In the following pages I describe what happens when an exhibit dense in local meanings enters the national arena. The Yup'ik mask exhibit Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer) began as visual repatriation—bringing objects out of museums back into a local context—and ended as a tribal exhibit displayed in three very different majority institutions, including an American Indian museum, a natural history museum, and an art museum. The mask exhibit was developed as a three-way collaboration between Yup'ik community members, an anthropologist, and museum professionals. As it traveled farther
The Whitaker Center for Science and Arts will develop two versions of an exhibit Bodies in Motion: The Physics of Human Movement. The Whitaker Center is a new cultural center to be centrally located in Harrisburg, PA and has as its theme "science through the arts." In keeping with that focus, this will be a highly interactive 2000 sq. ft. exhibit which will provide experiences that reveal the physics embodied in dance, ice skating, gymnastics, and other sports. Two versions of the exhibit will be developed, one will be for the Whitaker Center (2000 sq. ft.) and the other (1500 sq. ft.) will travel to small science centers and children's museums. The core physics concepts to be explored are mass, inertia, force, speed and velocity, acceleration, torque, momentum, angular momentum, centrifugal and centripetal force, kinetic and potential energy, gravity, and Newton's Laws of Motion. By means of the exhibits learners will explore such topics as the role of torque and rotational momentum in turns, how dancers manipulate their center of gravity to create the illusion of floating during leaps, and how physics illuminate the differences between dance and ice skating. There will be a series of complementary programs which include lecture/demonstrations by Dr. Kenneth Laws, a physicist who studies the physics of dance; teacher education programs; support materials for classroom use; professional development programs for teachers; and a brochure on physics and dance for distribution to dance schools.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth BrewerAnn MintzThomas Stone
The California Science Center will develop an exhibition, "Abracadabra: The Science of Illusion." This will be a 6000-sq.ft. traveling exhibit. The theme, the science behind magic, will help visitors understand that magic is based on the complex interplay between sensation, perception, physical science and math concepts, culture, and the art of performance. The goal of the exhibition is to use the public's fascination with magic as a bridge to learning basic science in the area of optics, electromagnetics, simple mechanics, math, physiology and psychology. The exhibit will include seven thematic sections and an enclosed theater for live and taped performances. The exhibition will open at the California Science Center in October, 2000 and then will travel to the six science centers that participate in the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative. It is estimated about 4 million people will view the exhibition during its national tour.
The Science Place of Dallas, TX requests $47,715 for "The Psychology of Music." With this planning grant they will plan a 5,000 square-foot permanent and traveling exhibition focusing on the psychology of music. The exhibition will use the universal popularity of music as the background to develop an exhibition focusing on: (1) the psychological processes involved in perceiving and understanding music; and (2) how we can use the tools and processes of science in investigating music. The exhibition will present basic concepts concerning the physics and perception of sound. Since few interactive exhibits have been developed around the perception of music as sound, the planning grant will allow The Science Place to develop the conceptual structure for the project, develop an integrated exhibition and education plan, and prepare a business plan for marketing the new exhibition. The planning process will include front-end audience research, a review of academic research on the psychology of music, a planning session with advisors, and dissemination of findings to the museum community.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
William SudduthJeffrey CourtmanLeAnn BinfordPaul Vinson
The American Museum of the Moving Image (AMMI) will develop and distribute a traveling version of their permanent exhibit, Behind the Screen. The project, which consists of a 4,000 to 6,000 square foot traveling exhibit and related educational materials, will focus on the science and technology underlying movies and television, including motion, light and optics, sound, electricity and magnetism, chemistry, and geometry/trigonometry. The exhibit also will examine the impact of advances in the technology of movies and television and the resulting impact on audiences and society. The PI will be Rochelle Slovin, founding director of the AMMI. Carl Goodman, Curator of Digital Media, and Richard Koszarski, Head of Collections and Exhibitions, will serve as exhibit content specialists. The integration of science principles and activities into the exhibit will be under the direction of Ted Ansbacher, a physicist who previously served as Director of Exhibits at the New York Hall of Science. Thom Thacker, Director of Education at the AMMI, will be responsible for the development of educational outreach material.