Body Shop
images/body-shop/hero.jpg
The brief
When I became Exhibit Director, many of the museum's exhibits hadn't been meaningfully updated since the 1990s. I developed a plan to revitalize the museum gallery by gallery, starting with Body Shop, the health and wellness area.
My role
I led the project from concept through installation, working closely with the museum's educators and with Inscribed Engineering, a design-build firm I've partnered with on many projects.
The challenge
The old gallery was a traditional, signage-heavy science center space. The goal was to rethink it around activity and physical movement, so visitors would learn about their bodies by using them. And we did it with an exhibit staff of two, while also keeping a full museum of aging exhibits repaired and running every day.
How I delivered
Together with the educators and Inscribed, we replaced text panels with hands-on experiences: a full climbing wall anchoring the space and a series of interactives exploring the five senses, each built around custom software refined through multiple rounds of testing. The standout was Sight, a large sculpted eye. Visitors look into the pupil to see a live camera feed of themselves, then press buttons along the lower lid to switch between filters that simulate conditions like color blindness, cataracts, and nearsightedness, building empathy for how others see the world. Balancing the build against daily maintenance stretched the timeline, but I kept the project focused and brought it in under budget.
The result
The sponsor was happy with the finished gallery, and more importantly, visitors loved it.
From sketch to install
- Photo: Taste
images/body-shop/step1.jpgTaste - Photo: Hear
images/body-shop/step2.jpgHear - Photo: Toiuch
images/body-shop/step3.jpgTouch - Photo: Smell
images/body-shop/step4.jpgSee