8 Ways to Be “Phygital”, with Alin Tocmacov
04/10/23 • 63 min
Is everything “phygital”? Are all our projects now neither physical nor digital, but both? How can a “phygital mindset” lead to better experience design? Exhibition designer and “phygital architect” Alin Tocmacov joins host Jonathan Alger (both partners at C&G Partners) to hash out some key principles, in “8 Ways to Be Phygital”. Stops along the way: magic portals, digital architecture, and that thing about glowing rectangles.
Quotable Quotes:
“Phygital is a mindset.”
“Think beyond the glowing rectangle.”
“A site-specific experience is unique by definition.”
“Technology shouldn’t be applied to architecture, it should be the architecture.”
“Every member of a project team now has to think phygitally.”
How to Listen:
Subscribe and listen anywhere you get your podcasts.
Or start here: https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/8
See you there!
Warmly,
Jonathan
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Guest Bio:
Alin Tocmacov, Partner, C&G Partners: Alin is a museum and exhibition designer with more than 25 years’ experience leading multi-disciplinary creative teams for cultural organizations and major nonprofits in Europe, the Middle East, Canada and the United States. He is a partner at C&G Partners, where his projects focus on the “phygital,” the intersection between physical and digital experiences. Originally from Switzerland, Alin has a master’s degree in architecture from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He is also an adjunct professor in the Spatial Experience Design BFA Program at the FIT School of Art and Design in New York.
About:
Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger.
This is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture.
Learn about the firm's creative work at: https://www.cgpartnersllc.com
Show Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alintocmacov
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Newsletter:
Like the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter!
Making the Museum is also a one-minute daily newsletter on exhibition planning for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Learn more, read past editions, and subscribe here: https://www.makingthemuseum.com
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Is everything “phygital”? Are all our projects now neither physical nor digital, but both? How can a “phygital mindset” lead to better experience design? Exhibition designer and “phygital architect” Alin Tocmacov joins host Jonathan Alger (both partners at C&G Partners) to hash out some key principles, in “8 Ways to Be Phygital”. Stops along the way: magic portals, digital architecture, and that thing about glowing rectangles.
Quotable Quotes:
“Phygital is a mindset.”
“Think beyond the glowing rectangle.”
“A site-specific experience is unique by definition.”
“Technology shouldn’t be applied to architecture, it should be the architecture.”
“Every member of a project team now has to think phygitally.”
How to Listen:
Subscribe and listen anywhere you get your podcasts.
Or start here: https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/8
See you there!
Warmly,
Jonathan
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Guest Bio:
Alin Tocmacov, Partner, C&G Partners: Alin is a museum and exhibition designer with more than 25 years’ experience leading multi-disciplinary creative teams for cultural organizations and major nonprofits in Europe, the Middle East, Canada and the United States. He is a partner at C&G Partners, where his projects focus on the “phygital,” the intersection between physical and digital experiences. Originally from Switzerland, Alin has a master’s degree in architecture from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He is also an adjunct professor in the Spatial Experience Design BFA Program at the FIT School of Art and Design in New York.
About:
Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger.
This is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture.
Learn about the firm's creative work at: https://www.cgpartnersllc.com
Show Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alintocmacov
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Newsletter:
Like the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter!
Making the Museum is also a one-minute daily newsletter on exhibition planning for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Learn more, read past editions, and subscribe here: https://www.makingthemuseum.com
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Previous Episode
Revealing the Story with Light, with Steven Rosen and Ted Mather
Is lighting art or science?
If you’re a curator tasked with lighting design, where do you start? Is lighting about light, or about shadows? If an exhibit ain't lit, is it there? When is a lighting designer's job actually about not lighting things?
Lighting designers Steven Rosen and Ted Mather (Available Light) join host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) on Making the Museum, the podcast, to discuss "Revealing the Story with Light".
Along the way: how an exhibition is like a theatrical stage, and a reminder that design is a team sport.
REMASTERED: This episode is one of the first, from early 2023. It has been audio remastered to recover sound lost from mic problems in the original. This new version was uploaded on July 2, 2024. Enjoy!
Talking Points:
1. What shadows reveal
2. The ABC’s of Lighting
a. Ambient Luminescence
b. Focal Glow
c. Play of Brilliance
3. HELP! I’m a curator tasked with a lighting design—where do I start?
4. Is lighting art or science?
5. Photon or wave?
Quotable Quotes:
“If it ain’t lit, it ain’t there.”
“Lighting is about choosing where the shadows are going to fall”
“If the lips aren’t lit, no one hears them.”
“More lights aren’t about being brighter, it’s about more control.”
“You are painting with light.”
“Design is a team sport”
How to Listen:
Subscribe and listen anywhere you get your podcasts.
Or start here: https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/
Guest Bios:
Steven Rosen, President and Creative Director, Available Light: Merging performance lighting techniques with traditional non-theatrical environments launched Steven’s career and his founding of Available Light over 30 years ago. From Museum exhibits to immersive architecture to trade shows, the fun never stops—it helps that he works with some of the planet’s most talented lighting aficionados. The originality and grand scale of Steven’s award-winning designs are evident in many one-of-a-kind award-winning projects as: The Neural Climber interactive at the Franklin Institute, Ocean Hall for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the International Spy Museum in DC, and Chicago MSI’s U-505. He is passionate about supporting the lighting community.
Steven is a member of Praxis Museum Projects Group, a "network of professionals, each of whom brings an expertise to the process of creating exhibitions and cultural experiences in collaboration with exhibit designers, architects, and museums".
Ted Mather, Managing Principal, New York Studio, Available Light:By design, Ted Mather’s career resides at the intersection of theatrical, entertainment, and architectural lighting. Ted’s dramatic flair and technical expertise merge seamlessly to create striking, dynamic environments and state-of-the-art installations. Ted’s decades of experience—working around the globe—means that his creative vision is balanced with what is truly practical and possible. Ted has transformed the Architainment industry with groundbreaking, award-winning projects such as The International Spy Museum, the National WWII Museum, and the National Museum of African American Music. Ted began his training at the University of Illinois and received his MFA in Stage design from NYU.
About:
Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger.
This is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture. Learn about the firm's creative work at: https://www.cgpartnersllc.com
Show Links:
Steven Rosen
https://www.availablelight.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-rosen-fiald-70a2593/
https://www.praxisexhibits.com
https://www.praxisexhibits.com/posts/89tp8gajbu2bvd4lnn9rqaf1z1eorm-a7w52
https://www.businessoflight.org
https://www.businessoflight.org/who-we-are.html
Ted Mather
https://www.availablelight.com/team/ted-mather
Next Episode
L.A.T.C.H. - The Five Ways to Organize Any Content (The Podcast)
What’s the best way to organize the content in our experiences? What tricks are we forgetting to try? And what if you learned there were five ways to do it — and only five? Host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) does a solo show on “L.A.T.C.H.”, the framework proposed by TED founder Richard Saul Wurman, where there are just five ways to organize any kind of information. Along the way, we’ll cover dozens of ways to apply L.A.T.C.H. to museum and experience projects, explore two surprising potential additions to the list, and even do a little audience participation.
Quotable Quotes:
“Wurman’s idea was that any form of information organization was one of these five, or a subtype of one of them — and there aren’t any others.”
“You could organize a sculpture show by C for Categorical, by sorting by medium. You could put marble over here, bronze over there ... and dead shark in formaldehyde way over there.”
“Each of the five types don’t only have examples like the ones we talked about. They also have subtypes. Let’s look into some.”
“Sometimes you have an idea but it doesn’t feel quite right. Maybe it’s because the L.A.T.C.H. types aren’t the right fit. Or you are combining subtypes in an awkward way. But you didn’t know why. And maybe now you know.”
“There are two proposed additions to the list. One totally surprised me. The other has me scratching my head. Let’s see what you think.”
How to Listen:
Subscribe and listen anywhere you get your podcasts.
Or start here: https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/9
See you there!
Warmly,
Jonathan
- - - - - - - - - - - - Bio:
We always start with a guest bio, but this is a solo show, so here’s mine: I am the Managing Partner of C&G Partners, a design firm in New York City working with cultural clients. I was taught architecture and graphic design in the day, and theater and music at night, but never thought I could do all that for a living. Like every guest on this show so far, I got into this field accidentally. In fact it found me, but that’s a story for another time.
About:
Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger.
This is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture.
Learn about the firm's creative work at: https://www.cgpartnersllc.com
Show Links:
Richard Saul Wurman’s “Information Anxiety”:
https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2019/03/book-review-information-anxiety.php
Nathan Shedroff’s Additions:
https://nathan.com/information-interaction-design-a-unified-field-theory-of-design/
Contacting Jonathan:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contact
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalger
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Newsletter:
Like the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter!
Making the Museum is also a very short daily newsletter on exhibition planning for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Learn more, read past editions, and subscribe here: https://www.makingthemuseum.com
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