Insights

I would like the viewer of this exhibit to be able to have a visual understanding of Darwins evidence. 

My ideal exhibit would utilize technology in an important way, to understand concepts through an interaction of the visuals. For example, with Palladio, the user is able to submit data and see a visualization of all the data points they provided, and interact with the points in order to form patterns and create new conclusions. In my exhibit, I would use Darwins theory as a map of an organisms features, and when the user hovers the mouse over the feature, they are given more information about the evolution of that feature and the similarities between that feature with other features that organism has as well. In its essence, the software would allow for an interaction with the creatures that Darwin discusses, which would foster more curiosity for children as opposed to asking them to read about it or hear about it. 

Since this is impractical for this assignment, I instead want to provide a virtual, concise gallery of the books main points and the reasons to why it was banned. Visual learning is one the best methods in modern day, and this would allow even children to understand the premise and history of Darwins arguments.  I would like this exhibit to make it easier for people to understand Darwins theories.

The original book was produced in limited quantities. This was because the publisher was afraid that the outcry from the religious society would spark an enormous uproar. Essentially, the publisher predicted that the book would be banned, or at least endangered. There were cultural conditions that the book faced, and it was endangered right from the start for these reasons. But as the book gained more scientific validity, more copies were created and now it is the basis for evolutionary biology. The difference between this book and other books is that this is a technical book and a very important book to study because it explains how nature works. The existence of an online exhibit would make this book much more accessible to people, and people would have an easier time understanding it because the exhibit would only include the relevant information. This would have been what Darwin wanted in the first place, because he designed the book to be understood by everyone. This exhibit would reflect positively on the cultural history of the book because it does the opposite of banning, which is to make it more accessible to people. 

In the reading The New Media Encounter, the author Alan Liu takes about the problem in sustainability as the world progresses from one medium to the next. He says “the messiness of media change tends to come out more accidentally” (Alan Liu, Imagining the New Media Encounter). In other words, some messages just don’t translate well from medium to medium. I disagree that there is a messiness with Charles Darwin’s book because it is not a great piece of literature, or a narrative of sorts. It’s a scientific book that explains a scientific theory, therefore it can be told through any medium as long the point gets across. I agree that for great pieces of literature, new mediums just don’t serve the original any justice. For example in Romeo and Juliet, the love story is told most beautifully by reading the original words, preferably in a book. Any other medium, including movies, just isn’t the same. In fact this can be said about most books that get turned into movies. But with The Origin of Species, Darwin introduces a scientific theory, and evidence to back it up, which I believe can exist in any medium as long as it’s explained correctly. I believe that this exhibit does a fine job in summarizing the history and detail of Darwin’s greatest discovery, the origin of species.