Path of Destruction
Path of Destruction
November 17, 2010 by Taylor Studios
Today’s Guest Blogger is Sam Cooper, Marketing Director for Dempsey Film Group.
When discussing hardware options for exhibits, it seems that our conversations always start off the same… “imagine we’re designing this for use by a bunch of 10-year-olds armed with hammers!” Let’s face it, human nature suggests whatever we pour our hard work and effort into is likely to encounter a force intent on testing its durability. A recent case comes from Florida where our firm worked with Taylor Studios, Inc. on animation for an exhibit. Guests trigger various animated video segments by pressing buttons mounted below a flat screen. According to a source at the facility a teenager held up his 6-year-old sister so she could stomp on the buttons. Ouch!
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We’re not quite sure what goes through one’s mind when unleashing such physical abuse. Surely motivations vary. Some may be deliberate in their actions. Such as last month in Loveland, CO, where a 56-year-old woman took a crowbar into an art museum to destroy a protective Plexiglas display and then shred the artwork inside claiming it was offensive. Other incidents are probably less premeditated. For instance, on a recent trip to Graceland in Memphis, TN, my very own 8-year-old son stood next to a vintage gas pump in Elvis’s car museum. Innocently, he reached up and began twisting what appeared to be a fragile knob on the pump. “Hey Dad, what’s this do?!”, he asked. “It breaks!”, I answered as a staff member nearly dove to intercede.
I’ll have to say we’ve been very impressed with some of the products designed for maximum durability. For example, we installed a row of super industrial-strength electronic buttons in a traveling exhibit for Farm Bureau Insurance Company. The exhibit is a combine simulator used primarily at state and county fairs. Fair people, fried food, beer, etc… can you imagine the whopping these buttons take? The exhibit has been on the road for five years now and we haven’t needed to replace a button yet – knock on wood. On another happy note, so long as exhibit visitors are tempted to grab, pull, push, beat, bang, twist, poke, kick, jab, scratch, yank, slap, and jerk, those of us creating tough, formidable exhibit solutions will have some job security. Have an exhibit destruction story of your own to share? Comment here.
Sam Cooper is the Marketing Director for Dempsey Film Group. Dempsey is located in Little Rock, AR, and is one of the most highly regarded production companies in the mid-south. The company creates TV commercials, documentaries, web-based video, interactive video kiosks for museums, marketing tradeshow videos, and more.