A single interactive kiosk in a gallery, visitor center or other public space that offers an alternative, visitor-friendly view of information.
Jury Chair: Darren Milligan
Senior Media Designer/Webmaster, Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, Smithsonian Institution
GOLD: Create a Chemical Reaction
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, James Patten Studios, Cortina Productions, Evidence Design, and Lexington Design + Fabrication
Judges said: The Create a Chemical Reaction table at the Museum of Science and Industry is an excellent example of how technology can allow museum visitors to play with ideas not normally possible due to financial or safety reasons. The integration of tactile props combined with the digital experience of hundreds or thousands of possible combinations make the table an ongoing enhancement to an exhibit about the elements and the formation of inorganic substances. The opportunities for self-directed learning with seemingly limitless possibilities, elements of surprise and drama, and the opportunities for individual or group exploration make this one of the best museum interactive experiences that the jury had seen this year. As one juror said “This is a great example of when technology is the perfect and only solution. There is no other way that visitors could experience these chemical reactions in the museum.”
Producers said: Create a Chemical Reaction allows visitors to use the Periodic Table to initiate their own chemical reactions and virtually create a variety of chemical compounds. The experience integrates a physical and digital interface, employing an object-sensing reaction table with three overhead projectors. Visitors use small pucks to select virtual atoms of specific elements from the Periodic Table, then drag the pucks to the Reaction Lab. As they touch the pucks together, the “reaction” takes place and visitors see the results of the reactions they created via images and video of real life phenomena, objects or materials.
SILVER: Why Did Paleolithic People Make Cave Paintings?
The Field Museum, The Elumenati Group, and Pat Bradley
Judges said: The Field Museum’s Why Did Paleolithic People Make Cave Paintings? kiosk is a unique example of a completely immersive experience that connects content, architecture, and technology, literally placing the visitors inside the story. This narrative is told through the exploration of four possible theories, and the visitor interacts with them using already familiar technology, the standard Nintendo Wii controller. The animations, game interface, and 270 degree projections allow for multiple levels of engagement for many types of audiences. One juror noted, “It places the visitor inside the narrative as they completely control the experience—whether exploring the cave by flashlight, watching animations, or playing games.”
Producers said: Why did Paleolithic people depict mammoths in cave paintings in Europe? For the “Mammoths and Mastodons” exhibition, The Field Museum developed an engaging interactive game that presents four theories about the possible meaning of the ancient art: Clan Totems, Mythological Stories, Shamanic Visions, and Hunting Rituals.
Presented in a 270 degree video projection display, this virtual cave occurs in the section of the exhibition about human / mammoth interactions and presents the four theories about the meaning of ancient cave art through interactive games and animated stories. The game play utilizes Wii technology: the museum visitor uses the remote as a torch when moving through the virtual cave, or as a spear when “spearing” a mammoth during hunting rituals, or as a paintbrush when creating the outlines of animals on the cave wall.
BRONZE: MOA CAT kiosks
Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and rorym
Judges said: The MOA CAT kiosk application, developed by Rory Matthews for the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, is simply one of the best examples of multi-entry, richly-layered, completely findable, museum catalog applications we have seen. Providing way-finding and an easily navigable web of related information about the museum’s collections provide opportunities for all types of museum visitors to find connections to the objects found in the cases around them and those stored elsewhere. This is certainly an example to be explored by other museums interested in this kind of collections management and access. The application integrates with Google Earth to highlight collection object origins, which provides yet another opportunity for personal and academic understanding of this collection. “A tour de force of combining Google Earth, CMS, video, audio, and high quality photographs,” said one juror.
Producers said: The Multiversity Galleries at the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, house thousands of objects from the Museum’s worldwide research collections. The MOA CAT digital catalogue terminals are deeply integrated into the galleries with custom graphics and 3D modelled orientation to help visitors understand where they are and what is around them. The ‘you are here’ component is based on a Google Sketchup model and uses custom animated walk-throughs linked to search results for the cases and cabinets. The MOA CAT system also includes an ambitious customised Google Earth implementation that enables visitors to interact with the globe to explore where objects in the collection originated.
HONORABLE MENTION: Trade Canoe for Don Quixote
Denver Art Museum and Experience Design
Judges said: The Trade Canoe for Don Quixote interactive kiosk developed by Experience Design for the Denver Art Museum is an excellent example of the benefits of a partnership between technologists, designers, museum educators, and a contemporary artist. This collaboration resulted in a kiosk that encourages visitor exploration; deep, inquiry-based interpretation of complex symbols; and helps to bridge the often-challenging gaps that exist between the artist and viewer in the contemporary museum setting. The large-scale screens allow the visitors themselves to “touch” the artwork and activate narratives that combine the artist’s voice with challenging questions that guide the visitor through the painting. One juror noted, “This is an experience of discovery and one that has elements of humor, mystery, and drama…It opens our eyes to explore further.”
Producers said: In this multiscreen interactive, visitors can explore a major work of art by the American Indian artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. The installation is made up of four touchscreens that mirror the four panels of the painting itself. Visitors can touch any part of the painting to explore its many motifs, the artist’s painting techniques, her signature, and the title of the work, among others. There are 13 interpretive animations within the interactive which incorporate moving texts, motion graphics and still imagery. The interactive helps visitors “enter” a work of art they might otherwise have trouble understanding. The piece also opens up a direct communication with the artist, who shares her thoughts on what the painting is about, the symbols and motifs she used, and her personal relationship with many elements in the painting.
Jurors:
Josh Chartier
Guest Services Manager, Kohl Children’s Museum
Maria del Carmen Cossu
Museum Education Specialist/Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, Curator of Education/World Bank Art Program
Diana Gibbs
Conservation Technician, Library of Congress
Georgina Goodlander
Web and Social Media Content Manager, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Alan David Knezevich
Principal, Alan Knezevich Design Associates
Barbara Stauffer
Chief of Temporary Exhibitions, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
JD Talasek
Director, Cultural Programs, National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS)
Allison Wickens
Director of Education, National Postal Museum
