THIS EMAIL HAS BEEN SENT. thx, LACE
Hello Amanda,
Thank you again for working with our class on this project! I think we have come up with an exhibit that will be very relevant and intriguing to students, faculty and other HUB visitors. It is all about ADVICE. In this exhibit, people will read, hear, rate, and share advice from and with others.
Here is how we plan to describe the exhibit for calendar purposes:
"For one amazing weekend, your advice gets center stage! In this innovative exhibition, advice contributed online and in-person shapes a temporary installation in the Husky Union Building (HUB) at the University of Washington. 14 students have been given 6 weeks, $300 and 72 hours in the HUB to design an exhibit that is centered around you! Advice you love, advice you hate, the strangest advice that you ever heard—in this exhibit you can give it, get it, flip it or f***k it. Whatever you do, come check it out! For more information, visit adviceexhibit.tumblr.com. On display Fri and Sat. from 8 am to 12 pm and on Sun. from 9 am to 6 pm. Admission is free."
Here is a description of the various components.
Visual components
Photographs of advice from cross stitch samplers, signs, newspapers, bumper stickers, t-shirts, graffiti -- anywhere advice is found. (There is a chance that some advice would contain profanity, what are the limitations here?)
Audio components
We are planning to broadcast advice, collected from famous figures and regular folks alike, that has been edited in advance by playing it continuously at a low volume over small speakers.
Interactive components
ADVICE BOOTH
Visitors will be encouraged to either act as a professional advice giver or to seek advise from one of these from pre-scheduled "expert" advisors.
ADVICE-LIBS
Visitors will create advice Mad-Lib style, by vetting requested sentence components (noun, verb, adjective) and then having these placing these into well-known adages. These 'remixed' adages would then be pressed into buttons for the visitors to wear/take home. This interactive component will only be available at select times and will be staffed by class members
THE BATHROOM WALL
Visitors will write advice to the masses onto a "bathroom wall" made of cardboard or plywood. They will be encouraged by signage to share great/horrible advice and to cross-off, comment upon and remix others statements. This interactive component will be monitored daily.
QUESTIONS OF THE AGES
Visitors will write advice on sticky notes posted to the glass on the front of the cases in which we have posted pre-selected questions that would be relevant to a wide population including: "What should you do for a broken heart?" "How do you break the ice when talking to a stranger?" "How do you tell a friend something that might hurt their feelings?" etc. This interactive component will be monitored daily.
GIVE ME SOMETHING TO GO ON
Visitors will be able to post questions that they want responses to in available free spaces on glass cases and other visitors will be able to cluster responses (written on on post-it notes) around these questions. Exhibit attendants will be the only ones allowed to remove/delete questions, and this should happen once room to respond runs out. Attendants will also photo-capture images of these displays for the tumblr page. Signage should encourage people to leave questions in the free spaces and respond. This interactive component will be monitored daily.
For both of these last two interactives, we are wondering about the best way to encourage participation without compromising the space in any way. Our primary concerns are that the cases are not damaged and that people are respectful/appropriate in their comments. Our signage throughout the exhibit will encourage responsible behavior.
Please let me know what flags, if any, these components raise so that we can address any issues in advance. You are the expert on the space and we would appreciate your feedback in order to plan an exhibit that will be both highly educational and engaging as well as a good, safe use of this exhibit space. We also want to know what restrictions, if any, exist for using nails and adhesives on the walls.
We are also wondering about traffic in the space. Could you say what the busiest hours of the day are? Any guess as to how many people come through the sapce on any given weekend day?
thanks again,
Lace Thornberg
dept. of museology