http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251 Comments en-us Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:41:24 -0800 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid116 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid116 Wish I'd had your children with me when I visited, Katherine. But, even without children, this exhibition seems to entice strangers to become, at least for a little while, friends. Is it the "dress-up," a child-like pleasure in being sprayed with water or surprised by a creaky floor? One of the mysteries and challenges of public space planning: how can we make spaces that make our urban settings a little less anonymous, a little more friendly? Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:24:58 -0700 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid117 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid117 Whether it was intentional or not, the gallery right outside the elevators (where I entered the exhibit) was one of the best orientations I’ve ever seen. I was fascinated by the monochromatic view those lights created. It was as if I had lost my color vision. Very cool. And it really drove home the theme of the exhibit; if you took your time, you realized that the artist had given viewers a new way to see the world. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:43:34 -0700 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid126 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid126 I also greatly enjoyed this exhibition. I found it so compelling that I spend nearly 5 hours on a Sunday to watch how people interact and move around. Katherine's review is excellent, but I would like to disagree on one thing: "I felt like I was at the Exploratorium". No!!! For me it was totally the opposite. While the Exploratorium is big, noisy, "unfinished", this exhibition is clean, focussed (only one piece per room) and even on a crowded Sunday it was peaceful. Sure enough, people talk together and share their experiences. But they do it (or they did, the day I was there) in a very respectful way of the art pieces and the other visitors. The only exception was perhaps “Notion Motion”. But there, like it or not, a museum guard was able to keep noise down. The design of the space has a lot to do with how people behave in it. I think this exhibition would be very different if it were in a big open space, for example. I've seen other pieces by Eliasson elsewhere, and they all seem to trigger similar reactions: at first a stark astonishment at the physical experience, and then the desire to test it and share it with someone else. Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:41:27 -0700 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid128 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid128 Peter Samis of SFMOMA is at Museums & the Web in Montreal, focussing on this exhibition in his talk about "Who has responsibility for saying what we see?" "The museum's reality does not trump the visitor's perspective," he says. People can share their perspectives online: www.sfmoma.org/eliasson/data/index.html An abstract of Peter's M&W talk is at www.archimuse.com/mw2008/abstracts/prg_335001639.html Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:29:54 -0700 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid131 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid131 It was great to see you at AAM! thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about ExhibitFiles. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:56:47 -0700 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid154 http://exhibitfiles.org/exhibition/view_review.rss/251#cid154 I LOVED this stuff! (Which I saw at MoMA in NYC.) Two things really struck me: 1) The elegant simplicity and beauty inherent in every installation. 2)Why can't there be more exhibits like these (that whisper rather than scream) in science museums?