It seems empathy has been in short supply as our culture grapples with fear and anger fanned for political benefit and portable devices that divide our attention. Are there ways museums can facilitate more empathy in our daily lives? Children’s museums have been grappling with this question for years, and emerging are some exhibit techniques — as well as whole exhibits themselves — focusing on empathy. At the recent...

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A few years ago I was very interested to hear from staff at Louisiana Children’s Museum that they were finding that our Storykiosk installation was very popular on their sensory-friendly evenings. There was something about it — maybe talking into the computer with someone — that seemed both interesting and rewarding in a way that encouraged communication. We had spent a lot of time looking for ways of encouarging parent/child...

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Here’s something we’ve been doing a lot of lately: outfitting museums and universities with story capture systems to record memories of visitors and alumni. Institutions tend to celebrate their anniversaries at events throughout the year, providing multiple opportunities to gather stories from people who are motivated to share. Harvard Law School celebrated it’s 200th and we gathered dozens of stories at alumni events throughout the...

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What a great time this weekend setting up our Storykiosk at Boston Mini Maker Faire with 42 Design Fab. The idea: families make puppets together from wooden spoons, and then record their spontaneous puppet shows on Storykiosk, projecting their images on a story waterfall (see images below). I was blown away by the quantity and quality of stories — we ran out of spoons twice due to the popularity of the activity. The main goal throughout...

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In our community storytelling work, here’s a central question: how do we best tap into the stories in a community? How do we draw out stories that can live long after the event? Sometimes the stories just start flowing, especially within communities that are motivated and enthusiastic. And that describes the community of educators attending the annual Scratch Conference at MIT this summer. In the course of two days, we gathered nearly...

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It’s always a pleasure to evolve our work with museums, and especially a pleasure as museums evolve too. We’ve upgraded our longstanding Storykiosk installation at the California Museum for incorporation in the museum’s Unity Center, a large center in the museum focusing on the state’s diverse people, taking a stand against intolerance and hate. The Center, designed and developed by West Office with the Museum and...

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