Wayne LeBar from the Liberty Science Center (which is going through a major expansion) presented a work in progress today. They are trying to embrace media changes that are challenging the traditional authoritative voice of museums.
The idea of Liberty Science’s new project Exhibit Commons is to let web audiences impact installations on the museum floor. LeBar refers to that sort of activity as users being able to “Hack the exhibit”. Since the science center is not currently open this is a still being planned, so, sorry no exhibit “hacking” yet. There are plans to use an open source software model and possibly to solicit programs from the general public. I certainly hope they tap the Processing and Rhizome communities for that sort of thing. The project also promises to include blogs and more traditional feedback forms.
I am now sitting in the a session about universal design in museums to make sure that experiences are open to ALL. I think this concept of hacking exhibits could lead to groups redesigning our interfaces to make more accesible interactives based on personal needs, rather than simpel whim of aesthetics.
Comment by bryan — March 23, 2006 @ 5:08 pm