Catherine Diamondis Final Major Project: Quirkology Exhibition: 2012

Background

Quirkology uses scientific methods to study the more curious aspects of everyday life. Many of these unusual experiments in human behaviour use mainstream methods to investigate unusual topics. Others use unusual methods to investigate mainstream topics. All of them are the result of behavioural scientists misbehaving. The term was coined by Professor Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire who has carried out numerous strange experiments of human behaviour of his own. He has written two books, published over forty papers in academic journals, and gained an international reputation for research into unusual areas of psychology, including deception, luck and the paranormal.

The maverick Victorian scientist Sir Francis Galton is considered the pioneer of quirkology. Sir Francis devoted much of his life to the study of unusual topics, including work into prayer, boredom, and beauty. He objectively determined whether his colleagues’ lectures were boring by surreptitiously measuring the level of fidgeting in their audiences, and created a ‘Beauty Map’ of Britain by walking along the high streets of major cities with a punch counter in his pocket, secretly recording whether the people he passed were good, medium, or bad looking!

Each generation of psychologists has produced a small number of researchers who have carried out quirkological research. Academics who have, for instance: examined how many people it takes to start a Mexican wave in a football stadium; examined the psychology of smiling by applying voltages to the face; identified the perceived personality characteristics of fruit (lemons are seen as dislikeable, onions as stupid, and mushrooms as social climbers); examined how to tell the difference between a fake smile and a genuine smile, and how to detect deceit. Much of the work has revealed impressive insights into the secret psychology behind many aspects of everyday life.

The Brief

The Science Museum in London, is planning a forthcoming exhibition featuring this curious psychology, which promises to bring science and psychology to a wide and diverse audience. The exhibition will feature the results of many fascinating research studies carried out worldwide by behavioural scientists across generations. This will include recorded experiments showing scientific data, film and photographic documentation, interactive experiments, unusual demonstrations and curious exhibits such as a wide range of testing equipment and scientific apparatus. Experiments will encompass themes such as lying, laughter and luck amongst other quirky aspects of human behaviour.

Requirements

You are required to design an identity for the exhibition and a range of promotional material to include the following:

1. A poster advertising the exhibition at the Science Museum. The following details for which must be included:

Title of the exhibition plus subheading

Date: 8 June – 22 NovTime: 10.00 to 18.00

Tel 0870 870 4868

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

Science Museum logo

2. EITHER a mailer promoting the exhibition OR a promotional item to be on sale in the shop

3. Appropriate signage for inside and outside the museum

4. Exhibition ticket

5. A visually stimulating 20-page accompanying programme/journal:

The size and format of the journal are left for you to decide

The content of the programme/journal and the words you use will be drawn from your research into quirkology. It is not expected that you will write your own copy, instead you will find it on the internet and in books– all sites, articles and authors must be acknowledged. You will be expected to transform data relating to the experiments into a visual form. Consider the topics and appropriate visuals – cartographic visuals, diagrams, explanatory visuals and visual languages associated with mapping/information design.

Tone of voice

The overriding tone should reflect the quirkiness of the subject matter.