Issue #2(20) 2019 Lounge

Reinventing the space museum

Planetarium: Seed of Life, proposal for the 2016 Kırsehir Planetarium Competition by Keremcan Kirilmaz & Erdem Batirbek.
Planetarium: Seed of Life, proposal for the 2016 Kırsehir Planetarium Competition by Keremcan Kirilmaz & Erdem Batirbek.
Wael Bazzi Exosphere, Dubai, UAE

Visiting a space museum should be an ‘out of this world’ experience. After all, space is vast, mysterious, exciting and awesome – but do we get a real sense of this as a visitor? Wael Bazzi believes a change of focus is needed from traditional object-based curation to a blend of science and art, providing a platform for space scientists and creatives, where inspiration more that education is the mission of the new space museum. He argues that adopting a curatorial attitude usually reserved for contemporary art museums will include a larger section of society, broaden the space museum demographic and in particular, reach more adults.

Museums and the exhibits they house are designed to leave us with a sense of intrigue and escapism. The art of designing and delivering that experience is what’s commonly referred to as curation. In many ways, curation is a deeply intuitive form of visual storytelling, intended to strike the most emotive nerve in one’s audience.

What’s the most powerful museum exhibit you’ve ever visited? Perhaps a detailed neo-classical painting, a stunning natural artefact, a performance piece, or a contemporary interactive installation? Whichever it is there’s a good chance that the experience was intentionally designed to be as much an emotive one as it was informational.

If you already have a login and password to access www.room.eu.com - Please log in to be able to read all the articles of the site.

Popular articles

See also

Environment

Beware the situation: how JSpOC tracks space debris

Astronautics

Using algae to support astronauts on deep space missions

Security

Flouting the rules on satellite registrations

Popular articles

Specials

Life in the Sun’s atmosphere - the looming threat of solar storms

The Human Spaceship – A Slice of the Moon (NASA Human Research Program Poster 23). Acrylic paint, ink & collage on paper (detail). Size 1.1m x 1.1m. 2023. Depiction of visual aspects on the lunar surface. Lounge

The Human Spaceship - Off Balance