The Franklin Institute

The emergence of and public reliance on media began to threaten museum attendance.  The development of new technology allowed the public to access information quickly and easily.  Museums, as we previously discussed in class, were placing heavy emphasis on objects, relying on uniqueness, and situating the visitor as an observer.  As Michelle Henning states in her book “Museums, Media, and Cultural Theory,” this material aspect of museums seems to distinguish them from other forms of media, which were jeopardizing the “aura” of the unique object by making it available for close inspection to a mass audience through reproductions.  In response, museums began to further develop their modes of display to keep drawing in visitors; by promoting the opportunity to have an experience, museums switched the center of their display around the visitor, not the object. 

The Franklin Institute’s “Electricity” exhibit, from its conception, revolves around the visitor.  The revisions of the exhibit design plans provide a clear example of how much the visitor is integrated into the conceptual aspects of the exhibit, which were entirely based upon the results of a visitor survey.  Also taken into great consideration is the experience that the visitor will receive.  Many interactive, hands on learning devices aim to engage the visitor while still promoting an educational (but fun!) environment.  The historical electricity section juxtaposes actual Ben Franklin artifacts with their interactive counterparts to provide a closer inspection and deeper explanation while also authenticating history with the real object.  The Institute also relates electricity to people’s everyday lives while promotes history and social awareness.  Murals of city hall over different periods line the windows to provide a visual illustration of the building’s electrical usage; moreover, collaborative activities help visitors connect with other visitors to promote social awareness and integrate the relevance of electricity into their everyday lives.   For many of the displays, the visitor needed to be an active participant in order to, in most cases, generate electricity and understand the intended idea.

The Franklin Institute is successfully finding ways to overcome the pressure of engage people’s attention and drawing visitors to the museum.  As Henning acknowledges, “The aim now was to enable the museum to compete in a marketplace of leisure attractions, with ever more expensive and high-tech interactive exhibitionary movements.”  Yet, are these new interactive devices suffering from negative repercussions?  The exhibit was fun and stimulating to the senses, providing people with the experience they went to receive, but some of the educational concepts seemed to get lost in all the excitement.  However, for the most part, the intended audience of preteens would have been provided the means to "spark" their interest in electricity.