MUSEUM
Jake Barton Principal Local Projects
What was your role in the 9/11 Memorial Musuem? I was half of the team, with Thinc Design, that won the international competition to masterplan the museum and design its exhibits and media. Local Projects produced all of the 100 media pieces inside.
How did you approach the project? We spent an enormous amount of time looking to solicit and use the authentic narratives about the event in a way that would make the museum a platform for visitor self-expression. This would allow the museum to change and evolve and respond to every visitor’s story, meeting them where they were, and also allow the museum to change and evolve over time.
How did you use media in the exhibition? We used media to execute the concept that the museum was a platform for collective memory. Visitors can leave their own memories, hear others’ stories, share messages which they can then see projected onto the slurry wall. This is all in the midst of the massive artefacts and stories that make the museum epic. The interactive media makes it a human and approachable experience, and each visitor can add to it.
What was the most challenging decision you had to make? The decision to stop trying to design experiences in the abstract
and jump into prototyping, to make the designs as real as possible as fast as possible. This was critical to move the project forward as for a while the project
wasn’t making a huge amount of progress because it was all too abstract. This approach allows us and the client to see what’s successful or not, allowing for progress on even the most challenging project.
Which digital exhibit stands out for you? Timescape is an algorithmic exhibit that culls meaning from the 3 million plus articles from 11 September 2001 to today. We authored an experience that creates linkages and meanings between these different articles. It’s updated
daily. The timelines that it creates link today’s events back to the date of 9/11 and illustrate some of the causal roots of our post-9/11 world.
Scale was always the
story of the World Trade Center – the scale of what was here, of the
events that took place and of the potential for recoverery and redevelopment
views of the slurry wall, the original retaining wall that was built to withstand the lateral forces of landfi ll and river, and which survived the collapse of the towers. “At the end of the ribbon, the descent continues down along the Vesey Street Stair (‘Survivors’ Stairs’), which were used by hundreds to escape to safety on 9/11. It ultimately leads to two exhibition spaces and Foundation Hall, the Museum’s culminating space whose sheer scale conveys a sense of the enormity of the site and reinforces aware- ness of the absence of what once was there.” Greenwald says: “The architects created a ramped descent with vistas that tell you how enormous the space is. Scale was always the story of the World Trade Center – the scale of what was here, of the events that took place, the scale of the potential for recovery and redevelopment. All of that is conveyed in the architecture. It’s extraordinary to take in the authenticity of the site, the enormity of the space and begin to contemplate the narra- tive of the museum exhibit. Davis Brody Bond
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designed what I think is one of the great built environments in New York, if not in the world.” Inside the museum, it was decided at an early stage to create a segregated area where visitors opted in. The space meant the most diffi cult artefacts wouldn’t be encountered unless a visitor chose to do so. It became the historical exhibit, enclosed in the North Tower. The South Tower houses the memorial exhibition. Tom Hennes and his studio Thinc Design conceptualised the exhibition, with the help of media and technology partner Local Projects, and designed about 80 per cent of the fi nished exhibits. Layman Design took charge of the historical exhibit.
FREEDOM TO CHOOSE For Hennes, the most important consideration when designing the exhibition was a respect for the trauma engendered by the attacks, and fi nding a way to present the story without forcing visitors to relive that trauma. “Trauma plays a central role at the personal and the social scale,” Hennes says. “That’s
CLADmag 2015 ISSUE 2
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