Text

No one comes to an exhibition in order to read texts. However, well written texts are crucial for the quality of an exhibition: They can open one's eyes and direct one's attention to decisive things.

Guide lines for the writing of good exhibition texts:

Texts for exhibitions have to be short and simple (not primitive!). Information murals and walk-through- books have no business being there.

Texts need to adjust to a text hierarchy that makes meaningful supplements to the content and visual structure of the exhibition.

The spacial placement of a text has to reveal what exhibit it refers to.

What applies to a good essay, applies to a exhibition text, too. They have to be colourful and vivid, without diverting the visitor's attention from the exhibits.

Exhibition texts should be structured in a way that the visitor has the chance to stop reading after every line without feeling guilty.

Example of a badly written museum text:

Schleifbock (grinding stand)
Metabowerke KG, Nürtingen, 1964

Grinding machines belong to the group of precision machines. This exhibit of the Metabowerke company in Nürtingen also belongs to this type of machine and stands in line with the tradition of grinding by means of a stone which is set into rotation with a crank. What was formerly done by hand on this machine, which weighs 150 kg and was produced in 1964, is now done by an electric motor with a capacity of 0.75 kW, which drives the grinding wheel at 2,800 revs per minute. As the diameter of the grinding stone decreases after every operation, the operator of the machine has the possibility to reduce the distance between the workpiece and the grinding wheel accordingly. This is done by using an adjustable workpiece support. The two glass panels keep off the sparks, created by the strong friction during the grinding process, which could endanger the operator.

A useable museum text:

Schleifbock (grinding stand)

Metabowerke KG, Nürtingen, 1964

This machine is a successor
to the traditional hand-operated grinding stone.
Blunt tools can be sharpened with this.

The position of the workpiece support is adjustable in a way
that the distance between the gradually decreasing grinding wheels remains constant.

Two glass panels deflect sparks.

revs per minute 2800 rpm

capacity 0,75 kW
weight 150 kg

[expositum]