Project Title:   A Journey Through Time - 1st Object Theater

Museum/ Institution: Paleontological Research Institution and Museum of the Earth, Ithaca, NY 

Program Created: 2003 

Media Category: Immersives/Theater 

Program URL (if available):  http://www.museumoftheearth.org/exhibitions.php?page=onpermanentview/journey_through_time

Project Image(s) and/or Video

Media Source(s)/Credit(s): author's pictures.

Program Description: (150-250 words)

One encounters the first object theater at the beginning of the Journey Through Time exhibit after descending a long ramp down into the main exhibit floor of Museum of the Earth.  The first object theater is a small black box theater with an entrance of the side of the main hall that leads to the rest of the exhibit.  There are benches facing a large video screen that plays a 5 minute video with sound, narration by past Cornell University President Frank Rhodes, and captions that explains the dawn of Earth leading up to the Devonian period while also explaining why the history of the Earth is important, why the museum focuses on the Earth, and what visitors should expect throughout the rest of the exhibition.  It is the first of four total object theaters, and the only one that is a video apart from objects.  The videos and objects create a narrative that leads visitors from the dawn of the Earth to present day time, though the rest of the exhibition focuses most specifically on the Devonian period of central New York, the Triassic-Jurassic of the Connecticut, Newark, and Hudson valleys, and the Quaternary Ice Age.

Firsthand or secondary review/critique: (150-250 words) 

As the Journey Through Time exhibition takes up the bulk of the museum, and the exhibition follows a linear narrative through time, this first object theater is integral to the engagement of visitors.  It provides the beginning of the story, and also provides information about the age of the earth and what little time living organisms have inhabited the planet.  The whole blend of music, sound, and narration with video in a darkened space provides an immersive experience for visitors right at the beginning of the exhibition.  It primes the visitors for their journey through the rest of the exhibit, and provides them with the framing of the whole museum.  While it is immersive, it is by no means interactive, and the extent to which any of the object theaters are interactive is that the visitors push a button to start the videos. Also, the entrance to the theater opens up to the main hallway that provides the access in and out of the rest of the exhibition, so other visitors walking past can become a distraction from the immersive experience.

Technologies incorporated:  Video, Sound, Black Box Theater.

Internally or externally produced: Internally produced

Entry Contributor and Date: Max Evjen, January 31st, 2012

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