too much to the stylistic look and
progression of earlier video games of the 1980s and 1990s. While certainly
amusing, their simplified storylines do not address the unique challenges of
pervasive games that seek to blur the boundaries between the real and the virtual.
It is a challenge to communicate a game storyline where characters face problems
that cross over into the real world without trivializing the issues. Unfortunately,
Half the Sky Movement: The Game falls into this trap. For example, consider the
reward for inviting additional Facebook friends to the game via a cartoon “Invite
Friends” button. “You Bring Change!” reads the banner, “For every 100 players,
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Johnson & Johnson gives a fistula surgery to Fistula Foundation! Only 6 to the
next fistula surgery!”
As was the primary challenge on the mind of curator Karina White while
designing the exhibition, this game presents with the problem of appearing
paternalistic. It struggles with reconciling how to present with appropriateness, a
culture that is not the audience’s own, a long-standing challenge in any form of
ethnographical composition. Anthropologist, Arjun Appadurai’s (1988)
discussion concerning self versus others in his article about the problematic
portrayal of other cultures in ethnographic works comes to mind,
Natives are not only persons who are from certain places, and
belong to those place, but they are also those who are somehow
incarcerated or confined, in those places…Natives are in one
place, a place to which explorers, administrators, missionaries,
and eventually anthropologists come. These outsiders, these
observers, are regarded as quintessentially mobile; they are the
movers, the seers, the knowers. The natives are immobilized by
their belonging to a place. (p.35)
In this way, the underlying storyline of Half the Sky Movement: The Game is
problematic because it reinforces a message that the player (an outsider and
observer) needs to save the woman from her choices and circumstances.
Essentially, a (American) player assumes the character of someone who belongs
to a different culture, from (most likely) a different ethnicity, who faces vastly
different (and incomprehensible) challenges. The goal is to make the right
decisions, to have one’s cartoon character assert herself during conversations, to
solve nearly all of the problems presented in the game with economic-based
solutions.
One opponent is writer Anne Elizabeth Moore. She describes the game as
disempowering and takes issue with the binary choice system that the player must
33
make to advance within the game. “You’re given these binary options that, in real
life, wouldn’t really be binary. Admittedly this format would be impossible to
actually use as a tool of empowerment…” (Murphy, 2013) Early in the game, for
example, players must decide whether Radhika will confront her husband or stay
silent. If they choose to speak up, players will receive a bonus and be rewarded
with a pop-up message: “You took matters into your own hands.” Apparently, in
the simplistic game world, the threat of domestic violence isn’t an issue here.
While I did note how seamlessly the partnering organizations are incorporated
into gameplay and how the designers effectively offer multiple ways to participate
and contribute based on players’ varying learning styles, levels of commitment
and resources, the ability to solve complex problems at the click of a button made
me feel uneasy. The relationships between marketing, advertising and
philanthropic interests need to be more transparent, and the experience could be
improved by reframing the way that for-profit sponsors impact the game. While
there is certainly a place for corporate sponsorship, when it is framed in the sense
of ‘this-for-that,’ essentially advertising clicks in exchange for the individual and
incremental donations of life-changing surgeries, the effect is morbid.
Storytelling for Impact:
Women Hold Up Half the Sky’s Digital Micro-loan Kiosks
Another way that Women Hold Up Half the Sky’s designers inject storytelling into
the exhibition is to inspire awareness and activate fundraising through interactive
micro-lending stations. With his or her ticket of admission, each visitor is allotted
$1 to distribute to a women-owned small business through FITE (Financial
Independence Through Entrepreneurship) and Kiva, two organizations
highlighted in Kristof and WuDunn’s book. Visitors can choose a geographical
34
region and an industry they wish to support. They submit their name and email
and the next day are sent a photo and the profile of the woman receiving the loan.
These profiles are much more than loan applications. Really, they are stories that
tell about the life, family, hopes and ambitions of a woman thousands of miles
away, a woman that most visitors will never in their lifetimes meet. In this way,
storytelling is used to bridge the distance and foster empathy between the women
who make up the focus of this exhibition and the American patrons who pass
through.
In their book, The Networked Non-profit, Kantor and Fine (2010) discuss the
impact of using storytelling for this purpose, “Storytelling makes fundraising
personal…Stories put a human face on abstract ideas, provide moral clarity in the
fight against unfairness, right a fundamental wrong, and celebrate triumph over
evil.” (p.142) The advantage of incorporating this type of interaction within the
exhibition space is that, similar to the exhibition’s companion Facebook game, it
gets the visitor invested in a project before she leaves. It’s also a longer-term
project and one that is novel enough to encourage sharing to a greater degree,
compared to the other new media interactions I observed.
As we see with these interactive micro-lending stations and the exhibition’s
companion Facebook game, donating through storytelling platforms takes on
multiple forms. The main advantage is reducing the psychological and financial
barriers of the invitation to participate. Essentially, the visitor is ‘playing with
someone else’s money,’ yet effecting real and collectively significant results. It’s
a way to build awareness and encourage participation without having to overcome
the barrier of financial commitment, which no matter how small the request, is
still a burden.
Placing the micro-lending iPad installations around the exhibition space also
serves to enhance the written material and physical artifacts. The situation of the
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installation is significant. The iPads are placed next to stories spotlighting women
who have improved their lives through economic solutions. One of these tablets,
for example, is found close to a wall panel and enclosed artifact case conveying
the story of Goretti Nyabenda, a 36-year-old mother with six children who
suffered abuse at the hands of her husband before taking out a $2 loan and
building a successful banana-beer business. It can be difficult to understand the
collective power of micro-lending upon first introduction so providing an
opportunity to actually participate is a good strategy. Through touchscreens, the
process of micro-lending is demonstrated and the experience is differentiated
within the text-dominated exhibition environment. Most importantly, it reinforces
the message that real results can be achieved when individuals pool their
collective contributions.
The storytelling component of this initiative makes the experience fall into Rose’s
(2011) broad definition of game because the design of the application encourages
anticipation and provides a reward for one’s effort. The visitor makes a couple of
choices and then must wait until the next day to realize the outcome. This postvisit email serves as both a reminder of the experience and rewards the visitor
with recognition and the story of her impact.
During my observations, I was pleased to find that the designers simplified the
installation’s user interface and limited the visitor’s options for selecting a loan
recipient. This is different than how most online lending sites work. Kiva, for
example, allows potential donors to flip through dozens of personal profiles to
find a project of interest. As someone who has explored and had reservations
about supporting micro-lending organizations prior to my visit and analysis, I
admittedly approached this installation with trepidation. I have two criticisms.
First of all, it takes significant financial and human resources to promote stories
that are produced essentially with the sole goal of appealing to western donors.
Secondly, the process of picking through stories and determining what’s best and
who’s most worthy underpins the message that “we” are saving “them”. The
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designers’ decision to depersonalize this aspect of micro lending helps the
installation avoid the paternalistic problems that plague Half the Sky Movement:
The Game.
Personalization:
Restoring Earth’s Mini-Collections
In a museum exhibition with more data and more artifacts than a visitor could
ever make sense of, the designers of Restoring Earth introduce a new media
installation that takes curation to the next level.
The Mini-Collections Kiosk, one of the most distinctive experiences that I
observed during my analysis, takes up a large area in the middle of the Restoring
Earth gallery. On a large touchscreen, the visitor is asked five questions about
her personality and interests. She makes her selections from a multiple-choice list
and upon completion is prompted to stand on an illuminated spot in the middle of
the gallery space. Once in place, the visitor is presented with the projection of a
virtual shadow box containing five images or animations depicting artifacts,
specimen and ideas. As the installation’s designer Mark Rattin (n.d) explains,
Each answer a visitor selects, links to over 400 photographic or
3D animated images. When finished, visitors see the mini
collection of objects their answers created. They can name their
mini collection and email it to themselves to view and customize
later at home via a mini collection website. These mini collections
are also saved and sent to a central theater space (next to the
kiosk) by a projection system…Within the theater space, visitors
can use their gestures to navigate through all the mini-collections
that users created via Microsoft Kinect.
37
This installation is intriguing because it is the only one I observed that
incorporates the physical body with an otherwise completely virtual experience.
It serves to bridge a gap between the physical and the online space in a different
way than the other exhibitions do. This is because the installation acknowledges
the needs of guests who do not necessarily connect as deeply with linguistically
oriented learning opportunities. It is a diversion away from the text-oriented
interactions found in many exhibitions and instead facilitates learning for
individuals who identify with spatial or bodily kinesthetic types of intelligences.
(Gardner & Davis, 1993, p.100)
Like Restoring Earth’s other major new media initiative the Green Wall, the
Mini-Collections Kiosk serves to reinforce the exhibition’s message, “You can’t
save what you don’t know” because it functions to focus the visitor’s attention
with the goal of establishing a deeper connection with the material. The visitor
can go online to call up additional layers of information for each component of
her collection, which again relates back to Gardner’s theory of multiple
intelligences. Depending on the image, visitors can pursue additional readings,
watch videos or listen to podcasts featuring museum scientists.
Like most of the other new media installations I have highlighted, The MiniCollections experience plays out in both public and private spheres. Obviously,
this was an intentional goal of the designers given the amount of square feet
allotted to this particular installation. Despite being an activity personalized to
the individual and completed largely alone, it takes place in a theater space and
thus brings other visitors into the experience.
It is engaging to use one’s body to flip through the virtual shadow boxes and play
with the Microsoft Kinect system, a technology designed with sensors to respond
to individual body movements without need for a controller. However, my
impression is that the interaction is short-lived. The problem is that its learning
component takes places entirely online and the visitor must find the exhibition’s
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website post-visit in order to access the resources. The content on the website is
wonderful; but the visitor won’t realize this unless she makes an effort to seek out
her mini-collection after leaving the museum. Because visitors are not provided
during their in-gallery experience with an expectation of what they will find
online, I doubt that the majority of visitors will participate.
The Mini-Collections Kiosk installation also brings up a discussion about “digital
surrogate objects” and how they impact learning. Olivia Frost (2002) explores this
topic in her article “When the Object is Digital.” She asserts the idea that
interacting with digital objects is a vastly different experience than seeing the
actual object. These differences can “at once augment and limit our experience”.
(p.79) Frost acknowledges the advantages offered by the Mini-Collection Kiosks’
virtual integration,
Digital technologies make it possible for learners, and users in
general to have relatively easy access to an almost limitless
number of objects. These technologies also make it possible to
surround the objects with rich sets of contextualized information
that can inform the appreciation of the object, suggest analogies
from other experiences and objects, and stimulate thinking on
related topics…The collaborative potential of digital technologies
also facilitates sharing and exchange of communication about
objects. (p.80)
With these advantages though, comes a loss when “two-dimensional medium
stands in place of multisensory experiences surrounding an object.” (Frost, 2002,
p.81) Restoring Earth addresses this problem by focusing on ideas rather than on
the physical artifact itself. One image in my mini-collection, for example, depicts
a Wari pottery bowl from A.D. 600-1000. Instead of taking on the challenge of
describing what the pottery is like in its physical form, the designers incorporate
the image to serve as a gateway to related content. Accordingly, they include
limited information about the object itself (just a museum catalogue number) and
39
instead focus on providing information about the Wari people and the
environmental challenges they faced. This information is further supplemented
with news articles about the excavation that led to the discovery of the artifact and
a podcast with a researcher who puts together South American collections. In this
way, the Mini-Collections provide a transmedia experience where each interaction
can either stand on its own or combine together to paint a picture that is greater
than the sum of its parts.
…
I would consider the five questions used to ‘personalize’ the mini-collections
experience to function more as a gimmick to draw in audiences, rather than as a
tool to create a truly unique experience. However, it is interesting to consider
how personalization could potentially affect the visitor’s experience and learning
within social-action themed exhibitions in particular.
Pariser (2011), who makes the claim that personalized experiences will become
more and more pervasive and sophisticated with time, offers a fascinating look at
some of the implications in his book, The Filter Bubble. On one hand,
personalization offers a “custom-tailored world, every facet of which fits us
perfectly [and where] our media is a perfect reflection of our interest and desires.”
(p.12) On the other, personalization can be detrimental if it becomes too acute.
Personalization “could prevent us from coming into contact with the mindblowing, preconception-shattering experiences and ideas that change how we
think about the world and our data.” (p.15)
For social-action themed exhibitions that rely on the ability to instigate a
(uncomfortable) reaction as a tool to engage visitors and motivate a response,
acute personalization could actually work against its goals. It brings to mind an
argument that Schlossberg (1998) makes in Interactive Excellence when he says
that good art should be both beautiful and irritating.
40
Without our ever thinking about it, our brains tread a tightrope
between learning too much from the past and incorporating too
much new information from the present. The ability to walk this
line-to adjust to the demands of different environments and
modalities-is one of human cognition’s most astonishing
traits…personalized filters can upset this cognitive balance
between strengthening our existing ideas and acquiring new
ones…the filter bubble surrounds us with ideas with which we’re
already familiar…making us overconfident in our mental
frameworks. Second, it removes from our environment some of the
key prompts that make us want to learn. (p.84)
41
III. The Lasting Call
Webs of Influence
For a social-action themed exhibition, it is not a big enough goal to engage the visitor. If
the exhibition strives to realize a real world measurable impact, then its designers must
aspire to turn visitors into advocates and activists, agents who will champion the
exhibition’s message to others. The ability to fulfill this mission comes down to a few
objectives: producing content that is at once easy to share, worthy to share, and notably,
comfortable to share.
An analysis of the case studies brings up three very different social media strategies.
Despite the sophisticated new media experiences available to visitors of Restoring Earth
and the wealth of content on the exhibition’s companion website, social media
integration, except for a standard ‘share’ button on online videos and articles, is virtually
non-existent. From Memory to Action and Women Hold Up Half the Sky, however,
provide an interesting comparison.
In the Women Hold Up Half the Sky exhibition, one of the very first touch points comes
in the form of a 4’ tall wall decal with the familiar logos of Twitter, Instagram and
Facebook. As the visitor moves around the space, she will encounter more of these large
signs, which not only encourage her to share her thoughts and experiences but also give
her hashtags and forums to organize her virtual interactions.
From Memory to Action, on the other hand, makes no mention of social media and even
warns visitors not to take photographs, a general policy in the museum’s special
exhibition galleries. For an exhibition containing no artifacts for which conservation
might be an issue, this seemed very strange, especially given the curator’s goal, “We
wanted to create an environment that encouraged exploration and open discussion. It
42
would be necessary to create a dynamic installation…where visitors did not feel
constrained by perceived prohibition against talk or interacting with the display.”
(Conley-Zilkic, 2009, p.36) Sharing through images is a very pervasive way to connect
to experience and distribute content. “Photo-taking allows visitors to memorialize and
make meaning from museum experiences” says Simon (2009), a strong proponent of
open photography policies. Having a personal, visual record of an experience aids in
learning and retention of content, but just as importantly, it also serves to spread the
institution’s content “to new audiences in authentic ways.” Simon cites an article by
Henry Jenkins (2008) titled, “If it Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead” to further illustrate her
point,
Media artifacts have greatest impact when consumers are able to pass on,
reuse, adapt, and remix them. There are two parts to this. First, every time
a photo is shared, it extends the reach of your objects and exhibit stories.
But perhaps more importantly, Jenkins argues that the creative adaptation
of cultural objects through photos and other spreading tools supports
communities' ‘processes of meaning making, as people use tools at their
disposal to explain the world around them.’
By prohibiting photography without offering any alternative methods to share, the
exhibition is missing out on a huge opportunity to engage a demographic that connects to
material in this way.
One such group that falls into this category is referred to as “free agents”, a term
introduced by Kanter and Fine (2010) in their book, The Networked Non-profit:
Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change. Free agents are individuals who are
unaffiliated with the organization but are passionate about the cause and champion it to
their social networks. The rise in “free agent” visitors can be attributed to the
technological revolution and the generation of Millennials coming into young adulthood.
The combination of idealism and social media fluency makes Millennials
passionate about causes, but not passionate, necessarily, about nonprofit
organizations. Because they view the world through the lens of social
43
media and social networks, Millennials are less interested in institutions
than their parents were. They don’t see walls where others used to
because in their world, information sharing and power has shifted toward
individuals. This creates [a] huge distinction in their minds between a
cause they’re passionate about [and the organization delivering the
message.] (Kanter & Fine, 2010, p.15)
This is a key demographical target for social-action themed exhibitions but presents
unique challenges, an issue that Holocaust Memorial Museum staff members
acknowledge on their blog, “In the long-term, this means less focus on the organization
and more focus on the movement, with individuals who know their voice matters and
have seen the power of collective action.” (Boothe, 2009)
The issue is not simply that the prohibition of photography in the exhibition space limits
sharing, but also that it reinforces the authoritarian voice that exhibitions like From
Memory to Action are trying to get away from. The problem is exacerbated by messages
on the pledge cards and within the gallery that encourage visitors to go online only for
institution-disseminated content. They can “retrieve” their pledges, “get” photos and
updates and “learn” more by accessing the exhibition’s virtual content but the website
does not act as a forum where the visitor’s own ideas can be exchanged.
This makes me wonder if the pledge cards and the flashy high-tech gesture of submitting
them into the exhibition is really more about using technology to impress rather than
strengthen the relationship between visitor and data. Does this initiative really serve a
purpose if there is no opportunity to share and discuss?
Currently, From Memory to Action is missing out on a key component of post-visit
interaction: keeping the conversation going. Incorporating a forum for idea exchange is a
strategy based on “the phenomena of feedback” that Sara Weisman, Outreach
Coordinator for the Holocaust Museum’s Committee on Conscience should consider
44
based on her concern that very few visitors actually seek out the exhibition’s web content
after they have left the gallery space. (Weisman, 2009)
The “phenomena of feedback” is a theory described by Walsh (2009) in Futertainment:
Yesterday the World Changed Now it’s Your Turn, an unusual book that weaves in
cyberculture concepts with graphic imagery and topographic design. He describes a key
characteristic of online forums designed to facilitate conversations,
If you look closely at web traffic patterns, you can observe significant
activity clusters around the areas of sites where users are providing
feedback to other users…You can also view the discovery and
consumption of media as a complex adaptive system. If you look at
individual consumers their decisions about what to watch or read might
appear random, but when viewed collectively a strange kind of order
emerges. What becomes popular is often arbitrary, but that popularity is
self-reinforcing. (p.168)
In contrast, the designers behind Women Hold Up Half the Sky make it comfortable to
share content by setting up and communicating expectations right up front. While it may
seem like social media and sharing are so intertwined in today’s culture that it is no
longer necessary to formally establish this expectation within the gallery, it is important
to be cognizant of the idea that museums are behavior settings where visitors look for
clues to adjust their behavior. (Falk, 1992) Traditionally, museum exhibitions have been
hands-off zones; social-action themed exhibitions, which showcase ideas rather than
objects, are still a relatively new breed of experience.
It’s interesting to consider that despite incorporating new media initiatives that provide
the visitor with a fairly structured experience (binary choices and specific courses of
action), Women Hold Up Half the Sky’s social media strategy is a lot less controlled. On
the other hand, From Memory to Action provides a more open in-gallery encounter but
puts constraints on the way that visitors can share their experiences.
45
One of the major problems with From Memory to Action’s social media strategy, despite
not really having one, is that it doesn’t take into consideration the idea that visitors
contribute and share online in different ways. The exhibition’s designers make the
assumption that every visitor will benefit from the act of inscribing a pledge and from
passing on news articles. They are missing out on an opportunity to reach a large section
of the audience who does not participate in this way.
In Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (2008), a book
about the new media landscape and the collision of three forces: people, technology and
economics, authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff introduce their Social Technographics
Profile, a tool used to cluster individuals together based on their digital media behaviors.
They differentiate six groups and list them based on level of engagement:
1. Creators produce content for others by publishing blogs, articles, uploading
video and making webpages.
2. Critics react to the content of others.
3. Collectors save URLS and tag on social bookmarking sites.
4. Joiners participate in social networking sites.
5. Spectators consume what the rest produces.
6. Inactives are untouched by the Groundswell.
While From Memory to Action targets Collectors with the exhibition’s emphasis on
collecting and saving stories, it is missing out on the potential to tap into more engaged
groups. It neglects the Creators and the Critics by not offering a forum online to create
content or express feedback. In fact, the exhibition even deters the Joiner and Spectator
clusters by requiring visitors to log in to view pledges and then requiring so much
information to do so.
In contrast, Women Hold Up Half the Sky provides a variety of different ways to share
through social media and strategically places opportunities to do so at special touch
points via tablets around the gallery. This in an effective strategy that acknowledges the
variety of visitors who will pass through, as well as accounts for the fact that theories of
46
viral distribution are still, and will probably always be, a mysterious mix of both art and
science.
There are two schools of thought concerning viral distribution. The “Law of the Few”,
proposed by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point (2002) stipulates that the key to
spreading ideas is to pick the right super influencers, while Duncan Watts, an Australian
social scientist takes a different approach. He “believes that network effects are too
complex to be reliably reproduced by targeting only a handful of influential individuals.
Ideas do spread virally, but how fast this happens depends on whether or not everyone is
easily infected. If everyone is susceptible, then anyone randomly infected can start an
epidemic, rather than just the highly connected few.” (Walsh, 2009, p.130) This
exhibition, and the movement as a whole, taps into both of these models by seeking out
celebrity voices to champion the message without ignoring the bottom-up influence
model that marks the new media age.
Mass Creativity for Collective Action
“Information isn’t in the hands of one person; it’s dispersed across many people.”
(Surowiecki, 2004, p.51) In the age of new media, the idea of the highly revered expert is
dying. This is according to James Surowiecki, a theorist in the area of group behavior
and author of The Wisdom of Crowds (2004). In his book, Surowiecki takes a
multidisciplinary look at the study of group behavior. He weaves together dozens of real
world and laboratory examples from the fields of psychology, economics and marketing
in order to provide support for his overarching claim: under specific circumstances,
“groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in
them.” (p. XIII) Surowiecki’s research shows how groups made up of “experts” are less
successful in solving problems than groups made up of people with a diverse range of
skills, knowledge and abilities. Ultimately, when it comes to problem solving,
homogeneity is a downfall, a notion that lends support to my assertion that the public
47
space of an exhibition makes for an effective venue for tackling pressing societal
problems.
Surowiecki (2004) describes the three types of problems that benefit from the wisdom of
crowds. These include cognition problems (those which have definitive solutions),
coordination problems (those which require groups of people to coordinate their behavior
with each other), and cooperation problems (those which require getting self-interested
people to work together). With the goals of pooling collective efforts and resources to
address never-ending challenges, all three exhibitions that I visited pursue solutions to
coordination and cooperation problems as their fundamental missions. Accordingly, they
all seek to uncover solutions and spur collective action through mass creativity, a term
used to describe the innovative output facilitated by the ability to self-organize for the
purpose of collaborating, sharing and building upon the ideas of others. (Leadbeater,
2007)
Surowiecki specifies four specific circumstances under which groups work best:
1. Diversity of opinion– “Each person should have some private
information, even if it’s just an eccentric interpretation of the known
facts.” (p.10)
2. Independence–People’s opinions are not influenced by those around
them.
3. Decentralization–Individuals are able to specialize and draw on local
knowledge.
4. Aggregation– “Some mechanism exists for turning private judgments
into a collective decision.” (p.10)
Additionally, cyberculture theorist Charles Leadbeater (2007) adds another. He stresses
that in order to realize collective creativity, crowds not only need to be diverse enough to
have different views but they also need the self-confidence to share their ideas.
Considering these components inherent to effective group collaboration brings to mind a
poignant question that Schlossberg (1998) asks in Interactive Excellence, How do we
48
make audiences better as audiences? One part in attempting to explore this question is in
dissecting the social aspects of the experience and how it transforms visitors. As
Schlossberg notes, in a truly interactive experience there is a whole new paradigm shift
that happens “when an audience begins to participate in conversation [and] when the
experience of an event happens both in front of the audience and between its members.”
(p.26)
Exhibitions that infuse new media to link the physical exhibition gallery with a virtual
space have the potential to facilitate mass creativity by serving as forums for
conversations that transcend both time and locale. The critical element, of course, is that
the virtual space acts as a continuation of the exhibition and as a surrogate mimicking the
components of the public sphere and not merely as a repository for exhibition content. In
his book We-Think, Leadbeater (2007) describes the process of facilitating mass
creativity by initiating “creative conversations’” built around a solid but unfinished core.
He reinforces the principal that mass creativity happens not through the ability to publish
but rather by sharing, connecting and collaborating at a large scale.
Accordingly, it was through this framework that I evaluated the potential of Restoring
Earth, Women Hold Up Half the Sky and From Memory to Action to instigate creative
collaboration. On Restoring Earth’s webpage, visitors can “watch stories” (the same
ones that are presented within the exhibition), they can access information through links
on their mini-collections, they can download nature themed artwork, and they can access
a list of partner organizations if they want to volunteer. They cannot, however, discuss
their own environmental impact, propose solutions, or strategize collaborative
conservation efforts. For an exhibition that takes on a mission like conservation, where
individual contribution alone is relatively insignificant, this is a fundamental problem that
severely limits the impact of the exhibition.
The other two exhibitions, Women Hold Up Half the Sky and From Memory to Action
serve this function better. However, it is my perception that curators for both exhibitions
mistake symbols of collective action for real collective activism. In Women Hold Up
49
Half the Sky, visitors can color in one of 20,000 circles outlined on the wall as a symbolic
gesture to signify a woman who has lost her life to gender-based violence. Visitors can
also write wishes for women and girls on colorful paper to be included in a grand
overhanging canopy. In From Memory to Action, visitors add pledge cards to an
overflowing and illuminated mass of other visitors’ contributions. While beautiful
visualizations of the visit, it is not collective activism as neither experience facilitates the
type of collaboration that goes beyond aesthetics.
…
My other concern about Women Hold Up Half the Sky and its potential to spur mass
creativity goes back to Suroweiki’s theories on the effectiveness of group collaboration
over the impact of the expert. While it is probably not evident to many visitors, the
dominating perspective of the expert is definitely present in Women Hold Up the Sky. As
someone familiar with the criticisms of Kristof and WuDunn’s work, my concern is that
visitors assume they are learning about the issues in an unbiased way. It is my perception
that the structured new media experiences and directed courses of action offered in
Women Hold Up Half the Sky underestimate the audience and its ability to solve
problems. It is Kristof and WuDunn’s theory that the way to solve problems relating to
gender-based violence, trafficking and maternal health is through economic
empowerment and education. There is nothing inherently wrong with this idea but the
exhibition doesn’t communicate that this is just one solution. Instead it treats the audience
as an army of people to mobilize and fulfill a quest, rather than as a collective group
capable of innovating even greater solutions.
From Memory to Action, on the other hand, suffers from the opposite problem. While its
new media initiatives encourage ideas and solutions, it does not provide any way to
organize this data into a collective effort. Restoring Earth falls into this trap too,
focusing on individual contribution without a way to organize the information into a
shareable forum that would allow individuals to build upon the contributions of others.
50
Conclusion
With their mandates for social impact, From Memory to Action, Restoring Earth, and
Women Hold Up Half the Sky take on goals that extend beyond the educational missions
of most exhibitions. While they all take on the special challenges of exhibiting ideas
rather than artifacts, it became apparent through my analysis that all three exhibitions
actually pursue completely different agendas. Accordingly, in each, the visitor is set-up
to take on a different role.
In From Memory to Action, the visitor is cast in the role of activist. In an open
‘newsroom’ themed gallery space, set-up with multiple video screens and a scrolling
news ticker, designers strive to build an experience that seeks to empower the audience to
come up with her own solutions in the mission to end genocide. The voice of the curator
is intentionally left out and instead the exhibition guides the visitor in making sense of
the subject matter by weaving together data, news stories, and the voices and personal
photographs from individuals belonging to a number of different interest groups. The
exhibition is self-directed and culminates in a grand act of creative production that
challenges the visitor to formalize her own personal plan of action.
In Restoring Earth, the visitor is cast in the role of student. She is presented with multiple
perspectives to give a behind-the-scenes look at the work of the museum’s scientists. In
this case, new media is used to disseminate information in novel and fun ways, but in
contrast to From Memory to Action, the exhibition does not place an expectation on the
visitor to contribute her own ideas.
Finally, in Women Hold Up Half the Sky, the visitor is cast in the role of soldier, an agent
charged with a precise mission. Since the exhibition was designed around the ideas of
Kristof and WuDunn, it is not surprising that the audience is presented with a view of
gender equality issues through the authors’ perspective. The exhibition incorporates
many innovative examples of new media, but unlike in From Memory to Action or in
51
Restoring Earth, these installations are used to direct visitors towards specific courses of
action in line with Kristof and WuDunn’s ideologies. The exhibition does not probe the
audience to come up with novel solutions but rather attempts to mobilize them through a
‘strength-in-numbers’ approach to social action. The result is an experience that does not
place an expectation on the visitor to come up with any creative solutions to the problems
with which she is presented. In fact, the only installation in Women Hold Up Half the Sky
that calls for any creative input at all is the wish canopy, which I would argue, contributes
more aesthetically to the exhibition than as a social object with the power to catalyze
action.
Essentially, the case studies of From Memory to Action and Women Hold Up Half the Sky
in particular, illustrate two opposite approaches in using new media in the quest to
organize and incite action through exhibitions. The unstructured visitor-directed
approach used in From Memory to Action encourages creative solutions and
communicates a message to the viewer that she shares an equal responsibility in
addressing the issue. However the strategy is a gamble; the outcome is largely
immeasurable and it poses a question that while many might find inspiring, others will be
daunted with the task of addressing a question for which the exhibition itself provides
very little foundation.
The institution-directed structured media interactions of Women Hold Up Half the Sky
bring about the opposite challenge. From Memory to Action is all about sharing
perspectives (most importantly, the visitor’s own), but in this exhibition the voice of the
“expert” is obvious. While it is much easier to measure effectiveness and see results
when visitors are dispatched with the same task, relying on a singular viewpoint, no
matter whose it is, is problematic and limiting. Accordingly, the overarching mission of
the exhibition, to improve women’s lives in developing countries, will only be improved
through these strategies if its underlying assumptions are correct.
Despite these differences, I did notice some commonalities that run through each
exhibition. Firstly, I observed new media initiatives being used as tools to bridge the
52
physical galleries with online content. Through new media initiatives, designers strive to
invest visitors in the virtual exhibition while still enveloped in the immersive experience
of the physical environment. Visitors are set-up and encouraged to either create a digital
product or initiate an experience that is meant to be continued online. The goal, of course,
is to direct the visitor to the exhibition’s website and extend the interaction for as long as
possible.
I also noticed this idea of bridging being manifested in a different form. Designers most
often implemented analog components along side of the high-tech applications in their
new media installations as a way to connect the familiar and comfortable interactions
with the new experiences. This strategy is rooted in the idea that meaningful experiences
are at once integrated and differentiated and acknowledges Schlossberg’s (1998) idea of
the importance of the invitation.
In the text-heavy exhibition spaces of all three exhibitions, new media initiatives are
incorporated as a way to serve visitors with different types of intelligences who do not
necessarily connect best with the linguistically oriented learning opportunities that are
most prevalent in exhibitions. Accordingly, many installations are designed to include
multiple pathways so the visitor can direct her own interaction and frame the material in a
way that most makes sense to her.
Another similarity is in how each exhibition incorporates either games (in the
conventional form) or elements of gaming into their initiatives. In the new media era, the
definition of games has broadened to include “anything that invites [participation] and
promises some sort of reward…including, as participatory media proliferate, storytelling
itself.” (Rose, 2011, p.273) Games promote visitor engagement because they are innately
designed to facilitate flow, a psychological effect that serves to explain why people are
often willing to spend a great deal of time and energy seeking out solutions for which
they do not receive a tangible reward. This idea of being able to direct individuals’ efforts
offers a great possibility for designers pursuing missions of social action. Also, the
53
pervasive quality of new media games in particular means that players can leave the
game world to exert real world impact.
The final (and most poignant) commonality that I observed was in the pervasive
incorporation of storytelling. Every single new media installation that I encountered
made use of the narrative in some form or another as a way to develop empathy within
the visitor. I observed sequential narratives, “new” narratives, fictional stories and
biographical ones. However, regardless of the form, they all serve the same function: to
“put a human face on abstract ideas and provide moral clarity.” (Kanter & Fine, 2010,
p.142)
54
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