About the project
Project Ex is responsible for the design of the exhibition space, in partnership with our client, CMU Professor Jane Bernstein. Bernstein’s class interviews donors to collect objects and stories from the greater Pittsburgh community, particularly those in marginalized populations. Taking these stories into account, we design the guest experience to complement and highlight the Pittsburgh centered stories with the museum’s permanent collection. In addition to designing the exhibition around the collected stories, we are designing an interactive element to the gallery space. We aim to engage and include the guest in interactive storytelling during their visit to the exhibition. The show, opening in December 2016, will run for one month at the Mine Factory in Pittsburgh.
Museum of Broken Relationships
The Museum of Broken Relationships grew from a traveling exhibition revolving around the concept of failed relationships and their ruins. Unlike ‘destructive’ self-help instructions for recovery from failed loves, the Museum offers a chance to overcome an emotional collapse through creation: by contributing to the Museum's collection.
The museum is opening an exhibit in Pittsburgh in the coming winter displaying objects from the original Zagreb collection as well as items collected by Carnegie Mellon students enrolled in Professor Jane Bernstein's class.
Meet the team
Sarabeth Boak
Chaoying (Dandan) Du
Wen-Hsin (Winnie) Lin
Abhishek Ravi
Xuelai (King Kong) Zhang
Chris Klug
Shirley Saldamarco
Jane Bernstein
Latest news
Weeks 15 and 16 (12/3 to 12/16): Final playthrough and wrapping up!
With the museum up and running, we worked on documents and instructions to hand off the class. These included a map of all the light switches and power sources in the space, instructions on how to set up, maintain and power down the Misty Window and Typewriter, as well as directions for running the soundscape Read more about Weeks 15 and 16 (12/3 to 12/16): Final playthrough and wrapping up![…]
Week 13 & 14 (11/19 – 12/3): Thanksgiving, Installs and Openings, oh my!
Pop up installation: In our final week leading up to softs on the 28th and the install itself on the 29th, we set up a pop-up installation at the ETC over the weekend. It was a success and gave us a lot of insight into the layout and presentation of the exhibits and interactive installations Read more about Week 13 & 14 (11/19 – 12/3): Thanksgiving, Installs and Openings, oh my![…]
Week 12 (11/13-11/19)
This week, Project Ex focused on white washing remaining materials, finalizing details for our install, ordering the signs and making final iterations for the interactive elements. Install details: We will be working with a student from the CMU Drama department to move our materials over to the Mine Factory. Shirley was able to put us Read more about Week 12 (11/13-11/19)[…]
Week 11 (11/6-11/12)
Week 11 involved mostly fabrication and construction for the pedestals, and further design iteration for the interactives. We also finalized sign designs, SFX for the interactives, as well as made plans to hold a pop up in the RPIS for the next week. Below are some updates of what we worked on, and looking ahead, Read more about Week 11 (11/6-11/12)[…]
Week 10 (10/30-11/5)
This week, we at Project Ex continued moving along with our pedestal fabrication, and are on schedule to construct 20 before Thanksgiving break. In addition to fabricating more crates, King Kong and Winnie worked on the frame for our Misty Window interaction, and sculpted it from foam. The entire team also traveled to Hainley Packaging to Read more about Week 10 (10/30-11/5)[…]
Week 9 (10/21 to 10/29)
We kicked off our periodic fabricating schedule this week, aiming to build one pedestal every day. This involved putting the Ikea shelf base together, cutting lumber to the required size and screwing the boards in place to cover the gaps. We achieved this week’s objective of 5 pedestals and plan to do the same next week. Read more about Week 9 (10/21 to 10/29)[…]
Week 8 (10/15 to 10/21)
This was the week before Halves and we started preparing for our presentation on Monday. We laid out our next sprint goals, scheduled our future playtests and planned on how to iterate on the current interactives. On Wednesday, Jane and her class joined us on a visit to the mine factory where we ran a few Read more about Week 8 (10/15 to 10/21)[…]
Week 7 (10/8 to 10/15)
This week, Project Ex focused on iterating our existing designs, playtesting interactives and ordered resources to commence pedestal fabrication before Half Presentations begin. Now that we had a good idea of the pedestal look and dimensions, Winnie iterated on the design and layout of the museum space. We presented the new designs to the Museum Read more about Week 7 (10/8 to 10/15)[…]
Week 6 (10/1 to 1/7)
We had a number donations roll in this week with more on the way! We have 6 confirmed physical donations and 25 on the donation form. Early this week, Jessica Hammer visited our project room and gave us advice Read more about Week 6 (10/1 to 1/7)[…]
Week 5 (9/24 to 9/30)
Quarters week had finally arrived. Our walk-around was on Monday with five groups visiting our project room. We were also visited by Heather Kelly and Jess Trybus later in the week. Some challenges we discussed with the faculty included how to properly highlight the objects on display, how to encourage / test and implement interaction Read more about Week 5 (9/24 to 9/30)[…]