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Entries are a single interactive kiosk in a gallery, visitor center or other public space.
Jury Chair: Jim Angus
National Institutes of Health
 Gold: D-Day 096
Interactive
National World War II Museum and Unified Field
Judges said:
The D-Day 096 Interactive provides a rich, multi-layered experience within the recreated cockpit of the DC-3/C 47 Dakota airplane. This interactive features primary sources such as first person interviews, oral histories and historical footage that connect the artifact, the people and the context. There was a lot of content, but it was easy to choose what interested you. The graphic design was ‘cool’ and the interface was intuitive. Overall, a very personal and engaging exhibit.
Producers said:
For over 60 years The DC-3/C-47 Dakota, affectionately nicknamed the "Gooney Bird", has had a major impact on aviation history and has touched the lives of people from every country in the World. To compliment the unique and wonderful artifact of the plane, Unified Field created a rich interactive story complete with a virtual re-creation of the plane, built from scratch in Maya. D-Day provides visitors with a multi-layer, multi-media story, with many layers, that unfolds in an authentic presentation and provides a unique historical perspective. This interactive experience puts visitors inside the cockpit of the C-47 plane. It gives them a view from within, identifies key features, and provides facts, stats and context about the plane. First-person accounts bring the cockpit to life with histories and anecdotes of what it was like to fly a plane like this, sharing memorable moments flying, and other things one would only glean from the experience of operating the craft. Visitors will be engaged, experiencing both the historical significance and the enormous impact this classic plane has had in operations of the war.
 SILVER: Carmel Church Bone Bed
Virginia Museum of Natural History and Cortina Productions
Judges said:
The Carmel Church Bone Bed kiosk is an incredibly intuitive kiosk that is simple and effective yet with beautiful production values. It engages visitors on multiple levels, pulling together the fossils, the site and the research. The developers work hard to make sure the user understands the material as they are encouraged to look not only at the kiosk but at the other elements of the exhibit as well.
Producers said:
The Carmel Church exhibit is one of six exhibits in the Uncovering Virginia gallery that feature recreations of VMNH research sites representing time periods ranging from 300 million years ago to 300 years ago. The exhibit features a reconstruction of the partially-excavated site, with fossil remains, a monitor-and-trackwheel control panel in front of the reconstruction, and an overhead projection screen presented as if looking up from the seafloor. The control screen displays a navigable, zoomable image of the bonebed, which visitors can explore using a cursor, designed to look like a paleontological brush. When a bone from the model is selected, a new screen comes with an information page about that bone. When a visitor selects the bones of a whale, shark, ray, or sea turtle, an animated silhouette of the selected species appears swimming overhead. The presence of more than 50 specimens representing 20 species in the reconstruction, with only about 10% of them activating an animation, keeps the visitor engaged and ensures that repeat visitors never have exactly the same experience.
 BRONZE: The John Deere GPS Combine/Tractor
Display
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago and Silver Oaks
Judges said:
The John Deere GPS Combine/Tractor Display kiosk demystifies farming and made tractors interesting to some of the jurors for the first time. The use of a real wheel is innovative and engaging and helps the visitor relate and control the experience as a driver. This is unusual for a kiosk. In addition, the jury liked that the explanatory labels clearly stated the goals for the users and that this kiosk met those stated goals.
Producers said:
This interactive program literally puts the visitor behind the wheel of sophisticated farm equipment to make the decisions of a precision farmer using a GPS system. Throughout the growing cycle, the visitor has the opportunity to drive a 3D, onscreen tractor with a real John Deere steering wheel, learn how GPS technology is used for field treatment, and steer an on-screen combine to harvest the field and see how the technology helps calculate the year's yield. Created for vistors of all ages to enjoy, each season is followed by a "How does it work?" section.
 HONORABLE MENTION: Kensett
and the White Mountains
Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College
Judges said:
The Kensett and the White Mountains interactive touchscreen was researched and produced by Wellesley College students who serve as guides to illuminate one painting’s relationship to the landscape that inspired it. This project connects past and present for other college students, with well researched content and documentary style video. It brings the Kensett painting in the museum gallery to life, and encourages the user to look at the actual painting. And nice use of the padded bench!
Producers said:
The Kensett and the White Mountains interactive touchscreen was developed for our core constituency, Wellesley College students. The Davis Museum and Cultural Center is a vital force in the intellectual, pedagogical, and social life of Wellesley College. It seeks to create a challenging environment that fosters visual literacy; supports interdisciplinary study; and inspires new ideas, research, discourse, and critical thinking. The museum’s collections are a key educational resource for the College and the Kensett is a highlight of our current permanent collection installation.
The touchscreen kiosk serves as a multimedia learning tool that helps to contextualize the original work of art and lead the visitor to deep and thoughtful looking. The project utilizes flash animations, video, audio, text, and images to enrich the viewer experience by providing access to art historical contextualization, formal analysis, narrative interpretation, primary source materials, and an understanding of how the North Conway has changed over time. The touchscreen is designed with an intuitive graphical user interface, embedded into comfortable seating, and installed on a movable swing mount with headphones for private listening.
 HONORABLE MENTION: Phillips Service
Stations
Phillips Petroleum Company Museum with Haley Sharpe Ltd and Atacama
Judges said:
In this ‘captivating and engrossing’ interactive, users operate a car and drive down a road, observing the changing styles of Phillips service stations over the years. The layered presentation, with information presented in appropriate amounts includes both animations and actual historical photographs and ‘cool’ graphic design.
Producers said:
Perhaps the most recognizable element of the Phillips business to the general public has been the road side service stations. Changing from the cottage-style fill-up stations in the 1930s through to the ‘batwing’ designs of the 1960’s and more recently the ultramodern canopies, the changing architecture of these gas stations was well documented in the Phillips corporate archives. Plans, photographs, postcards, advertising material and even oral history interviews covering everything from the ‘highway hostess’ service attendants to the branding colors chosen for stations. The challenge was how to full these disparate artifact strands together to create an engaging and fun program.
Haley Sharpe and Atacama wanted to avoid presenting this database as purely a chronological sweep through changing gas stations designs. By utilizing a stylized graphic environment based loosely on station architectural plans, animations enables visitors to unpack image and oral history content information by driving along and entering into the station of their choice. Information is delivered in bite-sized packages, that enables visitors to pass quickly through the multi-layers of the program.
More 2008 Muse Award Winners
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