Week 2 kicked off with our first ‘touch base’ with Ivana and Drazen, who represent the museum in Croatia. Chris Klug and Jane Bernstein were on the call with us. Ivana and Drazen answered our questions about the design and operation of the museums’s many exhibits all over the world. Drazen touched on the challenge of displaying items that have no inherent monetary or artistic value. Jane’s class will be collecting objects from Pittsburgh’s communities that will be presented along with the objects from the permanent collection being shipped from Zagreb. The items will be arriving on the 28th of November. We inquired more about the specifics of the pedestals and their dimensions so we could start chalking out a rough floor plan after visiting the Mine Factory. We also received the contact information of Seline Foster, who organized one of the museum’s exhibits in San Francisco.
The team visited the Mine factory on Wednesday.
We spread out and explored the space while taking measurements for a more detailed floor plan. We took a number of photographs and 360 shots from several vantage points. Lastly we checked the lighting set up and took a look at the wiring. Winnie built a Sketchup model of the space based on the information we collected for future reference.
Our first sprint goal for the project is to communicate our design ideas for the space using Sketchup models like the one above as well as a small scale physical model where we plan to chalk out our ideas for guest experience and flow. We have also started brainstorming creative ideas for an interactive installation to go with the exhibits and concepts for interactive lighting and soundscape.
We also began working on our branding material. We shot and completed our team photo, which we are very proud of:
We have also begun to work on some concepts for the project logo.
Later in the week, we spoke to Jane’s class and set a staggered deadline for the Pittsburgh donations wherein the class will try to find around two objects every week with a final list by mid-October. We also received more details about previous layouts and pedestal measurements from Drazen while Ivana sent us a list of 30 items from the core collection in Zagreb for us to start with.
On Friday, we had a visit from Jane’s class. We gave them a tour of the building, and showed them some of our work so they could get a better idea of our roles on the project.
The team has a stronger footing now that we have a strong visual of the space we’re working with and a good idea of how the MoBR operates. Looking forward to a week of creative brainstorming and crazy ideas.