• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

IRL Experience Design

  • Blog
  • My Work
  • About
  • Immersive Austin
  • Unique Austin
  • Weird Austin
  • More Austin
    • Austin Halloween Guide 2022

#Museums

The Museum of Now There’s Different Lights

October 7, 2022

This is not so much a museum of itself, but more of a general idea. I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s been done, but if it has I think it could be more widespread because I’ve never heard of it.

I would like to see the lighting on artworks and exhibits change. Instead of the usual intense white lights on objects and art, new temporary lights would be set up which would change slowly over the course of an evening. For one, it would make the museum (any museum) more interesting. Second, literally putting the subject matter in a new light would almost certainly figuratively put it in a new light.

Who’s to say the usually white light museum is the “right” way to light a work? Do the artists really work in a museum-level lighted studio? Maybe some of them, but it seems unlikely that even the majority would. Maybe new lighting could get closer to the artist’s literal vision when they made the work. (And, as a side note, what is the value to the art of the atmosphere of the studio? Certainly that influences the artist’s vision. What about the temperature? Or the ambient sounds and voices? Or the height at which the art sat as it was being created?)

No doubt there’s loads of books written on this subject. My point is not to calculate the value of the creational context on the artwork. I just want the museum to change the lights on artwork and exhibits because I think people will pay more attention to the work. (Schticky? Yeah, probably. But the goal of a museum – ostensibly – is art appreciation and understanding or something along those lines. Not adherence to pretense).

I think it would be enough to just change the lights. Different levels of lumens but also different colors. Not party lights, where the lights are moving quickly and become the focus of the experience. Just an occasional shift of light every few minutes so you can take it in a bit differently.

Think about daylight. The same scene at noon is different than at sunrise. Way different. It’s also way different under moonlight. It’s the same place but different things are revealed and hidden and you get to appreciate the same landscape in various ways. I don’t think it always needs to be high noon in the museum.

It could be an entire business where a company specializes in temporary light exhibits for museums. Instead of the usual parties and events where the art plays more of a backdrop, the focus of this event is the art. So even if patrons have seen all the works before, they will be curious to see it in this new light. I won’t deny the novelty of this idea, either. You’re going to get a lot of people interested in an event like this just because it’s colored lights in a unique space.

Some possible taglines: See the (museum) in a different light; #yesfilter.

Posted Under: Experience Design Tags: #ExperienceIdeas, #Museums, #TheMuseumsProject

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 45
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

About Me

I make awesome experiences for people. Read More

NEW CONTENT 2+ TIMES A WEEK

  • IRL Experience Design
  • Amazing Experiences
  • Fun Weird Sh*t

See My Favorite Books

  • For IRL XD
  • For Learning
  • For Getting Things Done

@IRL_Experience_Design

instaglogo

RSS Feed

rss logo

Secondary Sidebar

VISIT MY BOUTIQUE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

SEE MY AUSTIN EVENTS WALL CALENDAR

Austin Events 2023 wall calendar cover

Search My Blog

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

Filter by Category

  • Experience Design (189)
  • Productivity (65)
  • Everything Else (89)

FILTER BY DATE

January 2023
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Dec    

Read My Recent Posts

  • Déformation professionnelle
  • Eureka Room Update 1/27/2023
  • The Joy of Knowing Things Exist
  • Why I Prefer Books With Few Anecdotes
  • The Cost of Switching Universes
  • IRLXD Group
  • Eureka Room Update 1/6/2023
  • Drafts sometimes turn out to be not as drafty as you thought
  • My Favorite Books of the Year
  • An Alternative Theory on Why Leaders Surround Themselves With Yes People
  • The Metaverse Might Not Need to be The Quasiverse
  • Thoughts on the term “Immersive Experience”
  • Eureka Room Update 12/16/22
  • Eureka Room Update 12/12/2022
  • Museum Ideas – Odds and Ends
  • Beyond the Future
  • Eureka Room Update 12/2/2022
  • The Austin IRL Experience Tour
  • The Playfulness Spectrum
  • Custom Entertainment

  • Contact
  • About