Matthew Jackson

Prof. CJ

Leadership by Design

November 16, 2022

Museums Report Out

For my Museums-as-text assignment, I chose to go to very different museums: The Denver Museum of

Nature and Science and the Mines Geology Museum. For context, the Denver Museum of Nature and

Science operates like most public museums, with funding coming from entry fees, government agencies,

and donations from private organizations, while the Mines museum operates similarly, but closely knit

with the university. Additionally, the Mines Geology Museum has a special focus on geology and mining,

whereas the Denver Museum of Nature and Science contained exhibits about prehistoric eras, space

expiration, biology (human and other species), and art.

Photos taken at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (left) and the Mines Geology Museum (right)
Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Starting with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, immediately upon arriving at the museum, I

realized the scale of the whole thing. At the time, there were 5 additional museum exhibits alongside the

general entry, each of which seemed to be well funded, judging from the prices and peaks into the exhibits

from the outside. Going with 5 other peers in Leadership by Design (though not all in my section), we

tended to stay together as far as which exhibits we went to, but would quickly fan out to whatever parts of

the exhibit attracted us personally to them. At this museum, I found that all of the exhibits had incredible

value piquing my interest went, specifically, I remember seeing enormous and detailed fossils behind

glass protectors in the dinosaur exhibit and being absolutely amazed. In particular fossils from the

Mesozoic sea were proudly displayed, and both attracted my attention and stirred my imagination upon

further observation and reading information. Around this time, I noticed a trend with how some of the

most incredible fossils and synthesized dinosaur skeletons were proudly displayed in a manner that

attracted more attention.

Photo showing a walkway surrounding a dinosaur skeleton, passing underneath the tail of another
skeleton. Note how museum guests are drawn to either skeleton as they walk through the exhibit.
It felt that tactfully placing the bigger skeletons in a location that integrated with the expected math of

museum participants elicited new emotions from the guests. Specifically, I felt a sense of magnitude

walking through the dinosaur exhibit, noticing exactly how large prehistoric creatures were in comparison

to my own side, and as a result, becoming amazed and curious about the additional information provided

in the museum. Given the size of the building and the number of exhibits, I found it interesting to see how

each exhibit created paths for the guests to follow as they make their way through the museum. Even in

rooms where there was no physically restraining path for guests to follow, the flow of traffic throughout

the museum still seemed to be managed through the attention and natural curiosity of the guests. I found

myself attracted to exhibits that looked interactive and stood out, and the distributed placement of exhibits

like this controlled my attention and ensured that I got to a wide variety of exhibits without needing to be

physically funneled through a linear path. By allowing all participants to see and learn from as many

exhibits as possible with willingness and attention, the museum's purpose is achieved. A good example of

this, alongside just being a creative part of an exhibit was one that showcased a few key prehistoric

monuments such as ‘Newgrange’ in Ireland and later monuments like ‘Jantar Mantar, Jaipur’ in India.

Photo showing an architectural showcase (left/right), projected onto a blank book

This showcase was particularly interesting because it had a unique interaction feature, where books were

laid out under projectors, and the image projected onto them would change as the pages were turned.

From a design standpoint, it was a very creative way to display information that could have just been

displayed in a static book or screen, but instead goes beyond the guest’s expectations and creates a

genuinely interesting showcase. I felt that being naturally attracted to a unique design like this is

something that allows it to be definitely defined as a good design, and has an interesting system map.

System map laying out how guests interact with the exhibit, additionally showing exhibit success and
failure case scenarios
Mines Geology Museum

The second (and much smaller) museum that I went to in order to find exhibits to report about was the

Mines Geology Museum. Right off the bat, entering the museum showed me a completely different style

from the exhibits at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and how the museum presented a detailed

catalog of rocks, minerals, and equipment that could be observed and identified. Instead of including a

wide variety of interactive exhibits in order to cast a wide net among the public population as shown

above in the systems map of an architectural exhibit in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, this

museum provided minimal information about the rocks and minerals and showcased many of the artifacts

equally on the same well-lit shelves.

Photo of North Table Mountain, Golden CO rock display

I think that one of the reasons is that some of the exhibits in the Geology museum hold back on providing

complete contextual information, and instead lean towards mere identification of each exhibited item, it

may be a result of the audience that the museum caters to. As one of the biggest differences between the

Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Geology Museum, I think that it makes sense that a

museum that may primarily be visited by college students, many of which are/will/have been in classes

pertaining to geology, caters its exhibits to those who already have similar or direct preexisting

knowledge to understand non-explicitly stated information about the exhibits.

That being said, the museum still makes an effort to attract attention and cater to excitement to create an

actual experience for the guests alongside communicating its ‘message’ (to inform the guest and spark

interest in geology). One good example of part of an exhibit that is designed to elicit emotion from the

visitor is downstairs in a tunnel-like path called “Blaster’s Mine.” The objective of this separate exhibit is

not only to house the glow-in-the-dark minerals in a dark environment so they can be appreciated but also

to spark interest in the guest by changing the ambiance of the environment when they enter the tunnel. An

immediately noticeable feature when entering the tunnel is the design of the entrance. Intended to mimic

the connotation associated with old mines, the entrance employs a couple of really interesting design

features to make it happen.

Photo comparison between the mine entrance and my perspective drawing

First of all, the designers build the feature out of unevenly cut wooden planks, which is characteristic of

classic sturdy mining structures. The messy font spelling out “ƱBLASTER’S MINEƱ” adds to this effect

in preparing the guest to feel like they are in a mine. Also, the design includes a spot on top of the wooded

construction for decorations to be added, which further allows the entrance to fit in with its surroundings

and contextualize this part of the exhibit for the visitor.

Inside the mine, there is a section of the exhibit which houses the luminescent rocks and uses an electric

mechanism to turn off the lights for a few seconds when a guest enters to show the rocks lighting up

(using ultraviolet lights).

Photo showing the Geology museum’s luminescent rocks in the dark

This mechanism is a great design that both creates an experience for the guest, and attempts to elicit the

emotion of curiosity. From a subjective, personal, and emotional perspective: These rocks are pretty. That

was the thought that I had when I saw this exhibit, and it is what drove me to read the information

provided about these minerals. In my context, the museum was successful in its objective to distribute

interesting information to the public, since it absolutely piqued my interest with the lighting mechanism.

This system interacts with both the attention of the guest and the properties of the minerals to set up and

execute a ‘wow moment’ intended to pique the visitor's interest with a single shock.
 Systems map (flowchart) showing the interaction between the lighting mechanism and the visitor,
considering their interest level and the intended success/failure of the mechanism's objective.

Since I found this exhibit to work very well with my attention, manipulating it, and feeding me

information, I had an overall very good opinion of the Geology museum and without a doubt would

consider re-visiting it, especially because it is free.

In hindsight, I loved this assignment, visiting the museums, hanging out with friends, and actually getting

to enjoy my time walking through the exhibits they offered. It felt very interesting getting to experiment

with laying out an organized map of systems and mechanisms that are used to help reach the objective of

the museum. And lastly, it felt easier than ever to create a neat and understandable qualitative drawing of

one of the key structures I wanted to highlight from the Geology museum.