The programmatic functions of museums and galleries include not only preservation and display but also aesthetic enjoyment and learning. Exhibitions bring together, for the benefit of their visitors, two of the fundamental meanings of the verb “to see”: to perceive with the eyes and to perceive or apprehend with the mind. Implicit in their nature is a further conjunction between seeing and moving. We move to see displays from different points of view and to appreciate their relationship to other objects. As collections grow larger, we move to see objects placed in different rooms or classified in different compartments. The conjunction of seeing and moving produces patterns of spatial and visual narrative, which are interactively explored by visitors.

Six teams of architects (11 architects taking ARCH4017) and industrial designers (19 industrial designers taking ID3824) were asked to produce concepts for a jewelry or a maps exhibition, choosing one of the buildings designed in the Design + Space Syntax graduate studio in Fall 2020 as their site.

Particular attention was given to interaction and more specifically to the way in which displays, the organization of space, and the deployment of appropriate technologies, can work together to enliven exhibitions and provide visitors with a sense of agency. Teams were invited to look at interaction as more than a digital interface. The emphasis was on designing for interaction as an embodied and situated experience that enhances the museum visit as an occasion and as a setting.

Links to the six projects - Atlas, Becomings, Gastronomy, Jewels, Mine, Sensorient - are provided below.