Bowman Design Group and creative director Ed Hackley have completed a new hands-on exhibit focused on the San Diego Bay and the impact of human activity on the bay’s ecosystem for the Birch Aquarium, the public outreach arm of the world-renowned Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Birch Aquarium developed the exhibit content and commissioned the design for its Hall of Fishes gallery. This is the second collaboration between the Bowman Design Group/Hackley team and the Aquarium’s project scientist Debbie Zmarzly in three years.
Their previous collaboration produced the award winning “Feeling the Heat” climate change exhibition.
The new exhibit engages visitors via a touch screen and explores ongoing research by Scripps scientists and their colleagues, including work on copper pollution sources and East Pacific green sea turtles. Using interactive maps, visitors explore how expanding human development interacts with natural habitats, prompting visitors to consider how important commercial, industrial, recreational and military activities affect the bay’s ecosystem. The program also includes an animation developed by the San Diego SuperComputer Center at University of California, San Diego that demonstrates how tidal currents flush pollution from the bay.
Debbie Zmarzly said that Scripps Institution selected Bowman Design Group for the project based on its understanding of environmental issues and its expertise in hands-on science.
“We selected Bowman Design Group to design and produce the San Diego Bay exhibit based on its proven ability to work with complex science content and large data sets, its dedication to preserving the integrity of the science in the design process and its brilliance in turning concept into functional reality on the exhibit floor,” she added.
The exhibit is part of a planned digital overhaul of Birch Aquarium’s entire Hall of Fishes, which will eventually include content delivery via the Internet.
Los Angeles-based Bowman Design Group translates complex ideas into engaging stories. The results are unique and memorable exhibitions, events, multimedia and print communications for corporations, museums and other institutions. Clients include the National Academy of Sciences and Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (in collaboration with Ed Hackley), Florida Crystals, Domino Specialty Foods, Northrop Grumman, Kid City (The Children’s Museum of Tampa) and the FIFA World Cup. More information can be found on this project at www.bowmandesigngroup.com.
