Cooper Hewitt “By the People…” Exhibit Review – Timely, with Brilliant Technology

Inequality, racial injustice, human rights, world hunger, climate collapse: the time for action is Now!

Cooper Hewitt, a gem of a design museum and part of the Smithsonian, is taking on the mission of engaging visitors in tackling these global issues. Their exhibit, “By the People: Designing a Better America,” is on display until February 26, 2017.

It couldn’t come at a more opportune time.

Cooper-Hewitt’s Brilliant Technology

In the past, I’ve often been frustrated trying to describe an exhibit days later because my memory has lagged. Cooper-Hewitt has found a brilliant way to help those of us who easily suffer from museum overload.

Harnessing the latest interactive museum technology, visitors are able to respond to the most memorable exhibits and take them home to re-visit later.   This is how it works— Cooper Hewitt provides every visitor with an interactive pen that you use to tap on the exhibits you especially want to re-visit and remember later. I was able to tap on the object label next to each of the exhibits I wanted to study and the next day, from my home computer, I retrieved my favorite information about my favorite exhibits – pictures and text – by using entering the personal code from my admission ticket on the Cooper Hewitt webpage.

How exciting to have my memory jogged!

Brilliant!

I was able to tap on the five exhibits that particularly interested me.

Justice, Housing Shortages, Food and Water Quality and More…

For example, I especially liked the exhibit about incarcerated men designing a space for justice instead of a space for punishment and human warehousing., so I was able to tap on the object label next to the Designing Justice+Designing Spaces and store all of the information about the exhibit to revisit from my home computer.

Besides Designing Justice, I was intrigued by Human Borders Water Stations and Warning Posters, simple technology that offers water stations to migrants who risk death from dehydration by walking through the Arizona desert.

In my NYC residence, I’m poignantly aware of the dire need for affordable housing. Urban Housing Design Principles married beautiful design elements with lower costs, created for people who live in urban environments.

Farm Hack Tools struck me as both whimsical and audacious. Utilizing an open-source approach to design, participants are encouraged to replicate, borrow, modify, and extend designs that enhance healthy food production for communities.

Finally, Mapping the Measure of America honed in on inequality and well-being with multiple measures.

Intended to stimulate dialogue, this exhibit certainly got me thinking and talking about the imminent threat to the Affordable Care Act, free public school education, global warming and affordable housing.

Best yet—with the Cooper-Hewitt technology I can share with you the highlights of my visit. Read the details of these exhibits here.