Q: How do you begin the design process?
Amy: We take the curators list of objects and put them in our 3-D floor plan with their correct dimensions.
3-D Floor Plan
John: The curator tells us what the object adjacencies are
A: And we tell them what will and wont fit in the gallery.
J: When designing, you always start with the what ifs. What if we hung it like this? What if we built this? Then you get into the gallery and everything becomes it is. It is a little bigger than we thought.
Q. How do you choose the colors?
J: Usually I pick one poster child object that I use to determine a color scheme.
Rubin Museum of Art, C2006.66.489
A: I dont do that. I think about the meaning of the show and the works of art. My primary concerns are that the colors fit conceptually and will make the art look nice.
J: Gateway is based on didactics rather than art in many ways. We wanted to maintain our aesthetic but push it back to bring the words forward. The art objects are illustrative of many basic concepts. We looked at photos of 1950s science labs to get ideas for colors. It gives it more of a teaching feel.
Q: Start to finish, how long will you have worked on this show?
J: One and a half years.
Q: Did Gateway pose any particular challenges?
J: Yes. There are a lot of illustrations to elucidate ideas, which means a lot of graphic design and support material. And the map. The map took an immense amount of effort, and the technology behind it was new to us. The map is the first thing visitors will see, so its like the introduction to the introduction. About twenty-five staff members and contractors worked on the map as a singular project.
Q: Do you have a favorite piece or aspect of the exhibition?
A: Im excited to see how the lost wax installation turns out.
J: Too early to tell. It changes when it becomes it is. In the beginning its art. On the plans theyre rectangles. Then when you finally get into the gallery it becomes art again.
Q. How does Gateway, as a long-term exhibition, differ from shorter-term exhibitions?
J: Planning for object replacements over time; making sure everything will fit when replacements happen. That took a lot of planning on the curatorial side.
A: Its different, too, because everything was designed specifically for this exhibition. The cases were redesigned
J: Everythings custom-made and designed specifically for a long-term exhibition. In many ways, its not our normal exhibition.
A: And its designed for more educational purposes.
J: Right. The art will stand on its own. If you dig it, youll dig it.
A: Its a permanent teaching tool.
J: Its a foundation floor. This is sort of the sushi floor.
A: Sushi floor?
J: You get a little taste of this, a little taste of that.
Q: It seems like designers need an eye for aesthetics and a mind for mathematics, too.
J: Yes. If something looks like it was easy to do, its usually good design.
A: The exhibition designer needs to be the sensible artist.