To celebrate, we'll be open until 8:00 tonight, January 6th. Stop by to visit Bella and congratulate John. We'll see you there!
Showing posts with label Exhibits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Exhibits. Show all posts
Friday, January 6, 2012
Introducing Bella Stella!
Mindport's latest exhibit is on the floor. Exhibit designer/builder John Ito has created another wonder - this time a giant windup toy inspired by the crosswalks of our fair city.
To celebrate, we'll be open until 8:00 tonight, January 6th. Stop by to visit Bella and congratulate John. We'll see you there!
To celebrate, we'll be open until 8:00 tonight, January 6th. Stop by to visit Bella and congratulate John. We'll see you there!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tetrahedra* Are Us
From this:
To this:
On one of his forays through Western Washington University's library, Exhibits Manager Bill Lee happened upon a series of books by Bradford Hansen-Smith. (Hansen-Smith explores folding the circle with a passion and determination I doubt is matched by many others and has created a number of texts that provide instructions for creating an array of fascinating objects.) Being a math enthusiast, Bill checked out one of Hansen-Smith's books and brought it to Mindport, leading a group folding effort that has resulted in the pyramid pictured above and a few more like it. For now, the folding continues up in the offices, but ultimately we expect to have a finished exhibit down on the floor.
If you're interested in exploring the folding of the circle before then, see Bradford Hansen-Smith's website www.wholemovement.com
Friday, March 12, 2010
What's Been Happening at MP (Lately)
Looking over our introduction to this blog, I realized that we promised to keep readers apprised of what’s happening at MP “right now.” In practice, this has turned out to be primarily keeping readers apprised of some of what we’re reading and thinking “right now,” so this week I’ll turn my attention to less strictly cerebral goings on. Here’s the rundown of the last week or so.
Last Friday Mindport housed “Speak Easy 3,” an evening of poetry organized and hosted by Luther Allen. Five regional poets, Susan J. Erickson, Kari Galbraith, Christine Kendall, David M. Laws, and Oliver de la Paz read selections from their work to a full – and appreciative - house. Look for “Speak Easy 4” in late spring or early summer.
The Underwood typewriter is back on the floor after receiving a resurfaced platen (otherwise known as the roller) from a company in Pennsylvania. The platen provides a backing for the type as it hits the paper. If the rubber around the platen becomes hard and brittle, then the type doesn’t hit the paper in a consistent manner, resulting in uneven print. Our free Underwood typewriter (courtesy of the alley) now has a price tag of $95 (not counting the labor hours it took to restore it), but everything typed on it looks a lot better.
Our director, Kevin, is busy building the last five of 32 organ pipes for our pipe organ exhibit. Once he’s done with the pipes, he’ll be turning his attention to creating a keyboard and windchest. He says to look for this exhibit in about three months or so. In the meantime, he’s been trying out the “Drawdio,” a clever device designed by MIT students that measures the resistance of a line of carbon as you draw and translates that resistance to sound. Unfortunately the Drawdio seems to be sensitive to humidity and has a few other quirks that make it impractical for Mindport.
Another addition to the Mindport musical menagerie should be out on the floor much sooner than the pipe organ. AnMorgan is just putting the finishing touches on a table for our new autoharp. After months of trying to restore a very, very antique -to put it kindly- autoharp, we gave up and found a newer one. I’m looking forward to having this instrument on the floor for patrons to try, although I will miss the impromptu renditions of popular songs given by Mindport staff. You really can do quite a bit with three chords and limited inhibitions.
Music must be on the brain these days. Exhibits Manager Bill Lee and Public Relations person Karen Weber have been working on finding a way to turn a single piano key mechanism that’s been hanging out here for about three years into an exhibit. So far they have a gong made out of an old mechanical back-up alarm taken off a truck, the piano key, and a claw. I have total confidence that these three pieces will make beautiful music together (har).
I think those are probably the highlights. We’re also making our usual rounds, cleaning fish tanks, trouble-shooting light fixtures, emptying the recycling, and fixing pieces of exhibits that have succumbed to slightly too vigorous declarations of affection. I’ll keep continue to keep you posted as to what’s new and exciting.
Until next time,
Tallie
Last Friday Mindport housed “Speak Easy 3,” an evening of poetry organized and hosted by Luther Allen. Five regional poets, Susan J. Erickson, Kari Galbraith, Christine Kendall, David M. Laws, and Oliver de la Paz read selections from their work to a full – and appreciative - house. Look for “Speak Easy 4” in late spring or early summer.
The Underwood typewriter is back on the floor after receiving a resurfaced platen (otherwise known as the roller) from a company in Pennsylvania. The platen provides a backing for the type as it hits the paper. If the rubber around the platen becomes hard and brittle, then the type doesn’t hit the paper in a consistent manner, resulting in uneven print. Our free Underwood typewriter (courtesy of the alley) now has a price tag of $95 (not counting the labor hours it took to restore it), but everything typed on it looks a lot better.
Our director, Kevin, is busy building the last five of 32 organ pipes for our pipe organ exhibit. Once he’s done with the pipes, he’ll be turning his attention to creating a keyboard and windchest. He says to look for this exhibit in about three months or so. In the meantime, he’s been trying out the “Drawdio,” a clever device designed by MIT students that measures the resistance of a line of carbon as you draw and translates that resistance to sound. Unfortunately the Drawdio seems to be sensitive to humidity and has a few other quirks that make it impractical for Mindport.
Another addition to the Mindport musical menagerie should be out on the floor much sooner than the pipe organ. AnMorgan is just putting the finishing touches on a table for our new autoharp. After months of trying to restore a very, very antique -to put it kindly- autoharp, we gave up and found a newer one. I’m looking forward to having this instrument on the floor for patrons to try, although I will miss the impromptu renditions of popular songs given by Mindport staff. You really can do quite a bit with three chords and limited inhibitions.
Music must be on the brain these days. Exhibits Manager Bill Lee and Public Relations person Karen Weber have been working on finding a way to turn a single piano key mechanism that’s been hanging out here for about three years into an exhibit. So far they have a gong made out of an old mechanical back-up alarm taken off a truck, the piano key, and a claw. I have total confidence that these three pieces will make beautiful music together (har).
I think those are probably the highlights. We’re also making our usual rounds, cleaning fish tanks, trouble-shooting light fixtures, emptying the recycling, and fixing pieces of exhibits that have succumbed to slightly too vigorous declarations of affection. I’ll keep continue to keep you posted as to what’s new and exciting.
Until next time,
Tallie
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Organ Donors
Church Ladies: We think you should come on down and place a bid on this nice little Hammond organ we have here.
Kevin: No. I don’t have room for an organ.
Church Ladies: Oh, sure you do. It’s really a nice one.
Kevin: No. I don’t have room for an organ.
Church Ladies: It’s real small. At least come down and take a look.
Kevin: No. I don’t have room for an organ.
3 hours later
Church Ladies: You need the organ. You can have it for free.
Kevin: No. I don’t have room for an organ.
But, Kevin did go down and take a look. A seventy-five dollar donation from Mindport, some heavy lifting, and a pick-up truck ride later, Mindport is the grateful owner of a lovely little Hammond organ. So far we’ve heard Bach, the Doobie Brothers, and some old school roller rink-inspired tunes, and we’re glad this little instrument is here to stay. Thanks, Church Ladies. You knew what we needed.
Side note: The Hammond has inspired Kevin to build a two-octave pneumatic organ for Mindport. He’s already three pipes into the project.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Exhibit-Building at Mindport
At Mindport many visitors ask what new exhibits we have planned, or why we don't get new exhibits more often. We are also often asked where we get our ideas, or "how did you think of that exhibit," and related questions.
The process by which exhibits show up on Mindport's display room floor is a complex one, not by intention but because the process just evolved that way. "As it happened," in other words.
Before discussing these matters, I'll remind you that most of the hands-on exhibits at Mindport are accompanied by a notebook. On the front you'll find instructions for the exhibit, and inside more information about it, often with much detail about how the exhibit was made and why.
Generally, we choose to build a particular exhibit because it interests whichever one of us builds it. We assume that if an idea interests us, it will interest visitors, which is an assumption that has proved valid in most cases. If the exhibit only interests a minority of visitors, we still tend to view it as successful, because we don't believe that the interests of the majority should necessarily triumph over the interests of the few. Something for everyone, including us, is our motto.
The exhibits we either try to improve or completely eliminate, are those that visitors avoid because they're too confusing or complex, or ones which are more trouble to maintain than they're worth. Sometimes exhibits go away because we're bored with them and something else interesting has turned up as a replacement. As time has passed, we've paid an increasing amount of attention to making exhibits both robust and relatively easy to maintain. Maintenance is one of our least enjoyable tasks, which is why we request that guests treat exhibits gently and with respect. It leaves us more time to build new things.
Ideas for exhibits crop up everywhere. Sometimes an idea that starts out as a joke at one of our meetings ends up, with modification, becoming an exhibit. One exhibit, Sonoluce, with the whirling musical lights, was inspired by a hand-held toy brought back by one of our staff members from a trip to San Francisco. Some exhibits, such as the Tornado, are our own version of well-known exhibits at other museums.
With a few exceptions, we build most of our exhibits rather than buy them; they're often a product of much thought and experimentation. . . and, since our staff is very small, we don't turn out new major exhibits at a great rate. None of us builds exhibits exclusively, because we have many other tasks to attend, which rarely leaves us undivided time for new construction. With this slow turnaround in mind, we put much thought into creating exhibits that visitors will find interesting enough to return to repeatedly. The "creek" is one example. Visitors young and old find the creek highly alluring, which isn't surprising, since I myself, the designer/builder of this exhibit, never grew tired of playing in creeks as a youngster, and still like playing in creeks, rivers, and Puget Sound as an oldster.
For every exhibit that finally makes it to Mindport's display floor, two or three are usually abandoned before they're finished or even halfway started. Usually, after some experimentation or trial, they turned out to be uninteresting, impractical, or they seemed like they might prove too difficult to maintain. Some exhibits we abandon because we feel they might not be safe. The shelves in my shop at home, where I build exhibits, are full of bits and pieces of exhibits that haven't happened yet, or are left from others that didn't work as expected, or fell to others of the perils just mentioned. They may later be incorporated into other exhibits later on.
Often, an exhibit that started out to be one thing turns into something else. Marbellous, for example, was assembled from disparate parts that I hadn't fully decided what to do with. The main "pump" with the rotating wheels was built as a module to see how and if it would work. The marble course on the right side, I built as a second module to explore mechanical "flip-flop" gates, and as an experiment in generating interesting sounds with falling marbles. The marble course on the left was built pretty much "off the cuff," as a spontaneous creation. The whole works took about 15 months to build. It includes some electronic logic designed to unstick hung marbles in the main pump, and another circuit to detect marbles that fly off the labyrinth above and end up in the "basement," visible through a circular window at the bottom of the piece.
Perhaps this will give you more insight into the exhibit-building process at Mindport. As you can see, there's no set process or routine. Serendipity takes its course, and we're happy with that. It makes life and our exhibits more interesting for us and for our visitors.
The process by which exhibits show up on Mindport's display room floor is a complex one, not by intention but because the process just evolved that way. "As it happened," in other words.
Before discussing these matters, I'll remind you that most of the hands-on exhibits at Mindport are accompanied by a notebook. On the front you'll find instructions for the exhibit, and inside more information about it, often with much detail about how the exhibit was made and why.
Generally, we choose to build a particular exhibit because it interests whichever one of us builds it. We assume that if an idea interests us, it will interest visitors, which is an assumption that has proved valid in most cases. If the exhibit only interests a minority of visitors, we still tend to view it as successful, because we don't believe that the interests of the majority should necessarily triumph over the interests of the few. Something for everyone, including us, is our motto.
The exhibits we either try to improve or completely eliminate, are those that visitors avoid because they're too confusing or complex, or ones which are more trouble to maintain than they're worth. Sometimes exhibits go away because we're bored with them and something else interesting has turned up as a replacement. As time has passed, we've paid an increasing amount of attention to making exhibits both robust and relatively easy to maintain. Maintenance is one of our least enjoyable tasks, which is why we request that guests treat exhibits gently and with respect. It leaves us more time to build new things.
Ideas for exhibits crop up everywhere. Sometimes an idea that starts out as a joke at one of our meetings ends up, with modification, becoming an exhibit. One exhibit, Sonoluce, with the whirling musical lights, was inspired by a hand-held toy brought back by one of our staff members from a trip to San Francisco. Some exhibits, such as the Tornado, are our own version of well-known exhibits at other museums.
With a few exceptions, we build most of our exhibits rather than buy them; they're often a product of much thought and experimentation. . . and, since our staff is very small, we don't turn out new major exhibits at a great rate. None of us builds exhibits exclusively, because we have many other tasks to attend, which rarely leaves us undivided time for new construction. With this slow turnaround in mind, we put much thought into creating exhibits that visitors will find interesting enough to return to repeatedly. The "creek" is one example. Visitors young and old find the creek highly alluring, which isn't surprising, since I myself, the designer/builder of this exhibit, never grew tired of playing in creeks as a youngster, and still like playing in creeks, rivers, and Puget Sound as an oldster.
For every exhibit that finally makes it to Mindport's display floor, two or three are usually abandoned before they're finished or even halfway started. Usually, after some experimentation or trial, they turned out to be uninteresting, impractical, or they seemed like they might prove too difficult to maintain. Some exhibits we abandon because we feel they might not be safe. The shelves in my shop at home, where I build exhibits, are full of bits and pieces of exhibits that haven't happened yet, or are left from others that didn't work as expected, or fell to others of the perils just mentioned. They may later be incorporated into other exhibits later on.
Often, an exhibit that started out to be one thing turns into something else. Marbellous, for example, was assembled from disparate parts that I hadn't fully decided what to do with. The main "pump" with the rotating wheels was built as a module to see how and if it would work. The marble course on the right side, I built as a second module to explore mechanical "flip-flop" gates, and as an experiment in generating interesting sounds with falling marbles. The marble course on the left was built pretty much "off the cuff," as a spontaneous creation. The whole works took about 15 months to build. It includes some electronic logic designed to unstick hung marbles in the main pump, and another circuit to detect marbles that fly off the labyrinth above and end up in the "basement," visible through a circular window at the bottom of the piece.
Perhaps this will give you more insight into the exhibit-building process at Mindport. As you can see, there's no set process or routine. Serendipity takes its course, and we're happy with that. It makes life and our exhibits more interesting for us and for our visitors.
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