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Entries are made up of multiple kiosks or a full gallery installation and are interactive and educational.
GOLD: Limud Tables
Museum at Eldridge Street and Potion Design
Judges said:
The Limud Tables are an innovative pair of interactive tables designed to engage visitors with the Eldridge Street Synagogue and the historical community of the Lower East Side. While touch tables are emerging as a trend in museum installations, this installation stands out for its exceptional design. The installation itself—a wooden table with a large format LCD display—blends technology and traditional materials elegantly within a historical space. The production quality for this installation is “off the charts” with beautiful, high-end design that is elegant and engaging. The animation quality is also “top notch,” from 3D views of the neighborhood to activities cleverly designed to take advantage vision technology that senses visitor actions without the need for a mouse or keyboard. Interactions are designed such that they can be socially engaging or provide a reflective solitary experience for an individual. The judges took note of the delightful “Make the Paper” activity in which visitors “push” articles and advertisements from the table up towards the front page of a visitor-created paper in the making. Whether launching articles up to assemble on a front page or creating one’s own colorful stained glass window, the installation provides visitors with dramatic, fun experiences that promote an appreciation of the built environment and historical context of the museum and the surrounding neighborhood.
Producers said:
The Limud Tables, created by Potion Design, are a pair of interactive tables designed for the Museum at Eldridge Street. The Museum, housed in the 1887 National Historic Landmark Eldridge Street Synagogue, presents the culture, history and traditions of the great wave of Jewish immigrants to the Lower East Side drawing parallels with diverse cultural communities that have settled in America. Taking their name from the Yiddish word for learning, the Limud Tables educate visitors about synagogue design and practice and the historical community of the Lower East Side. The Limud Tables thoughtfully incorporate new technology into the 120-year-old, Victorian building to help tell its story. One Table introduces synagogue design and ritual to visitors, many of whom have never been to a Jewish house of worship. The Lower East Side table uses a map as portal, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in immigrant life of 100 years ago. Historical concepts come to life through text, photographs, and learning activities, such as “Make the Paper,” where people act as editor and assemble a turn-of-the-century Yiddish newspaper. Each Table has two parts: a custom-designed wooden table that serves as the point of interaction and a large format LCD display upon which most of the content appears.
SILVER: Lincoln's Toughest Decisions
President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home
Judges said:
This innovative interactive experience cleverly mixes human interaction within a group with individually-directed experiences that put visitors in the role of members of President Lincoln’s cabinet. Aimed predominantly at school groups, the judges were most impressed with the way the program underscores the importance of primary source documents for students. Visitors use letters, documents and archival materials to help them decide how they, as a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, should advise Lincoln during discussions about critical issues like the Emancipation Proclamation. This installation is a commendable example of technology that is not for technology’s sake, but is instead used as an effective tool for encouraging personal experiences with history. Visitors learn about the process of historical research, gaining multiple perspectives on issues in order to understand how history was made in Lincoln’s cabinet. The technology makes possible an experience that alternates between user and interpreter control, allowing the interpreter to facilitate a meaningful group interaction through role play. This installation is a success in bringing complex historical concepts to a personal level by putting evidence right on your virtual desktop and encouraging you to work as a team to discuss and decide how the cabinet should advise Lincoln.
Producers said:
“Lincoln’s Toughest Decisions" is an innovative interactive experience which puts visitors in the role of President Lincoln’s cabinet members. Designed to supplement interpreter-led discussions and aimed predominantly at school groups, the program allows users to explore letters, documents and archival materials to help them decide how they, as a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, should advise Lincoln during discussions about critical issues like the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, the military turning point of the Civil War in 1864; and the strategy for Lincoln's reelection in 1864. In order to reach a diverse audience, the program was designed to work in a group mode, led by an interpreter playing Lincoln, or individual mode, which includes additional content to contextualize information and allows multiple individuals to explore separate programs on their own. The group program was also designed to meet two visitor levels, one for younger students (5th-8th grade) and one for older students or adults (high school-adult). Virtual desktops were created for each cabinet member using digitized primary resources. Touchscreen technology allows visitors to select and magnify individual items on their desktop. “Lincoln’s Toughest Decisions” is part of experience at President Lincoln’s Cottage, a National Trust Historic Site opened in February 2008.
BRONZE: Getting Closer: Technology-based Interpretation at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts and Acoustiguide
Judges said:
The Detroit Institute of Arts provides a captivating and diverse group of installations developed for the museum’s reinstallation project. Interpretive media used by the museum to encourage experiential learning includes interactive kiosks, video projections, immersive installations, and a multimedia PDA tour. An immersive video in the African Art galleries uses a portrait orientation rather than the more traditional landscape orientation for visual displays. The life-size projection brings African masks to life by sharing with visitors what they cannot see in a case-based display--how the elaborate masks were actually danced and used in masquerade ceremonies. By making the display “human shaped and sized” the installation provides a refreshing and unexpected experience for the art museum visitor. In other installations, a period room is unexpectedly brought to life with sound and artworks are brought to life as everyday uses and processes for making the pieces are shared with visitors. The judges enjoyed the “Art of Dining Video,” an audio-video program projected onto a table within an eighteenth-century decorative arts gallery. Visitors feel part of the scene, interacting with others seated at the dining table; they chat about the menu and the serving dishes appearing before them. In another area of the museum, the Digital Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead kiosk provides an intuitive interface that encourages visitors to view much more of the scroll than they would ever be able to see in a non-virtual display of the artifact. Taken as a group, the eleven installations in this project provide an impressively diverse mix of experiences that are astutely matched by the museum to differing goals and visitor outcomes.
Producers said:
The Detroit Institute of Arts developed eleven technology-based media for its museum-wide reinstallation that opened to the public in November 2007. The staff conceptualized and interpreted the newly installed galleries to appeal to a broad, diverse audience, knowing that most of our visitors are not art experts but seek meaningful experiences with art. The DIA’s technology-based interpretation was designed to bring the art to life for visitors through dynamic, engaging experiences. Video projections, immersive installations, and interactive kiosks are seamlessly integrated into the galleries to facilitate direct engagement with works of art. Each technology encourages looking, experiential learning, and meaning making, yet none repeats the exact experience or content of another. Visitors can sit at a virtual eighteenth-century European banquet surrounded by objects made for dining. They may see a life-sized video of an African masquerade near masks on display. Still elsewhere, visitors can turn the pages of a virtual medieval prayer book. They can explore the museum’s centerpiece, Diego Rivera’s immense Detroit Industry murals, using a PDA multimedia tour. Through this diversity of interactivity—some hands-on, all minds-on—the DIA’s technology-based media suggest the myriad ways visitors can engage with art and open up new paths for them to get closer to the DIA’s collection.
More 2008 Muse Award Winners
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