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The Lincoln Experience
Great New York Times piece today on the new Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois:
What is being promised is not just a tourist attraction, but a full Lincoln Experience. As Richard Norton Smith, the museum's executive director, said, "If you want to see marble icons, go to Washington." BRC's founder, Bob Rogers (who once worked at Walt Disney Imagineering), said the goal was to overturn traditional expectations and create an "experience museum." "There is nothing we wouldn't do," he said in a conversation, "to get people in."
Of course, the tradeoff with the crowd-pleasing "experience" is that real, substantial history gets squeezed out. Lincoln is substantial, and authentic, in a way that a fictional character like Mickey Mouse isn't. What are designers' responsibilities when dealing with a meaningful subject?
