Sciences Museums Conference in Finland
ECSITE, the European Sciences and Tech Museums network, is having its annual conference in Vantaa, near Helsinki, in June 2005.
More information on the ECSITE website.
On Friday 10th, I am convening there a panel on a subject I proposed:
14:15 - 15:45 / Parallel Session: Interactivity: myths & realities
Convenor: Alok B. Nandi (Architempo - Belgium)
Speakers: Gérard Cobut (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels - Belgium); Stephen Pizzey (Director, Science Projects, London - UK); Per Velk (Experimentarium, Copenhagen - Denmark; Roland Topalian (La Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, Paris - France)
This session will focus on “interactivity” as practiced for the last ten years in museums and -now- their websites. It will reflect on the “added value” of interactivity vs other methods of sharing content or phenomena with audiences, such as displays, reconstructions, models, etc. Many questions arise when one relates the concept of interactivity to the day-to-day practice of designing exhibitions in sciences museums and centres: de facto, one would assume that computers and interactive applications are a must. On the other hand, one often sees dead screens and unused kiosks in exhibitions, and some curators are getting tired of these non-performing interactive units. So, what is the picture today? What motivates sciences centres/museums to use these computer mediated communication tools? How do they maintain them? What resources are required? Should they be produced in-house or outsourced?
and also the same day, I am convening another panel on new tech:
16:30 - 17:45 / Parallel Session: New technologies in exhibitions - now available for you …
Speakers: Stacey Spiegel (CEO, I-MMERSION, Toronto - Canada); Torsten Fröhlich (Managing Director, Cybernarium - Germany); Ami Dror (Marketing Director, Israel National Museum of Science & Technology - Smart Theater Network, Tel Aviv - Israel) and Alan D. Lishness (Chief Innovation Officer, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland - USA).
Every year, new technologies are developed to improve the way we reach the public within our exhibitions: new screen formats, new software, new sound equipment, etc. Of course, these tools would not be efficient if they were not combined with strong content from the science centres and science museums. This session will offer you the opportunity to discover five or six of these new tools and their applications. The first confirmed presentations are the interactive 3D Virtual Museum from I-MMERSION (Canada) and the Lab Venture Stations from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (USA).
But before that some travels in France for designing real environments.