Multi-Sensory Experiences at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

A visitor smelling a scratch-and-sniff painting at the spring 2015 MediaLab Expo. Image courtesy of the author

From Don Undeen, Senior Manager of MediaLab:

The MediaLab has been fortunate enough to work frequently with the Met's fantastic Access Programs and Community Programs Office in exploring ways that museums can be more welcoming to visitors of diverse abilities. One of the concepts we've been learning about is universal design, which is the idea that products and experiences should be constructed to be usable by a wide range of people regardless of disability, age, or background. A corollary to this is that when you design for accessibility you generally end up producing results that benefit everyone. After a discussion about how to make the museum experience available to blind and partially sighted visitors, Ezgi created a suite of products that can bring anyone closer to the Met's collection.

Multisensory Museum Experience

«In the majority of museums, visitors can only experience the artworks by viewing them. Most museums work to make sure that galleries have neutral smells and sounds so that the visitor can focus on the artworks, but those factors can alter the experience significantly. All of the senses—sight, sound, touch, smell, and hearing—are a part of the museum experience.»

Multisensory Met, a series of activities designed to create a more fulfilling museum experience, in the spring 2015 MediaLab Expo. Image courtesy of the author

In order to protect the artworks, visitors are strictly forbidden from having any physical contact with the art. This inspired me to create Multisensory Met, a series of activities designed to provide a museum experience that makes use of all the senses. I believe that creating a multisensory environment will truly enhance the museum experience.

More to see in link below. 

https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/multisensory-met

Isabelle Bonte, Artist

Tracy Luff, Artist

tracyluff.com

Ruth Asawa, Artist

ruthasawa.com

Kendall Buster, Artist

New Growth-Stratum Model- Kendall Buster Featured Artist Apr/May 2013

2009, Suyama space, Seattle Washington

New Growth: Stratum Model reflects a merging of the natural and the built environment. Designed to operate at once as landscape and architecture, the schematic of stacked planes seen from a bird’s eye view toggles between topography map and building in plan. There is an illusion from this vantage point that the form has been compressed into a single plane. But viewed in elevation or perspective these horizontal levels decompress and expand to suggest accessible spaces.

Artist's Website link here

Antony Gormley, Artist

Chun Kwang Young, Artist

Nina Lindgren, Artist

Artist's Website link here

L.L.Bean Made a Clever Newspaper Ad That You Can Only Read Outdoors

Marketing that embodies a brand promise, rather than just communicating it, is always a delight. L.L.Bean gives us the latest example of this, with the outdoorsy retailer publishing a full-page newspaper ad you can only read outdoors.

The ad, from The VIA Agency in Portland, Maine, appears in today’s New York Times. At first glance—if you’re reading it indoors—it appears almost blank, with text scattered across the page that reads, “Just bring this outside.”

The brand’s new tagline, “Be an Outsider,” appears in large lettering below, along with an additional entreaty: “No, seriously. Take this outside.” Readers who do just that will see the page come to life, with more text filling in the blank spaces, eventually revealing a whole “Be an Outsider” manifesto.

The ad was made with something called photochromic ink, which is colorless indoors but turns different colors when exposed to ultraviolet light, usually from the sun or a black light. VIA partnered with CTI Inks in Colorado to bring the idea to life.

Teddy Stoecklein, executive creative director at VIA, said the agency had written the manifesto and was looking for a creative way to present it to the world.

“VIA wanted to do it in a way that made sense and encouraged people to get outside. How do you get people outside? You write the manifesto in invisible ink that can only be seen in sunlight,” he said. “It took the confluence of a great strategy, a creative solution and incredible technology for VIA to pull off a modern twist using a traditional medium.”

The manifesto itself, Stoecklein added, serves “as an invitation to all people to join L.L.Bean outside, because outside is where we all belong. This sentiment is as relevant today as it was 105 years ago when L.L.Bean was founded.”

Here’s the full text of the manifesto:

Welcome to the outside.

Where there are no strangers.

Only friends you haven’t met yet.

Where days have names
like beach, snow, and bluebird.

And where the smell of a campfire
means you’re in the right place.

You don’t need a passport to come here.

An invitation to play here.

Or a membership to belong here.

Just step outside your front door,
and you’ve arrived.

You can forget your age, your worries,
even your bathing suit.

Just don’t forget to bring your friends.

It doesn’t matter where you come from.

Only that you come often.

So wherever you are, join us.

Because on the inside, we’re all outsiders.

And if it’s outside, we’re all in.

Be an Outsider.

VIA won the L.L.Bean account in March after a review, bringing together Maine’s largest ad agency and its largest retailer. VIA broke its first “Be an Outsider” ads for the brand in July.

The use of photochromic ink is a clever one for an outdoorsy brand, though it’s hardly the first use of the technology in marketing. An Austrian solar company won the Design Grand Prix at Cannes Lions in 2012 for printing its annual report in photochromic ink—the text and graphics could be seen only in sunlight. That followed a solar-powered print ad the year before from an Israeli energy company.

Just this year, Coors Light—that shameless innovator of packaging technology—used photochromic ink on cans in Canada to reveal colorful patterns when you take the beer outside.

source link

http://www.adweek.com/creativity/l-l-bean-made-a-clever-newspaper-ad-that-you-can-only-read-outdoors/

Student Blogs, Spring 2018

9:00 Section A
Terrell-Christo Carney
Allie Crum
Jenna Davenport
Dustin Delgross
Morgan Dipalma
Brittany Farley
Elizabeth Green
Jaclyn Kremposky
Ally Marcano
Diane Mccluskey
Celia Nofsinger
Miriam Raynolds
Jacob Ross
Kayselle Ruiz
Matthew Thornton
Bethanie Waldron

1:00 Section B
Amanda Angelos
Jacob Bairen
Alyssa Barella
Mollie Burns
Caitlyn Cooper
Alexandra Cornett
Kaylen Johnson
Rachael Koelker
Lexis Massey
Maren Metier
Chelsea Ray
Mara Schick
Amanda Shaw
Kelsey Shepardson
Kayla Taylor
Briana Vandivier

Identity Portrait Assignment Guidelines

Assignment:

• Produce a photo (or a series of photos or video) that visually communicate ideas about identity. 
• Reference the use of symbols to assist with the development of your idea. 
• Carefully orchestrate all aspects of the photo. 
• The photo will include a model (yourself or someone else) and a sculpture that you designed and constructed. 
• The sculpture can be worn, attached, connected to or operated by the model.
• Materials are your choice. 
• Note: The face of the model cannot appear in the final solution. The face must be covered, disguised or not included in the photograph.

Floating Architecture Assignment Guidelines

ASSIGNMENT:

Select two architectural time periods. Merge/combine/adapt the elements and principles of each style to create a sculpture that visually expresses your own ideas. Sculpture must hang in space, from ceiling with monofilament and measure at least two (2) feet in one direction.

OBJECTIVE:
Expose students to the cultural concepts of historical architecture. Challenge the student to observe and analyze elements and principles apparent in three-dimension.  Use the information gained to construct a sculpture that demonstrates conceptual development by the student.

REQUIRED MATERIALS:   

• Cardboard
• Utility Knife  (Do not use Exacto knife - blade not strong enough to handle cutting cardboard, injury can result.)
• Brown Paper Tape
• Black and White Media such as sharpie, ink, white gesso, white ink. 
• Rives White Paper

EXPLORE MATERIALS. SEEK INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO MATERIALS. 

Cardboard. REQUIRED MATERIAL

-Score it

-Stack it

-Sew into it

-Dip in ink wash

-Dip in gesso

-Draw on it

-Weave it

White Rives Paper (in your kit). REQUIRED MATERIAL

-Ink it

-Fold it - to transform or use creases as an element

-Stack it 

-Weave it

-Sew it

-Cut into it (paper cutting)

-Peg and Hole

Black and White Media required. 

You are not required or limited to using the following materials.

Gesso (in your kit)

-Mix it with ink for marbling effect

-Paint layers on cut matt or plastic, let dry, peel of

Black and White Ink (Winsor Newton brand in your kit) 

and/or Black Ballpoint Pen/Sharpie (in your kit)

-Dye with it (paper or wood or string)

-Drip it

-Stipple 

-Crosshatching

-Simulated Texture

-Line

Balsa Wood (in your kit). OPTIONAL MATERIAL

Can use another wood besides balsa – tons of scrap in wood shop.

-Cut it

-Carve it

-Sand it

-Sew into it

-Stain it

-Sew into it

-Emboss it

Clear Packing Tape. OPTIONAL MATERIAL

-Roll it (inside out and stick together to make another form)

-Roll it into a long, tubular form

-Twist it (into a linear form)

-Layer it

-Put something in-between it

Thread/String. OPTIONAL MATERIAL 

-Sew with it

-Dye it in the ink

-Use it to wrap

-Embed in glue/gel medium

-Put in-between clear tape or trace paper

-Allow to extend beyond main form and onto/into wall/floor

-Hang objects (that you make) from it

Masking Tape, Black Painters Tape (in your kit). 

OPTIONAL MATERIALS

-Twist (to make rope/string)

-Layer it

-Wrap it

-Shred it

-Roll it

-Make another form out of it

-Use it to make graphic shapes/lines

-Crumple into balls

-Cut a pattern into it

-Weave it

WHAT TO PUT ON YOUR BLOG:

1. In process photos (at least one).
2. At least three (3) professional images of final solution. Include a detail.
3. Artist statement. 
4. Optional - any sketches or drawings. 
5. Three (3) images of your visual research. All images for visual research should be properly labeled and source sited.
6. Title of piece, materials used, size