Exhibit Critique

Giant Mirror

This exhibit was probably one of my favorite simply because of observing others' reactions to and interactions with it—I rather enjoyed it as well!

First and foremost, it is huge: by its very nature, it is extremely inviting, and its location in the space is pleasing (i.e. because it is so large, it requires its own space and is not subject to very much cluttering by other exhibits). Furthermore, despite it being so large, it successfully keeps to itself in that it does not overly crowd the space, it is not so big as to be unnerving, and users still have to engage it before it engages them. In short, the exhibit owned its space without necessarily infringing on other exhibits as well as visitors: it was just the right size to attract passer-by and to achieve the desired effect, as well as a few others!

Second, this exhibit sparked my curiosity as a passer-by because there was enough space to allow me to watch others' interaction with it. I could feel wheels beginning to turn in my head, as well as the heads of those around me, simply watching other users engaging the exhibit. Perhaps one of the only downsides to the exhibit was that it had a decent number of people constantly flowing to it. I still believe the exhibit is designed to handle that amount of people, and by my observation people stayed for extended periods of time regardless of any “line,” probably because watching others in the mirror does not feel intrusive but rather creates this shared curiosity experience.

Therein lies the very strength of the exhibit. I believe that this exhibit strongly hits upon a creative, game-playing region in the brain. Something about it made me curious (and others I would guess by watching), not necessarily about how the exhibit works, but about what else I can “do” with it.

That said, I think the assistive text did a great job capturing this point. The explanation was concise and rather straightforward, but more importantly, there was an image of users doing the “spider-man kiss” and a challenge to recreate it. That challenge to keep playing games and find what else could be done was for me a great thrill in that I had a desire to understand what was happening so that I could achieve and see for myself more awesome pictures and scenes.

All Eyes on Me

This exhibit did not resonate with me. The notion is simple enough: sit in a chair in front of this circular vanity-like mirror composed of many smaller circular mirrors and position your eye in the center one so that all mirrors show your eye looking back at you.

First of all, I would like to give this exhibit the benefit of the doubt. It was situated very oddly relative to the rest of the mirror exhibits—in fact, relative to any exhibit near it. Pressed up against a corner next to a drumming exhibit, the only inviting aspects it had going for it were a pleasant enough looking piece—nice wood finish, bright lights around a mirror—and a stool.

After reading the assistive material, I decided it could be neat to see. Just about everything from that point on was uncomfortable about the exhibit: the stool is a lightweight wood box that is surprisingly flimsy, and though simple to adjust for distance, doesn't quite sit right; the lights are insanely bright and for a user actually trying to interact with the exhibit for an extended period of time they were almost painful on the eyes; nobody is coming to interact with you on the exhibit, and yet, its proximity to other exhibits feels like your exhibit engagement is being intruded upon by nearby visitors. Honestly, where the piece is in the museum almost makes it feel as if something about it doesn't belong and therefore the perception becomes negative (I don't belong), and I felt my mind becoming shut down to curiosity as it was so focused on the negative.

I think one of the main improvements that could be made to this exhibit is simply a change in location. There is a second exhibit I can think of for example that is related in material but also hidden though it was one of my favorite exhibits (Self-Centered and Self-Excluding mirrors). Though those are both hidden they are still inviting and are themselves situated in a more spacious, quieter corridor. I think as this is a sit-down-for-a-minute exhibit, it would greatly benefit from a little more space as opposed to how tightly it is currently situated amongst other irrelevant exhibits. Some thought may also be given to the angle of positioning in more space: do you want to see others while doing it? Do you want others to see you? Both of those are hard to answer since the exhibit depends on each mirror reflecting your eye. However, I think some more sharing could make the experience more positive, especially in overcoming the frustration of “getting it to work.” For instance, it could be very fun and funny to have the exhibit somehow share what you're seeing with passer-by or with other users of the exhibit so that now all eyes aren't just on you but also on them. This allows for discovery and game-playing, urging the question what else can I do? Whether that involves making people laugh or scaring people, I believe that the strength of interactions lies in sparking people's motivation to play.