BS I'm trying to think as well of what kind of historical context you place yourself in. You mentioned the Science Theatre and the [history attached to that]=
DB [Right. Yes.]
BS =Are there any other influences on Techniquest as a centre or the way you approach Techniquest?
DB I. I, visit lots of other centres. Do you mean the sort of, the world kind of context... -
BS Yeah, before you mentioned Richard Gregory or - Is there any ethos you're following or is it just really learning as you go along?
((long pause))
DB I think it's interesting the sort of the, the - the problem that you have with, many of- Lots of the really cool, exhibits are really, really simple. They're not flashy and wow and cor-wow. Many of the big new centres have taken what - have completely ignored why that's a good exhibit. An illusion exhibit or something, could just be a piece of paper with some lines on it that, "no, that's not exciting enough." But from a whole, your understanding and putting you in, in, in the position to experience something like that. A lot of the centres have completely ignored that, and thrown that out because it's not sexy enough. It needs to have impact. It needs to be big. Whatever it is let's make it big so it'll be better. The, Exploratorium, in San Francisco, I visited when I was 14 and they have - they create - functional exhibits with a very bare-bones approach. They don't add in the, the large, aesthetic blocks of colour that we add in, they, they, they have a skeletal approach to exhibit design where everything is on show. And I really like that. With the generators for the summer theme we're going to be exposing, the motor and having the whole thing so you can actually see, see the motor physically because next time you see a motor, you might then recognise it.
Some of our other designs, older designs tended to hide things and it's a question of sort of what you hide what you don't hide, the - Richard Gregory massive influence, John Beetlestone, ( ) science projects, in London. Steve ( ) has done a lot, you know ( ). There's a guy in America unfortunately forgotten his name who I met on - Bernie (Szgowskyi) is a very famous guy who has created a number of exhibits I've seen and really liked.
Ned (Carr) has done a lot of - he's an artist and he works very heavily using things like patterns, and how patterns in nature like a wind blowing across a field of wheat and how, how the wheat because each individual - stem can move independently, and so when you see the wind blow you actually see the wind blow across the surface, and that's visualising something like the wind that you normally couldn't see. So, he's an artist, essentially, but he's sort of been linked in to the museum, the science centre. And - I am, I am kind of vexed by the sort of question of how art and science come together and how - It's probably to do with my understanding of art.
An exhibit has lots of things for it to be attractive to a number of people. It has to - has to externally, grab their attention. And what actually makes it attractive and interesting to somebody, what makes people latch on to it and think "oh wow there's something there I can understand" is to do with how we perceive the exhibit. And I think, you know- the banner of art, many people who, who, who create structures and sculptures and where, where art and engineering, you know. It's all blurred. I mean I guess with my classification of exhibits I'm just saying that the whole thing is blurred and that it takes elements, that we would normally say "Oh that's an art piece" where it's - it's an exhibit. And it actually has a lot of thought and feeling that's gone into making that exhibit. And in a sense they start talking like an artist and all the engineers look at you and you think "Oh, you're absolutely nuts." And I'm not an artist, creating an exhibit but I think it's a creative process so why's that any different from, someone painting a painting? I guess it's because the, the kind of people who look at art say "Oh that's art obviously" and it's, I guess it's easier if it's a painting but, I don't know.