Out & About

Work took us to space!  Or, more accurately, the Space Exhibit at OMSI.  But first, we got a backstage tour of OMSI, which was awesome.

The iconic letters

See that staff only sign?  We’re going behind that door!

It was really interesting to learn how the exhibits are built and stored.  Here, our guide stands in front of a poster with principals such as font size and how to make sure people using wheelchairs can have full access.

Details from the offices of the design area.  I loved the house-made cubicle dividers.

Here are some exhibits that have been recovered from storage.  The team has plans to update the graphics to make them more accessible for girls and for native Spanish speakers. (Also to make them not quite so 80s.)

One principle of design for a museum catering to children is “never underestimate the power of an eight-year-old girl.”  Apparently children en mass can really tear apart structures, so things must be over-designed for heavy use.  The design team attributes this destruction to kids not knowing their own power.  “Adults could never break something, because they know they can’t.  Kids don’t know that and so they can.”

Scrap wood detail.

I loved the bins for various things.

OMSI sends exhibits around the country and also has traveling presentations.  Thus, things can be neatly packaged.

So many fun things were hanging, and hanging out.

Apparently no one knows where this pterodactyl came from.  It’s just always been there.

They had some really great old machines, too.

Bigger exhibits are shipped in boxes on these carts.

Another really awesome house-made item.

Getting our picture taken in front of the OMSI sign.

This shake house has been part of OMSI for a very long time.  I went in it as a child, back when OMSI was located by the zoo.  It repeatedly played a snippet of Carol King’s “I feel the earth move”.  Apparently, it did this until just a few years ago.

Puzzling through some puzzles.

You can see some of the female friendlier colors that were incorporated into this exhibit.  The informational panels are also printed in both Spanish and English.

Really fun pipes.

And then we went to space.  My co-worker with her head in an astronaut suit.

And me too.  That’s as close to a space suit as I will ever get.

Real-time cloud cover!

Part of space was a simulation of what it’s like to be in a gravity-free environment in the international space station.  You stand, the space station spins around you.  A guy watches you closely to make sure you don’t pass out.

It took me about fifteen minutes to recover my equilibrium.  Space is not for me.