Interview with Heath Whitaker - Concept Development Director

BS How did the idea of naming the exhibits come about?

HW Right. Like a lot of things in Techniquest I have a post-rationalisation for this. The idea of naming the exhibits came about because when we were planning phase 1 and I'd built a few things and John Beetlestone had looked at them and said "Well they're like exhibits but not quite" and luckily enough his daughter decided to get married in America so he had to go over to the wedding and he met a man called Ken Gleeson who'd been looking for a job in the UK, and he was a running a museum of scientific discovery in Harrisburg. And he came over, initially just for 6 weeks, and, made us change everything. And they were all much better afterwards. And one of the things Ken did was say you've got to name the exhibits. In fact we had "Coloured Shadows" without the "u" in "coloured" because he was American and couldn't spell. So Ken told us how to do it properly.

Now, in my mind, exhibit titles are very important, they give you the opportunity for puns and alliteration and the opportunity to appear playful with the exhibit, that's important. But also, I think naming things is important, you know, whether you're talking, Rumplestiltskin or, being able to put a name on something is important. If people keep saying "that beach ball up in the air, the blowy thing" it's a way of dismissing it as, you know, a lot of people do the old "Oh aren't I stupid, I don't know anything about the etcetera". So, Bernoulli Blower, and they, you know, we know what we're talking, you know. I, I do think names are important. I think it's part of, relating to things. I mean, when you meet someone the first thing you give them is your name. - I find it difficult to put a fully reasoned structure on it but I do think it's important. I probably could do if I spent a bit of time on it.