Transforming Academic Research Data into an Exhibition
An exhibition that turns 15 months of NSF-funded STEM teaching research into posters, case displays and a gallery visitors can walk through.
Overview
An Exhibition for “Transdisciplinary Approaches to STEM Teaching and Learning,” a research project funded by the National Science Foundation and I designed how that research would be organized, displayed and experienced in a small gallery.
My role: Exhibition Designer
Planning and creating engaging, immersive spaces that showcase themes, ideas or artifacts in a museum, gallery or event setting.
The data
The research behind the exhibition ran for 15 months, across 11 faculty members and 3 primary investigators. That is a lot of data for one small gallery.
The problem
The research was spread across 11 faculty members, each with their own project, timeline and methods. Our first question was how to reach a wider audience. Then we saw the gallery.
Process
Six steps took the research from raw material to an open exhibition.
Organize data
Pulled the research from all 11 faculty members into one organized place.
Individual meetings
Met each faculty member to walk through their timeline and methodology.
Analyze data
Highlighted the notes and clustered them into themes on affinity boards.
Design
Designed 13 faculty posters, case diagrams, a website and social media assets.
Assemble
Installed the posters, case displays and screens in the gallery.
Open!
Opened the exhibition to visitors.
Organizing the data and meeting with faculty
Clustering notes into themes
The solution
A small gallery meant every faculty project had to earn its place. Wall posters, case displays and screens shared one room, no real estate left untouched
Inside the gallery space
Posters, cases and screens had to share a tiny room, so each piece was placed to be read on its own and as part of one story.
Case displays and wall posters
Case displays gave the physical artifacts from the research a place to sit. Each faculty project also got a poster in a shared format, so the walls read as one body of research.
Case displays
Wall posters
Results & learnings
The exhibition was a success! We had a great run in April, and we’ve been working on an article to be published soon.
The Exhibition Curation Team
Beyond the gallery
Where the exhibition and the research behind it have been shared.
IN THE NEWS
Pratt News Feature ↗Pratt News covered the exhibition under the headline “Investigating a New Approach to Teaching and Learning.”
CONFERENCE
AICAD Symposium Panel Discussion ↗Presented on exhibition design as a method for communicating data and academic research and engaging audiences.
PUBLICATION
Coming Soon!
