Towards an exhibition on nuclear physics and cultural heritage

Alessandro PascoliniBrussels 29 July 2006

Exhibition: a coordinated series of events in a defined space and at an assigned time, with a specific aim and a selected target, built on a collection of communication materials

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Aim:•The exhibition cannot be a generic presentation, but must have a specific objective to “pass a message”, which can be wide, but well defined•Never “all you have to know on this subject”• The aim dictates title and logo

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Contents:• ordered in a logical structure• the actual presentation reflects the logical structure

Target: • It has to be clear • It fixes style, language, communication means

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Targets: •Fellow scientists of different fields •School students •Industrial/economic communities •Artistic/cultural groups •General public

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Visitors:•Have to be respected for their interest in our exhibition•Must be culturally provoked•Their basic knowledge has to be taken into account• Never put in an inferiority condition• The flow has to be organized according to space and time

How many visitors make the exhibition worthwhile?•an exhibition for special targets has to effectively reach its targets and fulfill its aim•exhibitions for general public must cost less than 4 euro per visitor

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Visitors’ rights: • Be in a safe environment • Leave at every moment • Organize their own visit • Guided, when requested • Look at details • Fly at high speed • Rest • Be critical • Express their criticism

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Visite guidate

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Time:•Dates chosen to accommodate the target•Coupling (or decoupling) with other cultural, scientific, social events•Dates to optimize media’s attention•Dates to optimize political authorities’ presence

Time length: • According to foreseen visitors’ frequency • Consistent with the budget • Consistent with the availability of scientific assistants

Time constraints: •Opening date is fixed •Be [nearly] in-time for opening •Work out and keep a strict time-scale of production

The venue:• Suited to the contents• Contents according to space• Easy to reach• Where people naturally go• Where art exhibitions are held• Not too low• With all necessary services• Without security problem• Space for visitors’ activities

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Space:•The shaping of the exhibition has to be worked out with an architect from the very beginning•The environment may be exploited in the communication project or denied in order to have the exhibition in a vacuum

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Space - exploited:• It might be useful to take advantage of the physical environment and to include it in the exhibition itself • The architecture of the building, when left in view,

dictates that of the exhibition

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Space - denied:• When the environment is at

odds with the exhibition, you have to obscure it • Traveling exhibitions have to be produced to remain independent of the environment in order to fit in a variety of places

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Own structures:• Tend• Containers• Can be drop in common places• Their installation a promotion event in itself• A way to reach people not “interested”

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Projections outside:•Special materials outside the exhibition venue•Where the people gather: plazas, markets, parks, pedestrian districts…•To provoke curiosity•To promote attention•For advertisement

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Space:

• Remind to keep it clean and friendly

Light:• It is one determinant of the exhibition• It structures space• It determines the colors• It organizes the attention of the visitor• Text can be written with light• Daylight can be exploited in its variation - but is delicate• Artificial light is completely under control• Professional expertise necessary

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Sound:•It has to be integrated in the sounds of the exhibition•Special spots of sound and silence convey message•Avoid interference of different sound sources•Remind that exhibitions are social and convivial and visitors speak and comment

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Communication materials:• A unique strategy of communication integrating a panoply of means • Texts /catalogue • Images • Objects • Audiovisuals • Internet • Art show • Human interface

Communication materials: • Present concepts more than objects • Materials should be starting points for exploring a world of ideas

An exhibition should transform existing knowledge • addition• emergence• progressive differentiation• disassociation • re-contextualization• merging • development of personal theories

Style: • Lightness - il faut être léger comme l’oiseau, et non comme la plume • Exactness - le bon Dieu est dans le détail • Rapidity • Visibility • Multiplicity

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Text:• “in principium there were posters”• After inflation, text and image decouple - independent uses - avoiding graphic interference• It becomes part of the scenery• Strict collaboration with architect and graphic designer

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Text:• Has to be essential, suited to target• Multi-level, with different levels of information in case of non homogeneous visitors• All text written by the same person with a unique style• Checked and revised by a “standard” visitor• remind:Everything has to be made as simple as possible, but not more [Albert Einstein]

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Images:• Need to present images of the invisible• The microscopic world is not present in the common imagery• There is no authority fixing the difficult iconography• Theoretical concepts have to be “shown”

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Images:• Their power and persistence• Their redundancy• They evoke and provoke• Self explanatory/mysterious - alchemists’ mutus liber• Danger of conveying wrong imagery

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Objects:• Witnesses of reality• Allow comparisons• Can enter in “sound and light” presentations• Their “mise en scène” is critical• Critically delicate objects should not be essential

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Objects:• Historical instruments• Prototypes• Models• Tools for research• Peaces of art and of cultural

heritage • Interactive exhibits• Reconstruction of real labs and apparata

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Interactive exhibits:• Safe, strong, effective, suited to the target and to the visitors’ flow• Cosmic ray detectors• Radioactivity detectors• Spectrometers

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Audiovisuals: • Special productions for the exhibition • Interactive audiovisuals • State-of-the art presentation • Part of the scenery - multi screen presentation - unusual size presentations • Very short non-interactive presentations

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Internet: • Presented as a working tool for research • Contacts with physicists at work at distant labs • Creation of a local network at disposal of visitors for exchanging information and comments • Problems of control • Specific web site for the exhibition

Art show: • Art inspired by nuclear science • Comic strips • Designs

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Human interface: • Essential to integrate the various communication means and give personalized information • Can elicit curiosity, provoke attention, suggest questions • Makes science human • Collects reactions and criticism • Young physicists convey enthusiasm and speak the language of the youngsters • Senior scientists can tell stories and overcame cultural divides

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Human interface: • Allows and provokes conversation • Presents the intermediate phase which transforms data and observations in explanations

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Human interface: • Creates direct contacts between the local physicists and the community • Allows creation of permanent educational activities

Involvement of visitors: • Presentation of materials prepared by students • Students’ contest • Drawing corners for younger visitors • Book of comments • Computer and camera for leaving messages - be prepared to surprises • Questionnaires for evaluation

Events: •before opening • in progress • follow up

Conditions for success: In the variety of events and of communication means the exhibition has to keep a unity character, its peculiar style and communication strategy:- clear communication project- coherence of written, spoken, materials, representation, design- smallest possible group of content creators

Conditions for success:•An operative plan paying attention to the minimum details and a precise construction scheme•Emergence plans and alternatives to afford unpredictable last minute emergencies

Conditions for success:•One person controlling everything, with strong directorship•An efficient operation assistant•Strict coordination with architect, graphic designer, professional teams

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Conditions for success:• State-of-the-art presentation• Less, but beautiful and distinctive• Cope in quality with good art exhibitions

Conditions for success:•Strong contacts with:

- local school system- local authorities- local media

• have a local newspaper or television as a sponsor!• local sponsors - no ties!

Conditions for success: •Accurate preparation of the social and formal activities • Patronages • Ceremonies • Gifts to authorities

Conditions for success:

•Evaluation of results •Learn for the future

Conditions for success:

• Fight for the necessary budget • Adapt to actual budget • Have a friendly administrator • Create a pocket with minimum constraints money

Conditions for success: • Strong involvement of local scientists • Proper recognition of contributions - be generous in acknowledgements • Create and keep a good climate and high spirits in the stressing environment of production and setting up and in the sometimes repetitive everyday running

Conditions for success: •All collaborators have to feel convinced that: - the exhibition is their own exhibition - it was an interesting and amusing experience - the time and stress was a good personal and professional investment

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Conditions for success:

•Avoid disasters •Have a good luck!

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Schema pallini

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