On Mon, 22 Aug 1994 11:39:07 -0700, Robert O. Dahl wrote:
>
>I think we should choose the stories first, then decide what medium most
>effectively conveys them.
 
 
I can't agree, I think that the development of the story and the media choices
must evolve together.
 
Because of the influence of the medium on on what the visitor takes away from
the experience, the relationship between story and medium is more complex than
"choose one then choose the other to fit."  Clearly choosing the story first and
the best media second is better then vice-versa, but I think a model in which
media issues are considered as the story is developed is superior.
 
I think this is especially true of exhibits.  An exhibit is a compound medium
that can contain all other media, including real artifacts, live interpreters,
environments, and yes, computer-aided virtual experiences.  An exhibit is TRUE
"multimedia" because of this fact.  Marshall McLuhan describes how the content
of any media is other media.  The exhibit is the "media-superior" which can
contain them all.  With all of this media richness at our disposal, we must work
within a model that takes advantage of it, and does not allow either media or
story to be in the driver seat.
 
It seems to me that to say "choose the story, then the medium" is a lot like
saying, "have the curator write the exhibit and then let the designer design
it."  This "hand-off" model of curation and design has long been abandoned,
recognizing that design and story must develop together and inform each other in
the process.  I thought that this was one of the axioms of the team approach to
exhibit development, now accepted as the norm.
 
Likewise, museums are abandoning the "let the exhibit people build the exhibit
then let the educators program it" approach.  Again it has been recognized that
exhibit and programming plans must develop together, informing one another along
the way.
 
When I was Exhibit Curator at the Minnesota History Center, we tried to
implement this overall philosphy by including the Exhibit Media Specialist,
Production Lead, and Exhibit Designer in exhibit development from day-one of
concept development.  The assumption that media issues were to be considered
during story development was explicitly stated.  The results were erratic and
the process often difficult, but I think the exhibits produced during this time
("Manoominikewin: Stories of Wild Ricing;" "The Minnesota Almanac;" and
"Homeplace Minnesota") show the power of this approach, media and story are well
integrated.