Interview with Darren Barnes - Exhibitions Director

BS Is the content geared towards the family as well?

((long pause))

DB You always try and - I, I always try and put in multiple levels. When it's a sort of creative sort of exhibit, it's really only limited by their imagination. When you're trying to - within what was a very difficult - still isn't quite right, the genetics exhibits we have upstairs - you have, something that you can fundamentally do just by putting the pieces into the slots, which is designed for the people who are very, very younger visitors, who won't read the label, just want the purely tactile challenger of doing the puzzle, parts of the exhibit. If you ask someone who wants to take it further and you start analysing actually what's happening within the exhibits and particularly when a helper comes in for that one, because that one is a particularly tricky exhibit with trying to do genetics, because it's a message-based exhibit, rather than, another exhibit that hasn't got, it relies on a lot of knowledge and broad range of knowledge, that eventually, you can not put across in one experience. And it's where - we sometimes fail as an exhibition centre to create that one message. Someone will use this exhibit and they will go away having learned this. In, your teacher plan approach to, building an exhibit, as opposed to - the sort of the, the other method the Techniquest method whatever that is ((laugh)).

But the kind of different approach where you, where you try not, you, you create a platform that has multiple, entry points, lots and lots of different levels. It has, ideally, multiple outcomes, so the same person depending on whether, but they can still get the same outcome as the, older person, but then they can get to a, get to a completely different one as well. So it's that creative sort of play, learning environment that is, is directed in some way but not, not sort of sledgehammered. You do need to give someone the - because otherwise they, they, it's the push the button exhibit, you push the button you see something happen you walk off. Our "Jacob's Ladder" is an example of a push the button exhibit where you push the button you see something "Wow!" which is quite cool - but many people they're just going to walk off. But because of the complexities and dangers associated with high-voltage electricity you can't let them, play with it that much. The next phase with that exhibit would be to actually give them a handle they can grab hold to, not to be electrocuted but to actually move the electrodes to see at what point it arcs across.

But. that's where many of the activities we're building for the summer theme when they're hub things - they're kind of taking the next, taking the next step with that - to turn it into a full-blown exhibit is very, very expensive. We're trying to create a relatively large number of smaller exhibits that, and maybe more activities rather than full-on exhibits. And we're trying to do that really from the marketing side and the pressure of trying to show that, more is happening in Techniquest and more things are changing. Which is a problem. We have a budget in order to create quite a lot of exhibits but we're trying to do the best, that we can within the range, and even with the push the button our, our one to get, with the way that we present it will be, at least as good as many of the, of the other centres that will produce just an exhibit where you push the button.

But, I'm just trying to, in my thinking I'm trying to use the Jacob's Ladder for an example of why it's not as good as it could be, but then it's a decision about where you stop with an exhibit because you know you could take it further and, not everybody would get that point anyway. You know if you just get the point "push the button this, there's lots of electricity there's a spark, something to do with electric", that's fine I mean, you know, absolutely cool. If they just push the button that's pretty spectacular. But it's, it's kind of, trying to take it further I always try and take it too far, and so I always try and put the brakes on and stop because my imagination quite often runs, further ahead than we can actually either practically do with the time or have enough developers to actually get on to the job. During electricity, we've had a lot of other things to do in the workshop. It's a problem.