Art Lab
This collaborative experiment invited Atlanta, its families, and its artists into the High Museum’s design process to help reimagine the future of their family-focused space.
Museums around the world have been undergoing a seismic shift from places where people go to observe art to places where people go to interact with, and even create, art. The High Museum invited Second Story and local artist Esteban Patiño to help craft an interactive space where the museum could explore new ideas and activities with its visitors.
Art Lab consisted of a series of installations that let children and adults create and imagine together by taking a playful, tactile approach to learning. Second Story contributed three interactive prototypes to this experiment. We explored participatory extensions of Jaime Hayon’s work, allowing visitors to make their own stop-motion movie using his imaginative characters. We gave kids and families a way to create and share their own digital artworks. And the Ism-Izer mirror helped visitors learn about art movements through play as they transformed their reflections into impressionist or pointillist self-portraits.
The Art Lab turned a former gallery space into an exciting living laboratory, and the High gleaned valuable insights directly from the local community to inform the redesign of its Greene Family Learning Gallery.