Smithsonian Institution internship
Description:
In the summer of 2021, I had the opportunity to be an exhibition design intern at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
During my internship, I worked on the design concept development for a History Highlights display case opening in 2022, and the initial ideation for the Center for Understanding Religion in American History, set to open in 2024.
Timeline:
June- August 2021
Collaborators:
Sofía Olivar (co-intern), Nigel Briggs (supervisor)
Working on two projects at such different stages of development presented a unique opportunity for me to balance abstract, speculative design, rapid ideation, and pragmatic considerations. When working on the Center for Understanding Religion in American History (CURAH), we were first and foremost trying to identify the overarching mood of the space, and the general arc of the visitor experience. On the other hand, with the History Highlights display case celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX, our work revolved around developing graphics and visuals that could make the subject matter impactful and relatable to our target audience of young adolescents.
Center for Understanding Religion in American History
Finding Inspiration: What is already out there?
In approaching what was initially a very daunting and open ended goal- to create an inclusive, interactive permanent center for visitors to gain an understanding on the imperative role of religion in American history- our first step was to start researching some of the key questions we would have to answer. We looked extensively at existing spaces (museum exhibitions and otherwise) that had similar goals or unique methods of display and visitor engagement that we could begin to draw from. We also created a few initial mood boards as a starting point for conversation and discussion with the greater team.
From this initial research, we also began brainstorming possibilities for the ‘flow’ through the space.
Futures Workshop: How could this space evolve?
Utilizing the structure of Situation Lab’s Thing from the Future game, the design team then conducted a speculative design workshop with the project team and other guests as a way to start positioning Center for Understanding Religion in various futures. We had participants draw four cards to describe the future arc (the kind of future), the terrain (the societal focus of that future), the designed “thing”, and the mood of that object. Based on these four cards, we then asked each participant to write a short story describing a visitor’s experience at the NMAH Religion Center in that particular imagined future.
We found that this was a very useful exercise for starting to generate outside-of-the-box ideas and methodologies that the design team could later hone in. Below is an example of a micro-fiction written by a participant:
The centerpiece of the NMAH's new Center for the Understanding of Religion in American History is an interactive room that allows you to reconnect with the religious traditions you experienced in your childhood. Focusing on the ways that women have passed along religious practices in the home, this new interactive allows you to feel the dough between your fingers as you knead challah with your grandmother, smell the scent of gingerbread baking, etc. While you begin with your own familiar experiences, you can move through to experience other home-based religious rituals, both to gain an understanding of religious difference as well as acknowledge the things that are shared.
Concept Development: What could this experience be?
What came next was essentially a “dreaming” phase. Using the fantastic thinking and questioning that came out of the futures workshop, we began sketching a wide range of approaches to start bringing some of these ideas to life.
After exploring a wide range of directions, we decided to bring some of our loose ideas into a cohesive storyboard that could propose a highly unique and interactive experience in its entirety.
We Belong Here: Title IX History Highlights Case
As a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX being passed, the team’s goal for this display case is to be “a people-centered, visually dynamic experience that features stories of determined athletes whose persistence and advocacy, and sometimes just their desire to play, continues to transform sports while focusing national attention on gender, identity, and race.” The determined target audience is female, trans, non-binary, Black, and POC teens, which guided many of our design decisions.
Exploring Visual Language
For the majority of the summer, Sofía and I explored a wide range of visual directions that could serve the aforementioned goals and target audience. Some of our primary considerations along the way included:
Creating an engaging experience for visitors
Developing strategies for a crowded, busy, noisy location
Telling the appropriate number of stories
Striking a balance between visual language that is strong and empowering while playful and appropriate for the audience
Not shying away from difficult topics
Activating the Space
In addition to the visuals themselves, we also explored many different forms of activating the space, reimagining a static display case as an engaging and interactive experience for visitors.
Proposed Direction
The team settled on the following design as a proposed visual direction to continue iterating upon. We determined that a more colorful, illustrative approach could communicate the strong messages we wanted to while still maintaining a positive tone and being well suited for younger audiences.
Lastly, we created a simple scale model of the display case to better visualize the depth of the case and the surrounding space. As seen in the last photo, we proposed having life size cut outs of the athletes in the exhibition all along the staircase to call attention to the display case and also provide a fun photo op for visitors (especially younger visitors).
