Exhibitionism
Posted: September 17, 2026 Filed under: Art, Exhibit Development, Museums, Science, Social Justice, Uncategorized, Writing Leave a commentI’m so pleased to be working on a series of science center exhibitions with an extra-special sauce, that I think just might change the industry forever…? I want to tell you all about it. Ooo but we’ve only soft launched. Ain’t that just the way?
Look at the image below. Can you guess what THREE exhibitions it represents…?
What Have We Been Up To?
Posted: October 29, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThe past few years have afforded me the incredible, humbling good fortune to work on four top-secret, long-term, slow-cookin’ projects. I can’t wait to share them with you.
Meantime, hit me up with your museum and film projects if you need a developer, writer, director, story advisor, or access and equity consultant.
Thanks for being out there. See you soon.
Flying to Mars with NASA
Posted: May 30, 2024 Filed under: Art, Museums, Science, Screenwriting, Social Justice, Writing | Tags: Film, NASA, scicomm, SciEd, Science, Screenwriting Leave a commentAt the end of 2022, I was finally able to see the gorgeous final product of a project that began in 2020: a full-dome planetarium show Mars: The Ultimate Voyage. As co-writer and advisor on the project, I was humbled to hear planetarium directors calling it perhaps the most comprehensive show about long-distance space flight yet. Ask me anything about the challenge of balancing complex science with a cutting-edge approach to inclusivity and equity, or about the all-around joy of working closely with NASA scientists to collect their stories. And catch Mars: The Ultimate Voyage at planetaria everywhere on planet Earth!
Exhibition Development: COVID + Community
Posted: September 8, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentFor the past year and some change, it was my honor to work with the BMGF Discovery Center and South Seattle Emerald to develop an exhibition about the COVID-19 pandemic during the COVID-19 pandemic. If that sounds surreal and incredibly challenging––emotionally, professionally, scientifically, the whole bit––it was! But if it weren’t hard, how would we know it was a COVID exhibition?
Even as the pandemic marches on, I feel proud of where this project landed, and if you’re in Seattle, you should check it out. Huge thanks to the BMGF Discovery Center team for trusting me with this work, for the beautiful oral history project that started it all, and for their expertise, empathy, and willingness to embrace the many moving parts of this deeply complex undertaking. Community is the key to survival, after all. More photos and reflections here.
COVID-19 Exhibition: virtual + physical
Posted: April 4, 2022 Filed under: Exhibit Development, Interactive, Museums, Research, Social Justice, Storytelling, Writing Leave a commentFor the past year, I’ve been honored to work with folks from Seattle and King County on an exhibition about communities rallying together during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition started online, as a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the South Seattle Emerald. It will take physical form in the foundation’s Discovery Center in June 2022.
As ever, my job as exhibit developer is humbling, and all praise is due to the folks whose stories are featured here––I hope we’ve done you justice. Thank you for sharing your stories, and most of all, thank you for doing the sometimes impossible-seeming work of leading community through collective trauma.
Many thanks, all, and more information soon.
Screenplays OF SCIENCE (ence, ence, ence)
Posted: January 11, 2021 Filed under: Exhibit Development, Interactive, Production, Research, Science, Screenwriting, Television, Writing Leave a commentScience communicators write screenplays? Heck yeah I do: the kind you see in museum exhibitions and planetariums (planetaria, if you’re nerdy).
I’m stoked and honored to be working on one about human space flight for a NASA grant, working with the Bell Museum and brilliant full-dome producers at Morehead Planetarium. Hoping it will be the kind of film that makes every kid who sees it want to work for NASA.
Every kid?
Well why not, I ask you.
And hey, wow: Victoria the T. rex, the video I wrote and directed for immersive, in-exhibition viewing, has won three awards! 🏆 🏆 🏆 See a sample from it (minus narration) at my instagram page, linked below. Cinematography, animation, and production by the incredibly talented folks at Animism Studio:
Reviews for Consider the Platypus
Posted: January 29, 2020 Filed under: Art, Books, Dolphins, Museums, Nonfiction, Research, Science, Storytelling, Writing 2 CommentsHonored and humbled by response to my first book, Consider the Platypus: Evolution through Biology’s Most Baffling Beasts, available now wherever books are sold:
- Wall Street Journal – “What to Give” nature books gift guide
- American Scientist – Science Book Gift Guide
- Ars Technica – Science and tech book review
- Queensland Reviewers Collective – book review
- Minnesota Book Awards – Finalist in General Nonfiction
“Victoria the T. rex” now open in AZ
Posted: January 29, 2020 Filed under: Exhibit Development, Interactive, Museums, Research, Science, Screenwriting, Writing Leave a comment“Victoria” is a newly discovered T. rex specimen, the second largest and most complete known to science (after Sue, at the Field Museum). I had the great honor of working alongside some of the world’s leading paleontologists to develop a touring exhibition around Victoria’s pristine fossil remains, complete with “Become Victoria” interactives and a fully immersive Cretaceous-era diorama come to life. Best of all, the entire experience builds directly upon the most cutting-edge T. rex science. (We’re talking forward stance and feathers, people.)
[EDIT] And that’s not all! This November, 2020, I was utterly chuffed to learn that the film I wrote and directed for in-exhibition has won three awards! Much credit is due to the incredible, unrivaled work of Animism Studio with whom collaboration was a career-topping thrill.
The exhibition, Victoria the T. Rex, is open now at the Arizona Science Center. Colossal thanks to the entire top-notch team, including Dr. Dave Hone, Dr. Heinrich Mallison, IMG, NGX Interactive, Stacy Sidman, and Khalil Williams. Check out the suuuuper flashy trailer for the exhibition below:
If All Water Were Blood
Posted: January 5, 2019 Filed under: Art, Books, Fiction, Social Justice, Speculative Fiction, Writing 2 CommentsI’m honored to finally have this piece in print, after having read and kneaded and baked it for years now. Thank you yet again to the powerful people of Paper Darts.
Consider the Platypus
Posted: January 5, 2019 Filed under: Books, Nonfiction, Science, Writing | Tags: Books, scicomm Leave a comment…Is the actual, updated name of my aforementioned and forthcoming illustrated nonfiction book for adults and curious kids. Sneak peeks soon! Stay tuned.
Mandford
