Deb, I was thinking about your comments, too.  I was
thinking about the fact that you didn't get much out
of the interactive part of exhibits but could stare
for hours.  I'm wondering if this isn't the byproduct
of your age.  If you're closer to my generation,
lights, bells, and whistles won't mean as much to you
as they do to the generations below me.

When my daughter was in Scouts, and I the Scout
leader, my team and I took the girls to Marineland to
see the sea animals, shows, and exhibits.  While they
appreciated what they saw, what they really liked most
of all were the new video game machines.  They would
rather see the lights, bells, and whistles of Donkey
Kong and Ms. Pac Man than the things we actually
brought them to see.

That fascination with video games and the stimulation
attached thereto seems to be fairly pervasive with the
generations below me.  My 26-year old son and 27-year
old nephew, grown, with jobs, (and my son has a
ready-made family), spend hours on end playing video
games as a form of recreation.  My grandson gets
caught up in the videogame fascination and has to
wrest it from his 36-year old father in order to play.

So I think, in order to draw that generation (I
acquiesce to doing a little bit of stereotyping based
on my personal experiences) into the exhibits, you
have do more than just show them things.  They need
the stimulation that participation brings.

I can remember my favorite exhibits at the Museum of
Science and Industry and LA, now redone and called the
California Science Center.  Way back when, it was the
baby chicks hatching and those exhibits that had
things I could crank or buttons I could press that
would talk to me.  Of course nothing was more
frustrating than to get to an interactive exhibit that
persistently didn't work, but having some control over
what I saw by pressing, turning, or some other means
brought the exhibit to life to me and made a much
better impression.

I think that, if museums are going to be sustained
into the future, you're going to have to do something
to engage the videogame generation.  The tv generation
needs to reach back and give them the stimuli, or they
just won't attend.  If they don't attend, you won't
get the donors/membership, and you won't get the
funding to sustain yourselves.




--- Regan Forrest <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Deb,
>
> You raise some interesting points, but some, I feel,
> are generalisations that need to be challenged. From
> the experience you describe it sounds like you have
> consistently encountered spectacularly displayed and
> interpreted objects, but substandard and uninspiring
> interactive exhibits. Not true for all of us, on
> both counts!


=====
Indigo Nights
[log in to unmask]

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).