Modern Perspectives, Separate Worlds: New England Forests
When one enters the exhibit “New England Forests,” one is immediately surprised by the realism of the animals there. Stuffed wolves howl at the sky, black bears lurch forward and moose stand tall. Located in the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the exhibit is meant to replicate the archetypal forest in New England. The exhibit is a fully immersive experience, transporting the viewer to a separate world.
Upon first glance, there seem to be only animals in the exhibit. But upon closer inspection, there are also many plants. Instead of being enclosed in glass boxes, most of the items are actually laid out in the open and simply separated from the viewer by a guard railing and by distance rather than glass walls. Each animal stands on grass or rock, and there are tall green plants in between animals. All of the items occupy their space fully and they appear very natural in their environments. The coyotes are mid-stride and the bear seems to be in the middle of a roar. Its antlers hanging high above the viewer’s ahead, the moose looks like it is about to step over the guard railing. This adds to the realism of the experience. The viewer feels powerful upon seeing these wild beasts frozen in time. He can experience the ferocity of these beasts without any of the danger.
Visual techniques make one feel as if one is in an actual forest. There are uneven amounts of spaces between different animals, just as one would find in the actual wild. In the wild, animals would not be evenly spread out. There also alternating patterns of light and dark created by bright lights high in the air. This creates shadows in seemingly random places, making one feel as if one is in an actual forest. Where there is not a real plant in the background, there is instead an encompassing picture of scenery. The space truly feels like a snapshot in time.
The exhibit sends both explicit and implicit messages. Explicitly, there is a rectangular label for each animal. It correctly identifies the species of the animal and its individual evolutionary history. Clearly, the first step to understanding an animal is knowing basic factual information about it. However, the exhibit also presents an implicit argument. Implicitly, the exhibit states that the environment of an animal and the way it interacts with it is just as important as the animal by itself. For this reason, the vast majority of the space in the exhibit is devoted to actual plants and animals rather than lengthier descriptions of a single animal. The design of the exhibit implies that in order to fully understand an animal, one must understand the way it interacts with and fits in with the rest of its environment.
The exhibit takes a multi-media approach. There are touch-screens, videos and sound-effects. Because of motion detectors, certain sounds will play when one is standing next to certain animals. When one walks close to the wolf, one hears a howl. Near the bear, one hears a roar. There are many touch-screens that display information in colorful pictures, giving one the option to learn more about particular topics. The topics include Old Growth Forest, Wetlands in the Forest, Life of the Lichens and the Trees of New England. Because these screens have links to pages that contain detailed information about specific subjects, the screens are able to present an extensive amount of information in a very space-efficient way.
The exhibit reveals that, as a culture, we value new experiences. The exhibit is clearly designed to transport us to a forest. That is the purpose of the sound effects, openness and lack of glass boxes in the exhibit. It helps us escape from our own world and view a world that is totally different. The exhibit reveals that we, as a culture, recognize the value of experiencing alternative perspectives.