CLIENT FILE 055
want to – whether via a screen or through the way the text is arranged, as we first did at the British Galleries at the V&A back in 2001. Tat’s a lot easier, and less exhausting, for visitors.
4. Objects, particularly those that are witness to amazing events, have extraordinary auras We noticed in our work at the V&A how people engage easily with beautiful objects – there’s a simple appeal. But often it’s what we call the ‘ugly brown things’ that don’t look anything special, but have amazing stories, that potentially have the most powerful auras. However, they usually need help with communicating their story.
Trough our projects at the Science Museum and Imperial War Museum (IWM) London we’ve often told stories that aren’t about the aesthetic, and we’ve become interested in how we could use media to help that object speak louder and share its story. Carefully judged and with sensitivity and a sharp focus on authenticity, digital media can be the magic that powerfully ‘unlocks’ the aura, which then suddenly becomes very, very apparent.
5. Digital media is both a blessing and a curse Done well, it’s fabulous and helps tell stories – a magical dialogue between the tangible and the intangible. Done badly it can be an insensitive and inappropriately styled clash that swamps the object. We’re always trying to do interesting things with media – but you have to be very demanding of it and very critical of what it’s doing.
We’ve been exploring the proximity of media to object, and how to bring them together, for some years now. It’s quite hard to make it work and I see the potential for all sorts of pitfalls – there can be a jarring clash of modernity and history in which the ‘fragile’ aura of the object is struggling. But it’s exciting when it works. We feel it worked well in the reflection spaces in the First World War Galleries at the IWM London. Here, there’s a small leather glove under a glass cloche, a man’s glove that shrunk from the effects of a gas attack and and as such is a witness to the impact of gas in warfare. We put it in the middle of a round table, and on that are contemporaneous words from letters home and newspaper articles playing out around the object, talking about the ethics of war and in particular the use of gas. It carefully underpins and makes manifest the glove’s aura.
6. Collaboration is a massive part of what we do
Collaboration with exceptional people is essential for the quality of the result. Te complexity of what we do means that we need to create bespoke teams for each project, and often these can very big, 30-plus people: lighting designers, graphics, multimedia, interactive, sound, engineers… project managers, cost managers, artists, play writers, perfumers, and even, for Lascaux, the team included French prehistorians – the list is long. Managing this collaboration is a constant learning curve. It’s our job to have the overall vision, and to creatively direct these large teams in order to nurture and orchestrate the shared endeavour. We really welcome all their inputs, insight and, importantly, challenges – the rigorous, collaborative testing of ideas. It’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun.
7. Te use of a traditional, authoritative ‘museum’ voice is changing
Instead, there are shifting perspectives as museums strive to establish the right voice, one that feels more welcoming, inclusive and ultimately engaging. As designers, we need to think carefully about how to frame things to convey these other perspectives.
We’re seeing this in our Oceania project at the Ubersee-Museum in Bremen. Tis is being told from the point of view of Pacific islanders, rather than an anonymous museum voice, so that visitors feel connected with a collective view that captures various perspectives. Objects are being chosen and curated with Pacific communities and their stories are communicated through a voice that is conversational, multi-vocal and immediate At our Showtown project in Blackpool (which opened in March) we employed comedy writer Jayne Kirkham to develop a fresh tone that is playful and informal, and uses verse, riddles and jokes to tell the story.
8. Listening covers so many different aspects of what we do
Exhibition design is a fantastic profession because of the access we have to a wealth of extraordinary people – the most amazing astronomers, surgeons, historians, artists etc. – and we always enjoy talking to them. We learn from all these experts and get excited about the subject, and that’s the most incredible starting point. Now we’re also listening more to our audiences.
At the other end of the scale, the huge sections of the original Lovell radio telescope dish at Jodrell Bank we used within the exhibition now have the history of what that patinated steel was the first to witness – the launch of Sputnik, the discovery of pulsars – coursing over its surface. A lot of the latest technology isn’t very tested, and isn’t that robust. We prefer doing very creative things with trusted technologies than the very latest things, although in our current work in Saudi Arabia we are exploring some new things with prototypes.
We’ve always asked ourselves who’s going to come, what do visitors really want to know, and what will excite and inspire them. Making the museums and exhibitions we design more accessible to more people, with many different needs and desires, is absolutely expected by audiences now, and is a constant challenge. We are learning to listen to all sorts of people, from clients full of their knowledge to communities who might like to go to a museum but don’t think it’s for them. We’re giving visitors a range of routes into the content and offering something for everyone. We’re
BOEGLY + GRAZIA
CASSON MANN
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