Re: Exploratorium

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: Noelle <http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg>
 > Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2013 09:36:53 -0700 (PDT)
 >
 > I have to agree with him about computers getting in the way of direct 
 > physical experience of the natural world. I think it's bad for humans to 
 > be detached & then they don't care about saving the environment & maybe it 
 > causes ADHD and behavior and incivility problems in kids and adults

Yeah, especially with computers and other electronic devices.  They are
hard ever anything you "do".

 > On Sat, 6 Apr 2013, Robert wrote:
 >  >  > From: Brian
 >  >  > Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:16:34 -0700
 >  >  >
 >  >  > Last night Laurie and I went to a donor preview of the new
 >  >  > Exploratorium building, and while Laurie was in the ladies'
 >  >  > room I ran into Dennis Bartels, the head honcho, who asked
 >  >  > me if I thought it was up to par.  I had just been saying
 >  >  > to Laurie, and so said to Dennis, that the ratio of things to
 >  >  > see over things to do seems higher than it used to be.  He
 >  >  > says that the absolute number of things to do hasn't gone down,
 >  >  > but appreciated that the ratio might be important in determining
 >  >  > whether the overall experience feels like a museum or feels like
 >  >  > the Exploratorium.
 >  >  > 
 >  >  > Anyway, thinking it over since then, I think part of the problem
 >  >  > is an ambiguity about how to categorize certain new exhibits,
 >  >  > the ones that have a touchscreen that drives a computer that
 >  >  > displays something or other.  What I realized is that I count
 >  >  > these as "things to look at," and I bet Dennis counts them as
 >  >  > "things to do" because they're interactive -- in the newfangled
 >  >  > sense of the word.
 >  >  > 
 >  >  > Thing is, I used to have arguments with Frank Oppenheimer because
 >  >  > he was so adamantly opposed to computer-driven exhibits, and now
 >  >  > I have to apologize to him posthumously.  He was right not to want
 >  >  > computer mediation between the viewer's senses and the real stuff
 >  >  > of nature.  A few of those are okay, but when it becomes a lot of
 >  >  > them, it just doesn't feel the same.