CORPORATE PROFILE Continued from p. 71
introduction, other types of technology can quickly blow a budget and must be used purposefully. “Clients ask me all the time what the next ‘wow factor’ is going to be but I don’t like to start there,” says Matty. “Someone might say, ‘I’d like a hologram,’ and so you shoehorn in a hologram, but people aren’t going to be
pulled in just because of that. You need to start with the story—what is the arc of the storytelling—and build it out from there.” Brennan agrees that a good museum display starts with the story, not the method. “There is a much-needed trend to use an interpretive planning and design process,”
she says. “This process not only puts the story first, it also analyzes management needs, resource considerations and visitor desires.” The result, she says, is a more effective museum experience. Brennan believes there is a risk, however, of over-using technology to the point that it begins to dilute the experience
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Photo by Gallagher & Associates
Taylor Studios designed and fabricated exhibits for Jacksonport State Park Visitor Center in Jacksonport, Arkansas, in this example portraying the era when steamboats ruled the rivers.
Photo by Taylor Studios
substantial shift in how funds for a display are spent, Matty says. At the College Football Hall of Fame, for example, half of the budget went to audiovisual components, double what would have been spent on multimedia elements in the past. But what visitors encounter as a result is an astonishingly rich and personalized experience that sets the bar high for interactivity. At the venue, which Gallagher & Associates helped complete in 2014, visitors get a radio-frequency identification (RFID) card as part of their entrance ticket and are able to use it to enter the names of their favorite teams. Then, as they move through the displays, content is automatically generated about the teams they follow specifically, from fight songs to glory moments. “It allows the museum to shape the experience for the interests of individuals,” Matty says. “You and I might go to the same museum and have completely different experiences.” That personalization is something that museum goers are especially hungry for, Matty says, and the College Football Hall of Fame is just one of many good examples of RFID technology in action. The chips can also do things such as tell a display to deliver content in a different language, follow the story from a particular historical character’s perspective as a visitor moves through displays and send a message to staff when there is a clog in traffic flow around an exhibit. While the cost of integrating RFID technology has come down significantly since its