Narrative in Exhibit Design

A lecture by Mindy Lehrman Cameron, Exhibition Designer, at the Emily Carr Institute, February 7, 2007. This is also my try at live blogging.
Concrete Journalism
Nice term. Like, journalism in the flesh. Identify and tell a story.
When is an exhibit not a book? When it’s an unwritten story.
Can you tell a story without any text?
A bunch of examples, the usual immerse your audience, avoid third person, get them interacting. But I like her term Handles. As in, Put HANDLES on exhibits, techniques to engage audiences who all listen and learn different ways at different times in their lives. This is what she terms:
Universal appeal: Multiple Intelligences
Ex. Sound and music exhibit. Play instruments, listen to music, talk to actual musicians.
Story: taking her kids to exhibits and it put her to sleep. How to engage kids and adults?
Embedded People
Who tells the story? Whose story is it?
ex. LCD video screens in cases of equipment with talking heads. Kind of corny, but the idea of embedding people, embedding audiences.
What doesn’t tell a story?
What you plan (and don’t plan) tells a story.
Humour takes down defences
Lecture over after 40 minutes.
Her firm: www.lehrmancameron.com
Three things I’ll take away from this:
– Concrete Journalism
– What doesn’t tell the story?
– What is the handle in your design?