wayne and I paid a visit to the Museum of Natural History yesterday. A nice change from seeing art...and a way to stay out of the heat for a bit. I actually haven't been there since before the planetarium was renovated, so that must've been in high school or something. It was a rather interesting trip, as I have memories associated with so many of the exhibits, down to specific display cases. Often it was just a feeling, of being so familiar and comfortable even though I probably couldn't have recalled those things before walking into the museum.
I remember the elephants in the African Mammals hall, where the lighting is so dim and the elephants feel like they're just looming over you. You'd think they'd spotlight the elephants or something; instead, there's a flash going off every twenty seconds or so, so a dad can get a picture of his kids all piled up on the bench in front of the lead elephant.
And then there's a display case illustrating the animal life that lives in the soil, all close up, with big glass models of worms and ants. That one always gave me the creeps, I'm not a big fan of worms. Especially when they're about five thousand times the size that they ought to be. And I still felt creeped out when I saw it yesterday, I tried not to look at it. Sort of like a kid who hides her eyes when she doesn't want to see the "scary" part of the movie.
I think the most interesting part (OK, well, to the "thinking" part of my brain, rather than my emotional part) was seeing how much the museum has changed in the past two decades. The museum is almost like an anthropological dig, you can see how people thought thirty, even forty years ago and compare it to what we value and how we communicate now.
For instance, I think the worst and most kitschy (and unloved) hall has to be the New York State Environment, plus the one next to it (something to do with trees - it's where the cross section of the giant redwood is). If you've been to the Natural History Museum, you probably can't even recall what that hall is, and I always remember skipping through it quickly as a way to get to point A to point B. It has wood paneling reminiscent of many a 70's basement, and the models are cheesy and neglected. Wayne and I practically fell asleep reading the text. It could have been interesting - there was a nice attempt at trying to explain the cycling of water in a lake through the four seasons - but it was just so...flat. I don't know how else to describe it.
In comparison, the Ocean Hall (the one with the giant whale hung from the ceiling) has had a complete overhaul very recently; it had slick interactive stations, giant videos, colorful display cases, and beautiful and subtle lighting. Interestingly enough, it was the presentation of the text that struck me the most. (OK, my designer geek side kicks in.) Everything was broken down into readable chunks - intro text, side text, callouts. Almost like a web page. Important terms were in color and in bold caps. The combination of these techniques allowed me to read the bits of information that I was interested in and skip what wasn't, and I didn't have information overload nearly as quickly as I usually do. In fact, I think I read a majority of the text in all of the display cases in that Hall. Which is a first for me - I usually end up skipping half of it. I think the videos were ingenious as well - when I became tired of reading, I could sit on a bench and watch three videos across the hall simultaneously, to give my brain a break from reading and actually observe footage of ocean life. Exhibition design has come a long way.
"Oho!" you say. "You're just prejudiced against older exhibition halls because the models are ugly and the rooms have wood paneling." Not so. I think that there's been a shift in attitude in what the Natural History Museum sees as its role in society, and it's really refreshing because I can see how people can be more engaged with the content and maybe take something important with them when they leave. Forty years ago, the museum was this cold authority that just told you how things are (it's a FACT), and that's the way they've always been, and "nature" is this thing outside of man (ok, well, there's the whole African/native american halls, - why are they in a museum of "Natural" history? - and that's an issue that I won't even get into here b/c I could go on for pages.). Nature is something that we control.
Now we are seen as a part of nature - and that we are affecting nature and destroying it (and in turn, destroying ourselves). Hence, there's a ton of the content in the Ocean Hall about ecology and earth consciousness and being an informed consumer. There's tons of text apologizing for thinking that we knew everything, but we're discovering new things everyday, and how exciting that is. But that a lot of it will be gone soon if we don't do something about it.
I know that all the little kids scurrying around the museum probably don't give a damn about any of what I've been thinking about, but maybe they'll come away from the museum, excited by what they've seen and learned, and take a little bit of that attitude with them into the world.
