MTEC 1101 Emerging Media Foundation
Event Review by Md M. Redoy
April 12, 2019
     I visited the Cooper Hewitt design museum this past Friday April 5th. At first, when I went inside, I approached the reception desk and asked for a ticket. But the museum staff member just gave me a ticket and said, “you don’t have to pay.” Also, he gave me one big black colored pen. I asked him what that pen was for. He told me it was an interactive pen, so that I can interact with the artworks.
So when I first entered the main gallery, I noticed a large touchscreen table, and on the surface of the table, a lot of images of the digitized collection moving around. the touchscreen table allows up to six visitors to explore high resolution images of collection objects, select items from the “object river” that flows down the center of each table, zoom in on object details, learn about an object’s history, along with related objects organized by design theme and motif. After using the touchscreen interface, I used my interactive pen to move images around. Then I clicked on images and saw many details about objects pop up on the screen, using the flat end to save by aligning it with the “collect” symbol and pressing a button. In addition, I could also draw anything creative and I could move that as well with my pen. That interactive pen further enhanced my experience by letting me “collect” and “save” objects from around the galleries.
Later, I moved to the gallery that’s located on the 1st floor. I saw many unfamiliar paintings and an exhibition featuring many kind of birds that all are dead. I found it interesting that there was a screen inside this gallery that contained all the information on the birds. On the screen, photos of birds are moving from one side of the screen to the other side, and when I clicked on a specific bird photo, I could see all the information about that bird.
For me, the most interesting part of the museum was the Immersion Room on the second floor. It uses digital and projection technologies to bring the museum’s collection of wall coverings, “the largest and most significant in North America,” to life. Visitors can browse hundreds of high-resolution, digitized wallpapers and see them projected at full-scale, floor-to-ceiling, on the surrounding walls. I could sketch my own design, adjust the colors, manipulate how the pattern repeats, and see it projected on the walls around me. That was the best part of the entire museum I believe.
When I entered the Immersion Room, it was empty and dark. I approached the large digital screen table, similar to others throughout the museum. I started writing something on the table, which simultaneously popped up as a display on the giant screen around me. I was astonished for a moment, because I’d never seen anything like that before. Later on, I wrote my name and so many other things, which also popped up on the big screen. I could also draw a shape that would bring up a related collection object, or draw simple three-dimensional forms. It was so fun to play with that. After my visit, I found an article called “The Museum of the Future Is Here”. Its
about the museum, which mentioned this Immersion Room .
about the museum, which mentioned this Immersion Room .
Another screen on the second floor revealed the history of the museum, as the Carnegie Mansion, before it became the Cooper Hewitt. I navigated the Mansion History application using the original floor plan of the building and browsed through architectural details, original fittings and fixtures, and the quirks of the mansion’s original residents.
I learned that the collection browser is available on seven tables installed on all floors of the museum, gaving me access to thousands of objects in the museum’s collection, including those currently on view in the galleries. In addition, I found an interesting article in The Atlantic, which states that the Cooper Hewitt museum is the “future of museums”. Author talked about how this museum reopened for the visitors and how they redesign it. He mention about the coolest technology about that museum and said, “If you wanted to see those objects, you had to go to that museum. In glass cases and on wooden shelves, you could survey the stuff that people made or used or prized. Saving this old stuff was so important that cities and states established institutions to do it, libraries and archives and museums that made sense of the receding past”.
 Finally, the museum has a dynamic and interactive Process Lab where visitors can brainstorm their design solutions through hands-on and digital activities. The Process Lab emphasizes how design is a way of thinking, planning and problem solving, and provides a foundation for the rest of the design concepts on view in the museum.
Link source:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/how-to-build-the-museum-of-the-future/384646/
