Designing America by Air
Thursday, August 17, 9:15-10:00 AM
by Barbara Brennan
Every major exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum includes interactive and multi-media programs, designed to enhance the exhibition content. Many of these programs area also made available to remote visitors via the museum's web site. Several such programs are currently under development for America by Air. In addition to interactive multi-media programs, America by Air will include an updatable section called "In the News," where visitors can explore new developments in aerospace technology and air transportation systems.
This talk will focus on interactive multimedia programs planned for America by Air, including a description of the program development process, visitor testing of prototype programs, evaluation study results, and special requirements of the museum audience. Case histories will be used as examples for how best practice standards are established. The talk will address how we identify goals and how we test prototype programs to insure that the goals are met.
About Barbara Brennan
Barbara Brennan has been an exhibition designer at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum since 1980. Her work includes Star Trek and the Sixties (1993); How Things Fly, a hands-on interactive gallery (1996); and The Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age, which opened in October 2003 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of the airplane. Currently at the Museum she is senior designer for America by Air, a major new exhibition scheduled to open fall 2007.
In addition to exhibition design, Barbara has lectured on graphic design, art history, and exhibition design at Northern Virginia Community College, George Washington University, and American University in Washington, DC. She currently teaches a practical hands-on Exhibition Design course for GWU's Museum Studies Department.