A temporary exhibition inviting visitors to discover the incredible ecosystems that exist at Earth’s poles.
My Role: I defined the content structure of the exhibition, led the interactive design and development, and researched and wrote all content for the exhibition.
Who I worked with: Project Manager, 3D Designer, Graphic Designer, Audio Visual Engineers, Preparator, Sculptors, Scientific Advisors, Director of Exhibit Development
Design and Development
‘Life on Ice’ is one of the ‘Tis the Season’ exhibitions (a series of winter-season-themed shows staged during the holidays at the California Academy of Sciences). The broad concept for this exhibition was the poles of our planet. We used two well-known polar animals (polar bears and penguins) as a unifying theme for each pole; I wove a range of polar organisms into the ‘hero’ animals’ stories in order to create a focused yet rich exhibition.
+ 'Tis the Season Design Constraints
• This series of exhibitions takes place every year in the Piazza area of the California Academy of Sciences, which has a small footprint available for exhibitry.
• The exibit components need to be robust, easy to maintain, and able to be disassembled and reassembled repeatedly; Each new 'Tis the Season exhibition recurs for ~3 winter seasons. By virtue of openable overhead windows, the gallery is partially exposed to the elements and there are indoor "snow" flurries that accompany the exhibition every year, which impact the exhibit choices that can be made.
• These exhibitions need to drive holiday attendance and engage an audience that skews younger than the overall museum, while maintaining the scientific rigor that is central to the brand identify of the museum.
Concept Development
I designed the narrative layout of the poles to mirror each other, flowing from aquatic ecosystems to terrestrial ones. Along with the larger gallery layout choices, this mirrored approach helped highlight the similarities and differences of each polar region.
Content Development
I created the exhibit text to be bright and approachable, with an emphasis on surprising, memorable facts that visitors would want to share with their family and friends. I communicated extensively with both internal and external scientific advisors to research and revise the content so that it was both engaging and scientifically accurate.
+ SAMPLE TEXT
Bounty Beneath Freezing Waves
Summer brings a feast to the Souther Ocean
During Antarctic summers, abundant nutrients and sunlight allow phytoplankton growth to explode. Krill feast on this bonanza, multiplying to inconceivable numbers: 800 quadrillion individuals, together weighing about as much as all of humanity. Whales, seals, penguins, and other animals thrive on this krill, consuming several hundred million tons per year.
Caption 1: Krill swim in massive swarms that can be hundreds of billions strong.
Caption 2: A krill-rich diet is one reason blue whales get so big—eating low on the food chain is more energy-efficient.
Interactive Development
The set of activities I developed was a range of simple, non-screen based interactives, both due to the constraints of the particular exhibition space and the targeted subset of our audience that tended to dominate the visitorship to ‘Tis the Season for Science exhibitions—families with very young children. The goal was to create pieces that were visual and tactile to engage young children, but with content that a range of ages would find interesting.
Final Design
Final Design
A festive family trip to the ends of the Earth
The exhibition was well attended and met our visitor satisfaction benchmarks. Observing visitor behavior in the exhibits indicated that the choice to gear the content approach of this exhibition more towards families with young children was a good one.
+ Photo Credit Info
Full bleed exhibit photo - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Full bleed ice - CC BY-SA / U.S. Geological Survey / https://tinyurl.com/y5z2or39
Polar bear - CC BY / Linking Tourism & Conservation / https://tinyurl.com/y5bhgfpv
Penguins - CC BY / Christopher Michel / https://tinyurl.com/y4aokhol
Maquette photos - © Marc Nicely
Visitors using food web puzzle - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Sciences
Visitor using sliding ice interactive - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Visitor using penguin feet interactive - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Full bleed exhibit photo - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Visitor looking at food web - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Visitors using food web puzzle 2 - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces
Exhibit installation photo - Kathryn Whitney © California Academy of Scieces