COVID-19 Exhibition: virtual + physical
Posted: April 4, 2022 Filed under: Exhibit Development, Interactive, Museums, Research, 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:
“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:
Broadcast Know-It-All
Posted: July 9, 2017 Filed under: Comedy, Dolphins, Interactive, Performance, Podcast, Production, Radio, Science, Speaking | Tags: audio, education, humor, radio, scicomm, Science Leave a commentReady your ears to get SCHOOLED, folks, ’cause I’m playing Fact Checker on Season 3 of the Tell Me Something I Don’t Know Podcast (starring Freakonomic’s Stephen Dubner)!
First Minneapolis episode: “Three Sheets to the Wind” with special guest John Moe. They named they episode after one of my facts! And about all the drunk talk featured in the episode.
Second Minneapolis episode: “Creature Comforts” with special guest Krista Tippet. That one has a lot of sex talk.
Woman on the Street, Hot Seat
Posted: April 14, 2017 Filed under: Comedy, Dolphins, Interactive, Performance, Production, Science, Television Leave a commentI finally gathered up some of my science talking and slapped it into a highlights reel. While the video’s still private, I share it with you now, via THIS “EXCLUSIVE” LINK (and below).
More footage upon request. AMA 4ever.
Research, Regrets, & the Land Where Marsupialia is King
Posted: November 6, 2015 Filed under: Interactive, Museums, Research, Science Leave a comment
I’m proud to formally introduce a research report, informally posted on the Nanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) Network site.
What’s “Informal Science Education (ISE)”? That’s when people learn about science somewhere OTHER than school. And we know that people learn a lot MORE in informal science settings when they feel like the material is RELEVANT to them. So we did an exploratory study to see what it looked like when people found relevance in a museum exhibition––what they talked about, how they talked about it, and what the exhibition did to help all that happen. Here’s a little ditty about what we found:
NISE Net Research on How Visitors Find & Discuss Relevance in the Nano Exhibition (co-author with colleagues at Museum of Science Boston, University of Notre Dame)
What else is new? I’m headed to Melbourne in a few weeks, to join some of the weirdest, coolest, nerdiest folks currently thinking about––urm––all sorts of things. We’re called the “Brains Trust” (shoutout to a cleverly dodged copyright infringement), and we’re scientists, writers, artists, comedians, and “all-of-the-abovers” who will be answering the public’s questions and posing even MORE questions about the future of knowledge. It all goes down at INTERROBANG: A Festival of Questions. Many thanks to the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writers, & Ideas for having us.
courtesy of Interrobang & the Wheeler Centre
Stay tuned, Dolphinteers, as I’ll be back soon to tell you about some more projects lurking just beyond the horizon:
REGRET LABS…? A scientific/comedic look into what folks should have learned in science class but maybe didn’t
GHOSTWRITER…? A multi-media piece in which fact meets fiction meet potentially rude visual art
The Project Formerly Known as MOTHER LOVER….? Because the Earth is your Mom and you luuuuuv her.
A Bunch of Stuff I Neglected to Mention…
Posted: May 13, 2013 Filed under: Fiction, Interactive, Interview, Nonfiction, Performance, Production, Radio, Science, Storytelling, Television, Writing | Tags: Interactive 1 CommentIt’s been awhile. Here’s a the haps:
- Last month, Ken Eklund and I got to share Ed Zed Omega with Tribeca Film Institute Interactive, alongside the other incredible Localore producers. I mean wow. The future was then and there, folks.
- I was honored to have a story in the first “Choose Your Own Adventure” Night at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Many thanks to my illustrious comrades Ed Bok Lee, Katie Heaney, John Jodzio, and to Paper Darts for putting it on. Check out the gorgeous map Meghan Murphy at Paper Darts made special for my story:
- In the same vein, I have two story poems up on the “Poetry Trail” as part of Walker Art Center’s series at Silverwood Park. If you can’t make it to the park, you can listen to them here.
- New science pieces up at Mental_Floss, including my “authoritative” breakdown of what makes a platypus a platypus. More in the coming week(s).
- Revolver lit mag just published my short short story, “The Poke,” which is potentially NSFW.
- Last week at Two Chairs Telling, I swapped stories with Linda Gorham about growing up poor and figuring it out as you go.
- Just this morning I was featured on KFAI’s Story City, telling my totally true tale of vodou overseas. (You may want to turn volume down due to some mic trouble at the start, plus my voice was terrible that day. Here’s me sounding way better on KFAI last year, talking women in comedy.)
- Oh, and I have a very specific tumblr now, called Orphaned Panels. I don’t update it much. It’s a slow-motion tumble.
Mandford
Maggie Ryan Sandford 