The Guggenheim Museum story takes many fascinating twists and turns from it’s humble origins as a small, focused collection in a New York City apartment to it’s current iteration as a diverse global art institution that oversees one of the preeminent modern art collections of the world. In this talk we will look at decisions, characters, problems and evolution points in the museum’s history that have parallels to, and contain lessons for, the practice of modern day user experience.

1. This is a talk about what Art and Museum Spaces can teach us about
User Experience and Interface design.
Museums in particular are good places to examine because, unlike other
architecture, Museums are in the business of displaying content,
providing metadata and creating environments to navigate through, in
order to provide an experience.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

2. The Guggenheim makes for a nice framework for all of this.
First, because there are architectural decisions that were made in the
guggenheim that had never been made before (and many which have not
been made since)
and second, as an organization, it was created and has operated an
awful lot like a start up.
This is also a personal story for me.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

3. I’m president and owner of Exploded Map.
I’m mostly a “UX team of one” enterprise but I do build out larger teams
on occasion for larger more complex projects.
I live and work in Brooklyn NY and you can follow me on the twitters at
@jaredac
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

4. I went to computer camp in 1983 where I programmed my first piece of
software on a Texas Instruments TRS-80.
Then I became a teenager and got myself into lots of teenage trouble
which landed me Here … (Next Slide)
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

5. Storm King Mountain is known for a few things …
1. The school I went to
2. The New York Military Academy was right down the street
3. This place (Next Slide)
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

6. This is the Storm King Arts Center. It’s a sculpture park on the mountain.
This place fascinated me.
I came to this place with a well formed idea of what a museum was and
this place destroyed that.
There is a radical relationship between content and interface here
because the “UI” shapes the “content” as much as the content shapes the
UI and the way we, as users engage both, is deeply affected by this
interplay.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

7. Menashe Kadishman “Suspended” 1977
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

8. Menashe Kadishman again -
Sense of scale to the space
These artists know what they are doing and they understand the
environment they are working in.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

9. Maya Lin – Wavefield
At this point we’ve totally broken down the idea of an interface.
The interface IS the content.
The only way to experience it is to actively walk on it and be in and of it.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

10. Alyson Shotz – Mirror Fence
This one interesting because in addition to reflecting the interface in the
content, the user experiences a reflection of himself as well. Content/
Interface/User … All one thing.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

11. I become very interested in this stuff and go to college to study Art
History.
(Yes that’s me)
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

12. I focus on Museology
What does it mean to be a museum?
What is the role of a Museum in Society?
What are the Ethics of running a museum?
How does the art in a museum affect the context of the space that
contains it?
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

13. Museums are not the hallow, sacred institutions we are taught.
They are political organizations with agendas just like anything else.
The Louvre is intentionally designed so that you find the French Painters
very easily. It has a secret a nationalistic agenda.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

14. Wassily Kandisnksy. Black Lines 1913
This is the art that sets context for the Guggenheim.
Paintings like this are grounded on a school of mysticism called
“Theosophy”.
Theosophy: espouses that color line and form have properties that will
resonate your soul in and affect your spirit in specific ways.
Art is no longer just something to be engaged and contemplated by the
user, it’s actually something that has properties of it’s own that push
outwardly and affect who we are and our relationship to the world.
Art has a sense of Agency imbued by it’s creator.
This is some heavy duty thinking for the early 20th century.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

15. This is sort of the basic supposition of experience and Interaction
design. As UX designers, we work in this middle space
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

16. This is what that model looks like when we apply the content layer to it
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Big Design 2015

17. This is the same thing with museums
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Big Design 2015

18. More recent thinking says this is more like it.
Peter Paul Veerbeck. Phenomenology / Mediation Theory.
There is interplay between all of these things. Experiences are created
when humans interact with devices and that interaction shapes who we
are.
The things we interact with mediate our relationship with the world.
Interaction design is designing humans’ world view.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

19. Kandisky though the same thing.
He wanted the experience of looking at his art shape us as people and
for us to take that into the world and make it a better place
Very romantic
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

20. Composition 8 1923
This is more typical of Kandinsky’s work
It’s very important to understand this work in order to understand how
we got to the final form of the museum
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

21. Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
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Big Design 2015

22. There IS NO Guggenheim without Hilla
Salomon is just the money man.
Hilla is the visionary.
Total Badass
Deeply enmeshed in art-scene in Germany.
Meets Guggenheim in 1927 on one of his trips to Europe.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

23. She gets Gugg to but some non-objective art
He moves her to NYC
She builds alliances in NY
She does grassroots PR and outreach
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@jaredac
Big Design 2015

24. She is an artist in her own right. Here she is on the cover of Der Sturm.
Major German Art Magazine of the day. No Joke.
Very impressive for anyone.
Extremely active time in the Art World.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

25. Portrait commissioned by Solomon.
It’s pretty bad. But he dug it and they got close.
She convinces him to start buying Non-Objective Art
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

26. They start storing the art in a suite at the Plaza, eventually across several
suites.
Hilla starts inviting members of the local NYC arts scene to check it out.
This is the MVP launch.
Inviting tastemakers and early adopters to get the word out.
Holding latter day Meetups where she gave talks on Non-Objective
paintings and Holding open critique nights where artists could bring
their work.
She then takes the collection out on tour, exhibiting at museums and
galleries to up the profile of the collection.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

27. 24 East 54th Street
This is after Kandinsky’s death in 1944.
This exhibit was a huge tour around the US.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

28. Rebay is kind of a wonky exhibit designer.
Fabric Walls, Hulking frames, Art hung very low.
Gugg plans to die, donate money and have his own wing at the
Metropolitan Museum of art.
Reba says “Not thinking big enough baby”
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

29. Rebay pulls a Sean Parker
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30. Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
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Big Design 2015

31. Gugg buys it. They start a foundation. And search for a location (here).
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Big Design 2015

32. Wright actually isn’t her first choice. She thinks he’s dead (Dude was old)
Immediately has some radical ideas about art that go totally against the
conventional wisdom of the day for Museum Curation.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

33. Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
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Big Design 2015

34. This is the prevailing wisdom. Blank walls. Flat Florescent lighting.
Nothing to distract from the purity of the viewing experience.
Wright thinks this sucks.
You walk into a space like this and you KNOW there is an agenda and an
information architecture but neither is clear.
Wright believes spaces should be sympathetic to their surroundings and
their purpose. This is very unsympathetic.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

35. Wright want’s to innovate and starts asking the big questions.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

36. Visual Sympatico Between Wright and Kandinsky
Left is Kandinsky Composition No. 8
Right is a textile FLW designed for a house
Could be brother artists
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

37. FLW totally gets this. He knows he is designing a cohesive environment
that is sympathetic to the content and to the user.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

38. Some interesting solutions.
Walls are set at 15 degrees (angle of an artist’s easel)
Gets viewer in touch with the creator
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

39. Space is meant to guide the user up to the heavens in a gentle, effortless
slope
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

40. Ability to look across the rotunda was like hyperlinking content.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

41. Story about Color.
Wright wants is really gunning for Red. Rebay says No way.
Red=bad things in Theosophy… Suggests Green or Yellow.
Thought Forms:
Annie Beast and C.W. Leadbeater
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16269
Free download.
Has the color plates with what all of the colors mean
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

42. Here is where they end up. Kind of a slightly brownish tan.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

43. ’46 Gugg puts everything on hold because the “post war climate +
Currency Devaluation” makes building too risky.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

44. ’47 -48 Sketch after Sketch after Sketch after Sketch.
He’s in Wireframing HELL
’49 Gugg Dies. Rebay looses all power.
Foundation nearly kills the whole project
’52 Rebay resigns
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

45. Installs This guy. (James Sweeney)
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Big Design 2015

46. He’s a Curator at MoMa. Very safe choice.
Like Scully taking over for Jobs at Apple in the 90’s
Hates the spiral. Starts fighting with Wright.
Insists on Whitewashing the interior.
Wright calls him “Johnson & Johnson Sweeney” (because of his affinity for
sterile spaces)
Ground doesn’t get broken until 1956.
Artists freak out when the spiral plans are made public.
They write a protest letter. Wright sends a FU telegram to Sweeney
because he’s sure he coordinated it.
Wright doesn’t care about the artists because he knows who the
customers are.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

47. Sweeny uses the existing space on 54th street and does what he knows.
Whitewash the interior.
Takes out the frames (probably a good idea)
Raises the art to eye level (Also a good idea)
But … boring.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

48. FLW Dies before the building is complete
The people freaking love it.
Critics not so much
Sweeny makes some weird decisions.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

49. Sweeney has decided to totally whitewash the interior after all.
He doesn’t like the angled walls and he creates a hack.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

50. See the shadow?
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Big Design 2015

51. He props the paintings so the float in space
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52. The critics this this is absurd.
Another View
Damning Critique
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

53. The space is kind of perfect for Kandinsky and Bauer and Even Mondrian
Who also based his work largely on Theosophy.
But problems begin to emerge as the art world moves on.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

54. Abby is talking about taxonomy but taxonomy on the web is also often
how you navigate digital spaces.
FLW has made a physical space and this thinking applies.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

55. This space is very flexibly but unclear and ambiguous. Clarity has been
sacrificed and it definitely isn’t sympathetic.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

56. FLW has made a physical space that is specific, clear and sympathetic,
but pretty inflexible.
Still the space has real problems, especially for the next wave of artists.
The colorfield painters.
Huge canvases that physically don’t fit.
It’s too bad because philosophically these artists really fit the collection
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

57. Radiating rhythm and time
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Big Design 2015

58. Radiating motion and action
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59. Radiating Spirituality
Best. Art Quote. Ever.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
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Big Design 2015

60. The flip side is that the constraints create some amazing opportunities
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

61. Calder shortly after opening.
Maybe the best display of one of his mobiles ever.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

62. This expression of her work isn’t possible unless you have this space.
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Big Design 2015

63. James Turrell
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64. The museum continues to evolve
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65. Thanhausser wing.
German Art Dealer Donates collection of pantings in ’63.
They build a new wing where office space used to be.
Doesn’t work so great.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

66. 1989. Museum needs structural repair
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Big Design 2015

67. They use this opportunity to build an Addition.
Critics start to Loose their shit. Now they love the museum, It’s become
iconic.
They say the addition has made it “the toilet bowl of NYC.”
Totally unwarranted.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

68. This is a Sketch from ~1943
FLW had a similar plan.
FLW hated NYC and wanted a backdrop all along
“There is no real architecture in New York”
NYC is NOT a sympathetic environment
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

69. This is the guy who oversaw the modern expansion and renovation.
Douchebag written all over him.
Last position was Mass MoCa. Giant art space / shopping mall concept
Brings Mass Commercialization to The Museum.
Mission Creep
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

70. Bilibao. Same museum formula.
Rockstar Architect.
The Experience is the Interface as much as it is the Art.
Totally works. Transforms the region.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

71. Museum in Soho.
Crappy exhibits by Prada and Harley Davidson
Complete Bust.
Closes in 2001.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

72. Las Vegas. (PUKE)
Opens same year Soho Closes
Closes 2008.
Irreparable damage to the brand
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

73. Same broken formula as SoHo.
Crappy Commercial exhibits
Irreparable damage to the Guggenheim brand
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@jaredac
Big Design 2015

74. Abu Dhabi Slated for 2017
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Big Design 2015

75. Helsinki (loosing entry)
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76. Helsinki (winning design) Slated for 2016.
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Big Design 2015

77. Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

78. Hilla and her Dogs.
She made alliances with hardball artists early.
Rudolph Bauer and Ferdinand Leger.
In getting UX work done, one of the most important things you can do is
to build small alliances internally.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

79. Guggenheim org forgot who they were.
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@jaredac
Big Design 2015

80. The formula of big, experiential spaces works so they keep doing it.
They have transformed into a multi-node, international network of art
institutions.
No other museum organization is this ambitious.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

81. We like patterns.
FLW had museum patterns. He thought they sucked.
He broke them deliberately because the patterns weren’t meeting the
requirements of the content.
We should do the same.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

82. If you really want to innovate. You need to embrace your constrains.
Somethings would not have ever existed unless they were totally re-
framed.
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

83. It’s hard to fault Wright for not foreseeing 12 foot canvases.
But still. The space had other problems he could have foreseen (Climate
control etc).
Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015

84. Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
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Big Design 2015

85. Jared Caponi, Exploded Map Inc.
@jaredac
Big Design 2015