Exhibit Production/Construction

Further concept development and design of the TDET exhibits continued from March through September 2009, leading to the “Fabrication Specs” stage shown in Figure 31. By December 2009, the three exhibits on the Expo deck were renamed the “SWITCH: Outdoor Science Experience”. Interviewees 3 and 4, both part of the team, describe the process:

Interviewee 3: It was a new area for us, we had not been designing things for outdoors. Some with the original team of Science Park, that was their first time building things outdoors. It was a very different beast. Costs are much higher, and you’ve got to weather-protect like crazy.

Interviewee 4: [For the 3-exhibit deck], It turns out that the development of the content, the team, and the scope of the project was small. You get a sense of the kinds of signs we want or need, we develop a budget for it, some graphics with stretched content, and then basically [Interviewee 3] reviewed it and finalized it.

The Science World team of six thus refined the OSE concepts into tangible human-scale experiences, and then designs detailed for fabrication. The Waterways example is shown below.

Figure 34: A part of Waterways exhibit, the Ephemeral Stream exhibit refined to an executable product

Reprinted with permission by Science World

A Science World exhibit designer describes the fabrication process:

JB: Our exhibits are primarily designed by us [at Science World] but when it comes time to fabricate there are a few different ways we go about it: (a) design and build in-house, (b) design internally, hire an external contractor to fabricate it, or (c) purchase an exhibit and augment it to suit our needs.

An important shift in the design process is here underway, from tests conducted with the City of Vancouver and TD Bank to those conducted by the contractors themselves. A total of three contractors worked on the Waterway exhibit. The first, Tom Egan – Artist with Water from Salina, Kansas, constructed the ephemeral stream using a stainless-steel tube and frames. The second, 3DS Interactive Exhibits from Vancouver, BC, created the artificial mounds and subcontracted Wavestone Sculpture also from Vancouver, BC to work with the rocks used to create the Geoslice. The Science World team worked with the external contractor to shrink the design into size, selecting the elements obtainable within budget. In Figure 35 below, we can see how significantly the “Choices” exhibit changed from conception to execution:

Figure 35: Initial design conception of “Choices” exhibit by JB, created July, 2009, then greatly simplified by December, 2010; by Interviewee 4. Source: Science World, 2009

Reprinted with permission by Jodie Braaten & Science World

JB on conception of the “Choices” exhibit: The thought was to develop a road system that you would walk along and encounter situations along the journey (transportation theme). Pockets of green space would be incorporated to invite people to sit. Amongst this road system there was going to be a big question mark, acting as a sculptural landmark. This was to pose a large question, make people stop and consider their choices more closely. The thought of adding grass and light was to make it a more attractive space so people would stay longer. In the end, the final outcome always comes down to budget.

Interviewee 4 on execution of Choices: The design, the form-factor of the question mark, people sitting on it, that was the intent. Let’s keep it very simple, let’s make a question mark that people can sit on. And be happy that people use it. That’s all I wanted. I did the sign for that as well.

This process reflects the multi-scaled nature of exhibit design, whereby 3D exhibits intertwine with 2D interpretive posters. JB explains its conceptual design; Interviewee 4, its movement toward an executable design under budget. The initial conceptual sketch from July 22, 2009 is indeed significantly reduced, to a simple question mark, by the fabrication stage in December 12, 2009. ⁶⁴

The initial concept for Choices aligns with the “Take Home Message” stating “Choices that humans have made historically have altered and continue to alter this natural landscape” in Figure 31 earlier. It reminds us that “Choices can be made in a manner less intrusive to the environment”, “Endless choices lie before us, yet to be made”. To recreate the choice-making experience, the concept sketches a convergence of paths to form crossroads where the public can make “choices as to which junction they take when the road splits” (Science World, 2009b). The theme of choices represented as the physical elements of a crossroad was refined into a symbolic question mark accompanied by a poster⁶⁵, open to interpretation by those who pass by.

At the beginning of 2010, some of the exhibits, such as Choices, were being prepared for execution by selected contractors. While their scheduled time of completion was April 2010, however, some (e.g., Waterways) were not finalized until July 2012 (Wavestone Sculpture, 2012).⁶⁶

64 The Choices exhibit continued its design cycle with a local shop MetalMart in Langley, BC.

65 The resulting poster explains how we can make the right choices when it comes to sustainability, by for example, recycling rather than simply throwing something in the trash.

66 There is a gap in available research as to when the other two deck exhibits (Choices and Garbozilla/ music chimes) were installed. It could have been 2011.

JB: The development of the first phase of the [TDET] was started before the renovation to the building and the addition of the Science Park had begun. It was completed later because some of the staff and resources were reassigned to the renovation and that part of the deck was affected by the building renovation. TD was added after the fact, when they hopped on board as a donor.

The installation of these TDET exhibits, then entitled “SWITCH”, needed to coordinate with the 2010 renovation of the Science World building and so were stalled. But these ‘Phase 1’ exhibits represented minimal risk to the City of Vancouver: sustainability themed exhibits accessible to the public and removable in emergencies. Science World was clearly willing to invest in, and develop, exhibits within the public realm, not only for their semi-private science park. This built a consensus with the City of Vancouver and opened up possibilities for a larger OSE Science Park.