Skills: Project Management, Videography, Final Cut Pro, Multimedia Storytelling, ColdFusion, SQL Server
Total Number of Kiosks: 5
The two banks of Decision Stations on the Asia Trail exhibit at the Smithsonian National Zoo are meant to illustrate a very import message: conservation is hard.
At each set of kiosks, one representing Indian issues and one representing Chinese issues, visitors are presented with three conservation dilemmas affecting the respective country. Visitors select one of the dilemmas and are given a brief description of the issue. Visitors then have to make a black and white decision about a land use issue with lots of shades of grey. For example, a China story forces users to decide whether or not to build a dam.
After their initial selection, visitors are given the opportunity to watch three videos of real people who have a stake in the decision: a pro view, an anti view and a compromise view. At any point users may change their vote and submit their final decision.
There is no right or wrong answer, only consequences. The final screen reflects the pros and cons of any decision and shows a pie chart of real-time statistics of how other users voted on the same issue.
Any given story of the six, three in the India kiosks and three in the China kiosks, is designed to take about four minutes.
While specific to the people and places represented by each set of Decision Stations, the issues are broad enough to be applicable to domestic conservation issues and accessible to Zoo visitors.
The outdoor kiosks are Flash based and communicate with a SQL Server via ColdFusion and Internet Information Server.
My role in the exhibit included project and contractor management, videography and photography for the China stories, all video editing and I co-wrote/developed the exhibit.
I also specified the touch screen, LCD, computer and VGA/Serial via Cat5 hardware for the outdoor kiosks.
The kiosks were designed and developed by Terra Incognita with art direction from Asia Trail exhibit designers.
