Feeling the Heat Exhibit, part I

Some insight into the design of the newest exhibit at the Birch Aquarium: Feeling the Heat; the Climate Challenge, which incidentally, was visited by Al Gore today.

As mentioned previously, the Keeling Curve was to be a central part of the exhibit, so it was one of the first elements to be designed. There were many challenges to interpreting the graph for visitors:
1. It's a graph. No-one feels like looking at a graph.
2. The units are unusual, as they measure CO2 levels in the atmosphere (not something easy to grasp like temperature).
3. The time scale. Keeling began his measurements in the 60s. From the 60s until now, CO2 levels have increased, but even more importantly, we had to show this data set in the context of geological time, to demonstrate that today's CO2 levels have never before been achieved in Earth's history (and how do we know what CO2 levels were millions of years ago? By using proxies, like examining gas bubbles trapped deep in million year old ice, extracted by ice cored... but that's a different story, which you can learn about at the exhibit).

The original exhibit design committee conceived of a large wall-sized graph along which visitors could walk, so as to absorb the pattern of the graph with one's progress alongside it. At the end of the graph, there was to be a "what next?" interactivity, at which visitors could estimate how high CO2 levels would be in 2050 should we continue on our gas guzzling etc habits as always. In my concept drawing, I threw in some iconic images showing technological innovations or social changes of the decade that led to greater CO2 output (for example, air travel really took off - haha - in the 80s). And we did not include geological time because 1. pre-60s data was not specifically Keeling's work and 2. using a smaller scale would better emphasize the "hockey stick" shaped graph - ie, the dramatic rise of CO2 levels in the most recent decades.

For the final design, with which I was not very involved, it was decided to include geological history in the graph, and visually, present CO2 levels are still stunningly high. The interactive asks visitors to see what CO2 levels might be, should we make, or not make changes in our carbon consumption. The CO2 levels is indicated by the lights on the smokestack, which turn on when you press one of 4 large, inviting, buttons. It seems that the CO2 units were not distracting from seeing the graph pattern and understanding the overall message.

While pretending not to follow the mom and her kids around while taking photos of them and the Keeling Curve, I overheard what would warm every museum educators' and exhibit designers' hearts. The mom described the graph to the kids, read aloud some of the labels but then re-explained them in kid language, and when she arrived at the end, she exclaimed "... and look! the carbon dioxide levels are higher than ever!" as she pointed at the graph, expressing genuine surprise; it wasn't just an animated voice for her kids' sakes. For you non-museum folk: An exhibit can do so much to draw kids in, but when parents get involved with the exhibit, and teach and learn at the same time, so much the more memorable experience for everyone.

The little I did directly do for the final version was to digitally cut the smokestack out of the original smokestack image, which had other stuff in the background. I did that for the plane and the van too, which you might see in the far far right, in the brown tinged wall piece.

This is turning out to be a longer post than expected, so I'll save the other exhibit elements for future posts. I realize that I've not talked about what "concept drawings" are, so I'll go into that later too.