A "new and improved" Avatar Exhibition coming Fall 2016

[CyanRachel]

Kaltxi!

Check out this awesome news:

http://www.comingsoon.net/extras/news/4 ... -fall-2016


So this sounds like a "new and improved" exhibition from the original one that toured around from 2011 through 2012 (and 2013?). Since I got to experience the first traveling exhibition (which was awesome!) a few times, I'm really looking forward to this new one coming next year!
Hmmm....opportunity to have more Avatar fan meet-ups?

[Atokirina]

I'm very excited for this as well! Looks cool. Hope they're coming to Canada.

[Elyris]

I always think that such things would be so much niceer if they would have more 'Fingerspitzengefühl' (uhhm ... be more sensitive )desinging it (this goes for many exhibitions in general).

Like:

Don't play main themes (rather loud) over and over again
- use 'ambient' music instead: the sounds of wind and rain on foliage; the sounds of birds, insects flying by and such; maybe singing voices in the distance (or a chopper flying over your head)

Not just plastic pavements leading you through
- 'earth' and cobblestones, rocks and concrete; make the floor 'bouncy' at times (they have such a spot at the Müritzeum - imitating a Springrasen .. a kind of special 'lawn' in swampy areas .. it's really cool)

Not just make it feel like an exhibtion somewhere inside
- take the senses of the visitiors: make the air as hot and humid as it would feel (and c'mon people are visiting tropical gardens where it has to be like that for the plants to live, too, so it should be doable); use scent of (wet or sun-heated) earth and plants (and actually put realy plants in there - they have their very own scents and feel) or steel and oil (for the human machinery)

And stuff.

Too often the possbilities of what is possible are not used fully (even when the money is there), istead people are left with the feeling they just went through something completely artificial (and thus somewhat 'cheap'). Don't sew them into plastic sacks, claiming it's for safety. One can slip and fall on a plastic floor too.
If it's an interactice exhibition about nature, why not put the visitiors into nature instead of letting them play around with tablets.

I really, really hope they gicing themselves the room for such simply creativity and not just take the old ways, as this is how it's done today.


*All of this is from my own experiences with different kinds of exhibitions and visits to museums. There were some good examples, surely, but all too often it made me think that with just a few more 'tricks' it could've been so much better.
#mytwocents

[Kiyevanie]

What you just described... I'd love to see that in the theme park; so that a visitor really gets the feeling of "being there".

I'm not sure if it's doable in an exhibition that's really travelling and that has to be able to be picked up, packed into containers, loaded on a truck and shipped to some place a few hundred miles away. Then unload, set it up - and it has to look perfect the very first day of opening.

But with a permanent, lasting exhibition or a theme park I totally agree.

[Elyris]

Yeah, I now what you mean and actually I was more referring to permanent exhibitions (or at least such that stay at one place for some time at once - it's a lot of work but galleries can do it too .. delicate lightning inclusive). There is so much more possible if you just give it a try. And in this case there's also the fact fact that you don't have exponates that are hundreds or thousands of years old originals (so to speak) so just take some good reproductions at a time and let people grab and shove stuff and so on (this would require a kind of intelligent way to handle 'masses', I admit .. nothing sucks more than exhibitions that are so full you don't see anything - interactive or not).

[Atokirina]

I absolutely agree with your observations, Elyris. You just named everything that was disappointing in the first Avatar Exhibit. The mock-up picture they posted looks very clean and organized and Earthly, not Pandoran at all.
I would love to hear that you send your suggestions to whoever is designing this exhibit, so that hopefully they would be able to incorporate some (or all) of your suggestions and make it a truly authentic experience.

[Kiyevanie]

True that... you'd need a real jungle experience. Including ferns growing right in the middle of the path, maybe a fallen tree, vines (real ones) spanning from one side of the room to the other, that kind of thing. As little plastic as possible.

[Elyris]

*Arbiter voice* If it were that easy.

Why should any lifeform on this planet ever listen to what I have to say, let alone people with power/influence? I also think that I am not the only one who sees it like that and that has such ideas, but experience tells us that not what should be done is chosen, but rather what's usal and also what everybody seemingly should be 'trained' to expect in the respective situation. This goes for an awful lot of stuff (like - really). Thougts 'outside of the box' get blocked in 90% of the cases - sadly. And also mostly it's profit over profoundness.

I'd have a whole bunch of ideas for many things, including this. But who's even listening? (I can tell you: most people who surround me not and even if they do, they step in soon after the beginning stating something like "Yes - you might be right, but what is it use for? You can't change anything at all, so there's no point in continuing with that, just take it as it is and leave it." ... Thanks for nothing. It's very frustrating.)

But just for joke - wanna try and make some idea-mashup, giving more precise ideas .. the whats and hows?


(I miss/lack mental stimulation, I admit. -_- )

[Atokirina]

Sure, let's let our imagination run wild on how we would make an Avatar Exhibit if we had access to unlimited resourses.

One thing we need is life-size animatronic animals, like in the Rainforest Café, naturally posed between the foilage, blinking, breathing, snorting, looking around, and occasionally roaring (depending on the creature). With matching sounds effects of course.
Maybe that is what they planned, though the ones on the picture look very static and unatural.

OR life-size animals that are durable enough to not have to sit behind plasic. Instead people can walk up to them and get a real feeling for their size, even place their kids on their backs for a picture (if they can reach that high, lol!). These will probably not be animatronic, though that would be even more epic!

[Elyris]

Hmmm - dunno.

Whhat about the basics ... size and shape of the installation. LED spotights in different colours to make day-night cycles believable. Fine jets spraying water for the rainforest atmosphere (mabye with some natural oils or something in it, for the scent). Which plants and in what sizes ...

For the cafe: Somewhere up in the foliage - no problem. Animatronics: not so much. Way too much noise for no apparent reason and very awkward artificial (these are exactly the kinds or attractions that make me shy away from parks). I want to eat, not feel like having to run from something big wiht teeth at any moment. I imagine the cafe not being one single platform, but rather different smaller ones, on slightly different levels, a bit separated form each other. Causes more serenity and 'privacy' - maybe in alcoves of different sizes, giving way to a view either into the hometree or over the forest area or to the floating mountains (depending how much space you got to do this and how good are the visuals).

And indeed: The Hometree. What about a model (for human size of course), completely walkable and to explore for some nice immersion. Could also be used as a part of a 'hotel' of some sorts. Sleep in hammocks, live in 'tree houses' (though this is more like one giant tree house), eat simple fresh food (maybe even cook it for yourself .. this should be a bit adventurous after all) ..... Same goes for Hells Gate: Sleeping quartes and the canteen, the armoury and so on - explorable living space. There'll be briefings/talks about the technology there and the surrounding nature (I'd prefer to skip the being-yelled-at part though).

This would also give the opportunity to talk about all the backgroud information (history) behind what we see, that simply never got explained in the movie, but should be there.

If we'd had the space to make it a park on it's own I could also imagine waterways, lakes, small rivers, maybe a waterfall - including animals and plants.

I think my biggest wish would be to make it as natural as possible - not look natual, make it natural ... with real nature. People go hinking and camping and stuff, without plastic plants or electronic animals around them, so why not?

[CyanRachel]

Here's the official website for the new exhibition, called Avatar: Discover Pandora

www.avatardiscoverpandora.com

The exhibition officially opens this December in Taiwan.

I look forward to hearing about where in the world this traveling exhibition will be going to next!

[CyanRachel]

Here's a link to a brief article on the Exhibition's grand opening (Dec 7th):

http://www.avatardiscoverpandora.com/av ... ei-taiwan/

It's going to be a FIVE year global touring exhibition -- Txantsan!

It'll be in Taiwan until March 14, 2017.

Awesome to see that Jon Landau, Joel David Moore (Norm), and Kathy Franklin (from Lightstorm) all attended the grand opening! And from just the few small glimpses we can see, this exhibition looks pretty EPIC!

[CyanRachel]

Check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIUUsNkiyRs

This exhibition looks Txantsan!

[Elyris]

What about VR?

Again: westerneers (or people dressed like them) stumbling through 'nature'.

I want a barefoot path dangit.

*sigh*

I really would wish for something actually great, but then I know how most people are and that they surely will ruin everything.