SCVA Mesoamerican Exhibition Redesign

•

SCVA Mesoamerican Gallery Redesign

Norwich, UK

This is a speculative project suggesting a redesign of the Mesoamerican exhibition space at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. And was submitted as part of my Museology degree at the University of East Anglia.

Objective

The objective behind this proposed redesign is to take the SCVA's current Mesoamerican collection, and reorder it in a more coherent way in relation to the artifacts' history and geographical context, creating in this way an exhibition that helps the museum's visitors understand the complex area called Mesoamerica by showing the evolution and relationships between the cultures that comprise it.

It is also a template for how the rest of the exhibitions in the museum can be organized and redesigned in order to provide the visitors with a new understanding of the zones without falling into the trap of modern geographical areas.

The redesign aims at honoring the SCVA's ideals of minimal tag information and the ability to observe artifacts from all possible angles, while using information panels, leaflets, an educational brief and a companion website as a way deliver more information to the visitor who wishes to learn more about the exhibition. It will also attempt to more closely represent the objects in a living room or casual environment.

The engagement with the audience will be made through the information panels which will contain information on the objects relationship with their cultures, while the website will contain information on those cultures background, history and the way the objects are thought to have been used and their significance, through activities such as interactive timelines and explorable objects.

The target audience

With this exhibition being part of the SCVA's permanent exhibitions, the public to approach will be local families, UEA and WAM students, and the academic community.

Storyline

Mesoamerica is a term that refers to a geographical region based on ethnographic and linguistic data. It comprises central and southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. The aims of this exhibition is to show visitors who these cultures were and how they related between each other through their art. The objects for this project have been chosen from the SCVA collection for being striking visually and representative of the cultures that generated them. By placing them within the same "gallery" this exhibition seeks to encourage visitors to compare and contrast the artifacts they are being presented with.

Visitor outcome

By the end of the visit, the visitor will have a greater understanding of where is Mesoamerica, and which cultures inhabit it, while also gaining a greater appreciation for their art.

Information system

The information system for the exhibition consisted of a minimalist labeling scheme that nevertheless allowed visitors to obtain more information than what was presented through catalogue numbers linking the visitor to the Museum library (located 3 feet away of the exhibition) as well as through supplementary information provided by a catalogue, a companion website and a pedagogic program.

The writing is friendly and provides little know data and invitations to engage with the objects as a system and not as individual pieces. Uncertainty is not avoided but used as a way to promote further research in the visitor. Label length is kept within the recommendations issued by the Victoria and Albert Museum's information system.

Labels for objects will measure 15 x 12 centimeters, and will follow the following format:

Objects name with place of origin

County and state of origin

Date and historic period

Acquisition date

Description

Catalogue Number

Sample exhibition label

Sample Section Labels:

In the case of the section labels, these will be printed onto 21 x 28 centimeter labels

Section Panel Sample

Companion Website & Educational Brief

These two elements of the information system are focused at supporting the exhibition’s purpose by expanding on the little information given in the exhibition itself. Both are supplementary educational materials aimed at users around Key Stages 3-4, providing them with extra data that can be used in school projects or personal research. By aiming the overall tone and complexity of the information towards these stages, the intention is to keep the entry barrier to data relatively low without it being too simplistic or patronizing yet complex enough for older audiences. Teachers and adults can still draw knowledge from this without feeling they are being talked down to. However the younger audiences will not be neglected and will have activities aimed at them.

Care will be taken to avoid romanticizing or demonizing the cultures represented throughout the exhibition, while not glossing over their cultural achievements or their ritualistic human sacrifices. It is the intention of these materials to present their subject as neutrally as possible so as to not permeate them with western concepts such as “noble savage” or “cannibalistic.”

Teacher Led Activities

All resources and materials for these activities are provided by the museum.

Mesoamerican Cultures and their relationships K1-2

Mesoamerican cultures shared and adapted other cultures into their own. In this activity students will try to find the similarities in craftsmanship, graphic elements and themes within the objects in the collection.

Getting in touch with Mesoamerica K2-4

Students will get in contact with the SCVA’s handling connection. Students will be encouraged to come in contact with the objects and derive their own artistic expressions based on the objects and the exhibition.

Art and Sacrifice K3-4

Mesoamerican cultures used to play a ritual ball game, some of them may have used it as conflict resolution instead of war, while others used it as a religious ceremony with human sacrifice involved. Students will explore why Mesoamericans related conflict and death as natural parts of life. Comparisons will be made to other cultures such as the Celts.

Other activities

The museum has a great amount of resources that both teachers and students can make us of. Books in the library, pictures of the objects and guided tours are available. Finally we have set up a mini website with additional information, maps, pictures, and web resources.

Companion Website

Timeline

An interactive timeline will show the rise and fall of all the civilizations included in the exhibition while also showing parallel developments in cultures along the world, and in this way framing the exhibition within the rest of the world. Developed with Flash animation. Clicking on the cultures will show relevant information.

The whole timeline, as well as the pop-ups will be shareable.

Art up close

Here visitors will be able to see selected objects and rotate them, zoom in and out, and get small trivia on the objects when they are clicked on. The trivia will be either culture related or museological, e.g.: This object’s feet were made by its previous owner, the original ones were broken when it was found. These bits of trivia will make the activity more interesting as they have a sort of treasure hunt feel to them. These factoids will be shareable through social media networks.

Make your wallpaper

Here visitors will be able to choose a wallpaper size, an object from the collection, choose its size and position and then choose a background from a selection available and then place the SCVA logo where they please. Once they have done that they will be able to share the wallpaper they created and download it to their computer.

Civilizations

This section will contain a more detailed history of the cultures in the exhibition, alongside maps, and pictures of the people, their surroundings and architecture.

Exhibition Layout

A “Star System” was chosen for the exhibition strategy. This system is specially useful when the intention is to draw the visitors attention to an important or central object and then have them then interact with “lesser” objects.

The layout will try to adhere to the SCVA’s visual style while at the same time attempting to better represent the “art in a living room” ideals behind the creation of the Centre.

Taking into consideration these needs, the exhibition will require an area of 10 meters by 6 meters, a custom built table/case, 9 chairs and a regular circular table, and two 10mts x .20mts x 2mts screens.

The objects will be laid out in 8 groups divided by culture instead of by chronological order, with the five central objects sitting in the custom made table where they will invite visitors to compare and contrast them to each other and to the rest of the exhibition.

Floor Plan