Summarizing the Zoo visit

The Zoo is a place for everybody. Kids, parents, teenagers, lovers, grandparents, schools – a lot of different constellations and interest points. Apart from a few elderly people just hanging out, the majority were there with someone else in a typical set of parents/kids, grandparents/kids grouping. School outings also seemed to be popular.

There was a constant dialogue between the visitors. Dialogue with a total focus on what they saw and experienced. There seemed to be a great interest to share and get knowledge. Though, I overheard many more unanswered questions and unmet thoughts than the opposite. Do the grown-ups wish they were able to explain better? Do the kids feel heard? And what about the knowledge the kids have?

Having said that, I also think that going to the Zoo is not all about learning about the animals, it’s also very much about the dialogue and contact between the visitors. If your granddad tells you some crazy story about some exotic animal, in my book, that would be awesome too. It doesn’t need to be correct, but if you want it to be, it should be easy to access the knowledge.

With these conclusions, focusing on interaction between the visitors seem obvious.

The Zoo

Another interesting context to explore as a “knowledge touchpoint” is the Zoo. Going to the Zoo is a nice mixture of recreation and education, and I found people to be very engaged in watching and talking about the animals.

Like with the museums, I ask myself why do people go to the zoo? It seems to be an activity on a both subconscious and conscious level. It is evident that it is by far more emotional to go to the zoo than going to a museum or an art exhibition. But why is it so? Is it the same kinesthetic energy we react to when going to the theater? The animals are living beings in front of us and we react to that very differently than to a screen, painting or a dead object. Is it something instinctive where we activate some hidden corners of our brain that are connected to the days when we had to live side by side with the animals and live in the wild ourselves? If I choose the Zoo as a context, this is something I will explore much further.

Again, I observed people and looked for interactive elements in the exhibitions. I was there for three hours. There was place in particular that I found to be very interesting. The Tropical Zoo is a building where they have made a small rain forest and where the birds and butterflies fly around freely. I heard a lot of questions and some attempts of answers. The kids were very curious with a lot of comments and questions.

Turtles eating dandelions in the rain forest

I overheard the following conversation between a grandmother and her grandchild – around 9 years old. The kid asked, “why do they like dandelions?” the grandmother answered ” I like dandelions, you can use them in a salad!”  I am sure the grandmother answered to her best abilities, and I think they had a really nice contact and interaction between them, but she didn’t really answer the question. The same kid asked a lot of questions about the animals and the answers were always somewhat off.  The grandmother didn’t know anything about the animals which is completely fair, but she didn’t have any place to look for answers either. There were no elaborate explanations to find about either the animals or the context they were from. There were some signs with the name and origin of the animal. Does that satisfy the needs of the audience?

List of the birds flying around you

The really nice thing with the tropical zoo, was the sensation and illusion of being in the birds own habitat. They were all around and above you which was exciting. The denseness of the vegetation, the heat and the mist being sprayed repetitively made the illusion strong. I reckon the situation for the birds weren’t all that bad, which plays a big part in me enjoying it, since I tend to get a stomach ache from watching animals in cages. I was free to enjoy it. Then I, and the kids, started to wonder, which bird just made that noise, what kind is that bird up there, where does it come from, what’s it like where they come from, are they all friends, do they all live together in peace here, what about their food – how do they get it, what do they eat, do they breed here, that one looks funny – why does it look like that… a.s.o…

Tropical birds in the branches - not sure which ones though...

I tried to spot the sloth for at long time, no such luck. That felt kind of good!

The only interactive part of the rain forest that I could find was a piece on the wall where you could learn a little about the turtles. No one was using it for the period I was in there though. Nevertheless I found it to be a pretty cute thing.

You slide the red piece and the red folio filters the light so that you see the drawings underneath revealing what I believe to be context for the turtle at the given time.

Side view of the interactive slider piece

After leaving the rain forest, there was a small photo exhibition on people living in the rain forest. I was the only one looking at it. No one seemed to look in that direction. Maybe because it was placed in a corner in a kind of hallway.

Display of the people of the rain forest.

Walking further on, you could see context about the rain forest. A display showed an educational selection of products that we can relate to that stems from the resources of the rain forest.

Well known products we can thank the rain forest for.

Short text explaining the context with a message about sustainability.

Dimensions of the display.

A schoolgirl was wondering where the huge snake (a big Indian Python) lived, it was lying behind glass in a big see-through tree. So she concluded that the flag shown on the sign was where the snake was from. The teacher didn’t react.

The british python...

The following two pictures were taken with only seconds between them. Very disturbing how fast the rain forest dissapears! The left number is sq.m. of rain forest the right is world population.

Disturbing facts about the rain forest.

Disturbing facts #2.

In this display they compared forest types in Denmark with the rain forest. There is a big difference between the eco-systems. Unfortunately this little visualization was the only one of its kind in the exhibition. I thought it too be a great claryfier and a good starting point to get to know a lot more.

Interactive backlit screen. Press the blue button for action.

By visualizing like this the differences in the forests becomes clear.

Here you can compare your own size to a life-size silhouette of a leather back turtle. Simple and effective, but a little lost on a dark floor? And there were no other turtle or tortoise silhouettes either.

Compare your size to a leather back turtle.

Further on you met this “activity wall” where you could press a couple of buttons to learn stuff about frogs in the rain forest. It had some context about frogs, from their environment to for instance eat frogs.

the wall being examined.

the little guy is checking out his options

You could also peek through some holes, where a question was posed on the front and looking through the hole, you got your answer.

yummy frogs...

The next section of the tropical zoo was world of the butterflies. As with the bird section, the butterflies were equally swarming around freely. It was fun! Sometimes you almost got a butterfly to land on you. But again there was very little possibility to get to know more. There was a single sign that you had to twirl to study what butterflies were in the space. There were no stories or context about any of the butterflies.

A sign to find the butterflies on.

The room in itself of course gives you a context. You could see how the butterflies were roaming around, sitting on flowers, sitting on fruit. But what is this guy for instance doing? Is it eating the banana? I heard three people wonder about this.

Any guesses?

Or what about this one?

In this visualization, your get to know what the general characteristics of a rain forest is and how it is spread around the world. It was in a corner in a hallway with mess around it and the empty pedestal in front of it took away from the focus. You didn’t feel like you were supposed to give it any attention.

Rain forests surround the earth as a wide belt around equator.

The rest of the zoo had varying levels of interaction opportunities and/or knowledge touch-points. You would see some signs about how the Zoo is actually being run. In this interactive sign, you could learn about the diet of the animals. turn the wheel to see what animal eat what kind of food. The story is about how the zoo keepers make sure the right food goes to the right animals.

"Turn a menu"

As a general premise, the experience of going to the Zoo is about watching animals in cages with a small sign saying a little about the animal.

The animal and the sign.

In case of the tiger, there was a very weather beaten exhibition about how the tiger is endagered. The windows were hardly see-through and the exhibited tiger products and chineese medicin were bleached by the sun.

Exhibition on man's complete disrespect for and exploitation of tigers in the wild.

Kids were asked to contribute to the exhibition by drawing a picture of a tiger. Nice!

Childrens drawings of the tiger.

The Zoo is of course not only about learning and using your brain contextualizing and understanding stuff, but also about just enjoying watching the animals.

Enjoying tropical water animals

A romantic afternoon.

In 2009 a very impressive new house for the elephants opened. Norman Foster designed it and it shows beautifully the level of ambitions in the Zoo in regards to animal welfare, context, enlightenment, entertainment and interaction opportunities. High class!

The elephant house had a whole floor of interactive games to teach you more about the elephant.

Museums/galleries

I went to several museums and galleries. The experience was generally very traditional and the same in all the places: a 2D experience and somewhat flat. You just stand in front of the painting and that’s it.

Neo-classical style at The Hirschsprung Collection

Top floor at Gl. Strand.

Fossils at the National Museum. Very impressive exhibition place!

Fluxus exhibition at the Nicolai Church. Exactly as accessible as fluxus itself...

Artrebels exhibition on human trafficking in the meat district. Very appropriate context.

But is that enough? Is there an opportunity to put the paintings into context? And extend the experience into the space? Would that change anything for the better?

So, how to research this? How do I go about the whole thing? I decided not to do any desktop research on the subject before going out. I wanted to have a completely open mind and a clean slate to start from. So I just went with a notebook and a wish to get inspired.

I followed people when I could and it was interesting to see that if there was a group they were very engaged in talking and hearing someone in the group tell more about the artist, the style and the technique, but also a lot about context; the period, political influences, geographical influences a.s.o. +anything trivia concerning the objects/paintings.The places themself did not offer this information. But the interest was clearly present.

Some places had some areas where you could find out a little more, but no one used them when I was there.

A room for getting to know more

You could browse through some brochures on the table and read some text on the walls. It was a little difficult to figure out what you actually could gain from looking into the exhibition. It didn’t seem inviting to me.

Typical way to give information and context. On Akseli Gallen-Kallela, finnish painter.

Why going?

There is a big question I have to ask: why do people go to art exhibitions in the first place? Are they consciuos about why? Am I? Do we go on a feeling of it being a nice thing to do? Is it a specific wish to research something? Is it our cultural setting that has taught us that it is part of beign a good citizen? Or is it something much deeper where humans connect to art on a archetypical layer and understand oneself much better through experiencing art?

Maybe a little of everything? I will have to look into that…

How can I then think about context in traditional art exhibition spaces?

Paintings tell a lot of stories. About a state of mind, a landscape, an event, a situation, an idea, a feeling, a scenario. Realistic or a complete abstraction. The choice of motif, the use of colour, style and expression tell us about the contemporary context in society for the period. It tells us about the beliefs and the life of the painter.

Is it these stories that I should contextualize, edit, tell and let people interact with?

The Danish Skagens Painters making portraits of everyday life.

Unfortunately you could not actually do this yourself. But was that really the point? fluxus...

Summarizing

When I go to art exhibitions I wish to understand and I wish to feel. I hope to get enriched and inspired, I hope to get provoked and I want to get wiser. Though sometimes it seems like you have to crack a lot of codes to understand what you are in front of. I won’t get into a long discussion on this subject, then I can be here forever, but let it be said that I like it when art is challeging and someones vision or reflection on how we live our lives. My focus here is not art itself, but the experience of looking at it.

How we meet art now is very static and does not nescessary reflect how we approach our lives these days. We are seing the tip of the iceberg of costumized living, where the internet plays a big role as our portal to our world and our choices in life. This way of thinking, does that apply to how we should/would like to navigate an exhibition? Would we like to have a more costumized exhibition experience, where it is possible to interact with the pieces at display from your personal preferences and questions? Is it possible to create an interactive dialogue between the guests and the art? Between the curated content and your personal context? Can my entry point to the exhibition reflect what I want to know and help me get a journey that suits me best?

It is clear to me that this is a need in the exhibition spaces I went to. Interaction design could very well offer solutions to this, the question is if this should be my focus right now.

aquarium research

The aquarium was dissapointing. I had high expectations since I grew up fishing my way through summers and have traveled far to get to good diving spots. When I saw that the aquarium only was a row of -far too small?- fish tanks with little or no context, I got sad. The information was fairly good, but nothing out of the ordinary and seemed a little random. The place seemed old and run down.

Fish on display

Very big fish in very small tank... but what do I know?

Lit up displays gave you some context and knowledge

A couple of places you could press a button to learn more about some of the fish. This particular button didn’t seem to do anything, though.

A grandfather helping his grandchild to press a button.

Here you could slide a piece of wood to learn about squid camouflage.

Slide the image to the left

A little context for the squid

The issues for the aquarium seemes bigger than an interaction designer can solve, it needs a total rebuild. The space is very static and limited, and not so inspiring to try to attack.

The good news is that a new aquarium is being build, it will be placed on the beach front in Amager and it looks like the architects have thought carefully about both context, audience experience and fish welfare. I look forward to that opening in some years time.

initial thesis thoughts

I wish to focus on communicating knowledge interactively. I wish to sharpen my abilities to edit within a context.

I wish to explore tangible visuality and to work with spaces and objects to create something beautiful. I wish to help create a situation where people can get enriched in an exhibition or similar “knowledge touchpoint” If I can, I would like to offer people a journey and make them wonder and think.

I am flirting with the thoughts of using the zoo as a context to work within. for three days last week, I went out to research exhibition spaces of many different kinds. keeping a very open mind I found the zoo to have apparent needs for something that would help people learn more about the animals and their context. But I will park that for a little while and get to the core of my explorations before I get so concrete. the core of the thinking splits into different areas, it has to do with learnings in a more spatial/auditive/tangible way and it also touches on visuality and how aestetics and “beauty” can be use as an effective tool to edit and communicate content.

So, can I make something that creates a beautiful dialogue (?!) with the user to such a degree that it leaves people feeling fulfilled and enlightened? this is a high ambition, but nevertheless a reflection of my strong personal interest and something where I see interaction design as being a possible very good tool for experiencing/learning.

I am not sure whether I wish to work with kids or grown ups, it could be either, it depends on the contexts and insights I do in the explorations. I am also not sure where I am between “learning” and “experience” I hope to figure this out in the process to come.

I want my thesis to be a reflection of my future profile as an interaction designer and it will therefore be a conglomerate of my skills as a visual communication designer, my past as a film maker and as a kaospilot and project maker. My interests and passions will drive this thesis.