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Visual / interactive timelines

  • 1.  Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-07-2016 05:18 PM

    Hi colleagues-

     

    We're working on an exhibition of Western art and film, and our curator would like to have one gallery dedicated to a timeline of one particular director's oeuvre. I'd love to hear about examples in which you think timelines have been done successfully and engagingly-think less text, more visual-and, in fact, don't really have the feel of a traditional timeline at all. The curatorial goal seems to be to position this director as an artist in his own right, with a long career that had far-reaching influence. Thanks for any  examples you can share.

     

    Best,

    Stefania Van Dyke

    Interpretive Specialist, Denver Art Museum

     

    Stefania Van Dyke
    Interpretive Specialist, Textile Art and Special Projects
    720-913-0059
    svandyke@denverartmuseum.org

    Denver Art Museum
    100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway
    Denver, CO 80204

    Visit     www.denverartmuseum.org and subscribe to our e-newsletter. The Denver Art Museum salutes the citizens of metro Denver for helping fund arts, culture and science through their support of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).

     



  • 2.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-08-2016 09:26 AM

    Hello Stefania,

    What an interesting question! I don’t have a specific example for you, but I would suggest you search  on Pinterest for examples of timelines in exhibitions – you will find many – as a way to explore possibilities .  I find Pinterest is very useful for visual examples of exhibition design, scenography, and visit experience.  You could create a board to pull together many examples in order to brainstorm with your colleagues about how to achieve the project goals.  I find it is very useful to have models to use as basis for discussion in order to develop a shared understanding as a team.  From your note, one of the objectives is to use the timeline to outline the director’s career – a standard objective for a time.  The other objectives are about the director’s creative achievement and influence. The idea of influence is interesting – maybe the timeline could also have an element of a web or network if examples of influence are to be stated/shown explicitly.  Overall, it would be useful to think about how the timeline fits into the exhibition overall and what objectives can be achieved and/or reinforced in different parts of the visitor experience.  

    Best,

    Claire

    ------------------------------
    Claire Champ
    Creative Development Specialist
    Canadian Museum of History
    Gatineau, QC Canada

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-08-2016 09:59 AM

    Hi Stefania,

    I did some research on this a while back for a special exhibition. Below are some links--some more traditional timelines and some more visual. Hope it helps!

    Blog on Teaching with Timelines

    CSI Timeline on Wikipedia

    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History 

    Khan Academy uses interesting content organization for their art history lessons

    Sun Safety timeline

    Deviant Art timeline of art history

    Vizworld articles on data viz and timelines

    Drexel University student Art Murals project

    Loren Munk artist portfolio

    NW Natural gas company history in a timeline

    Art history timeline posted by Katrin Hemmen

    ------------------------------
    Sara Devine
    Manager of Audience Engagement and Interpretive Materials
    Brooklyn Museum
    Brooklyn NY

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-11-2016 11:04 PM
    Edited by David Lewis 04-11-2016 11:06 PM

    As Claire Champ suggested -- Pinterest -- is a great source for visual exhibit ideas and inspirations.  . . .  Here is my personal board for timeline exhibit ideas:

    https://www.pinterest.com/dlewisarfm/exhibit-ideas-timeline-exhibits/

    ------------------------------
    David Lewis
    Aurora Regional Fire Museum
    Aurora IL

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-12-2016 07:55 AM

    Take a look at all the award winning examples at SEGD.org/explore/exhibition

    ------------------------------
    clive roux
    CEO
    Society For Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD)
    Washington DC

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-15-2016 12:55 PM

    Hi Stefania,

    Some great examples have already been posted - here's one we did with Evergreen Exhibitions for the Boeing sponsored exhibition on the future of flight that's currently traveling in the US and overseas. It's an interactive digital timeline that doesn't even really look like a timeline. Touching one of the dots on the colored lines (that are always moving) brings up a window with a short MOS video and a small amount of text. Give me a shout if you'd like more info.

    ------------------------------
    B. Susan Kirch
    Creative Director
    Los Angeles CA

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-08-2016 10:41 AM

    Great question. Here is an example of one we did. It has a lot more text than you want. It is often difficult to get clients to not add so much text even though that is our preference too. This may show you that they can be bright, colorful and cheery. http://www.taylorstudios.com/my-product/carle-history-wall/

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    Betty Brennan
    President
    Taylor Studios, Inc.
    Rantoul IL

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-08-2016 01:48 PM

    It sounds like you would use this in an exhibition space.  A lot of the timelines I see are web based and can be used in an exhibition on touch screen monitors but to lock down the Chrome browser is a bit tricky (Hint if web based use Chrome browser).  You would need to setup your files to run locally. I would not rely on WiFi because you don't want the interactive going down because your WiFi goes down.

    Open Exhibits has a free Flash based timeline which I think looks nice without being overly complicated.  http://github.com/ideum/open-exhibits-museum-timeline/ 

    On this page you will see a link to a video with users using the timeline program.

    ------------------------------
    Raymond Stivala
    Manager of Web/Multimedia Development
    The Newark Museum
    Newark NJ

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-12-2016 07:29 AM

    The Getty has a great timeline, I don't know why they do not publicize it more. The Samsung Innovation museum in Suwong, South Korea also has a decent timeline- although 2D.

    My tip is to go to Pinterest and search for 'Timeline Exhibit'- it is an excellent visual source. See the images you like, then find out where they came from via the links attached to them, there are quite a few there.

    ------------------------------
    Beverly Dywan
    Design in Three Dimensions
    Toronto ON

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-13-2016 09:57 AM

    Something we've been using as an exploratory tool/visualization tool is called TimelineJS from Knight Lab at Northwestern University: Timeline JS3. 

    Knightlab remove preview
    Timeline JS3 - Beautifully crafted timelines that are easy, and intuitive to use.
    TimelineJS is an open-source tool that enables anyone to build visually rich, interactive timelines. Beginners can create a timeline using nothing more than a Google spreadsheet. Experts can use their JSON skills to create custom installations, while keeping TimelineJS's core functionality. Keep it short.
    View this on Knightlab >

     You can use their Google Sheets template to create a timeline in minutes, or you can do more with it if you have a developer. It looks beautiful, and customization is easy to do. 

    Also: Free! Who doesn't like free? 

    Also also: It uses responsive design, so it can fit nicely on any screen size, and have a life as part of a website as well as a gallery interactive. 

    The great thing is that because TimelineJS uses some nice vanilla HTML/CSS/JS to generate the thing, it can be offered to users using screen readers. Remember that anything using Flash will have a difficult time being accessible to anyone using those features. 

    Cheers,

    Tracey 

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    Tracey Berg-Fulton
    Collections Database Associate
    Carnegie Museum of Art
    Pittsburgh PA

    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-14-2016 11:47 AM

    Thanks to everyone who responded to my timeline question -- so many fantastic ideas! I know this will be incredibly helpful in our team discussions moving forward.

    ------------------------------
    Stefania Van Dyke
    Denver Art Museum
    Denver CO

    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-15-2016 11:48 AM

    Not really a timeline, but interactive wall in El Paso.  Heard about this from a colleague-pretty sophisticated!

    DIGIE A New Star in the Texas Sky 5

    YouTube remove preview
    DIGIE A New Star in the Texas Sky 5
    A short video documentary about the opening of the new hi-tech interactive digital wall at the Museum of History in El Paso
    View this on YouTube >
    ------------------------------
    Susan Near
    Development & Marketing Officer
    Montana Historical Society
    Helena MT

    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Visual / interactive timelines

    Posted 04-18-2016 06:25 PM
    Edited by Alan Eidson 04-18-2016 06:28 PM

    Hi Stephany,

    For another spin on your query, here is a short video demo of an interactive timeline that we did a while back.  The timeline had text and images as well as embedded videos that further elaborated on the specific topics.  It was displayed on a large touch monitor and was quite popular with the visitors.   Mexican-American War timeline Demo

    Best regards,

    Alan

    ------------------------------
    Alan Eidson
    Interpretive Filmmaker/Interactive Designer


    Original Message