Insubmersible Titanic
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The RMS Titanic was a British trans-Atlantic liner which, on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean following a collision with an iceberg. It was steered by Commander Edward Smith who sank with the ship. Some of the wealthiest personalities of the time made this voyage aboard the liner, as well as hundreds of emigrants.
This exhibition was designed as a journey, following the model of the exhibitions of the Bauhaus movement. Visitors physically move alongside a table to view the different stages this tragic event. Behind the table were panels information which presented different aspects of the shipwreck. To achieve an interactive role play with visitors, the students mounting this exhibit played different roles. A main guide or narrator told the story of the Titanic. Another other students enunciated the theories mobilised and yet another students engaged the visitors in an interactive question-answer session about what happened on that ship when passengers boarded and the hours preceding the collision with the iceberg. The exhibit was rounded off by a musical performance (one of the students, a saxophonist, played at intervals thus attracting a lot of attention from the public. Other props were used such as staging, video, sound, photography which created a Bauhaus total art and 360° surround effect. |
During the exhibition, the students presented period newspapers, in French and English, that were displayed on the windows which visitors saw as soon as they arrived, giving them essential information on Harold Lasswell’s the 5W theory acccording to which a communication act can be analysed by posing these five questions "Who says What to Whom in Which Channel with What Effect ?". On the table, were identity cards that visitors had to take and handle during the exhibition. Thus the visitors were also engaged in a role play as passengers of the Titanic.
For the Palo Alto school, the contextual, cultural background and language skills are important factors for communication to happen in the best conditions. Gregory Bateson used the analogy of the orchestra to explain the importance of the framework, codes and language in an interpersonal communication setting. Like in an orchestra, every relationship is seen as a vast network of communication.
The students also displayed photographs showing different places on the ship with passengers of different classes with musical instruments added in collage. The students also made a model of the boat that enabled visitors to visualise the plan of the boat with again references to music. Furthermore, visitors were divided into 3 categories according to the identity cards they received earlier. As we learnt, these ID cards which passengers of the Titatnic had forbade passengers in the third class to talk with those of the first or second class passengers.
The passengers were influenced by the public opinion relayed by the media and on the other hand the opinion leaders thus evoking the "two step flow communication" theory of Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz.
A student talked about weather constraints and his link to Bruce Ismay by presenting a painting done by the students depicting a ship at night under a frozen sea and a representation of an iceberg. Depicted in front of these, was a portrait of the captain with the axioms of Palo Alto. Another student (the saxophonist) played the music performed by the orchestra of the Titanic on the night of the shipwreck to accentuate the noise on the ship, pausing now and then to explain the situation on the ship and the captain's order. Visitors were then showed a representation of the list of the dead. A globe placed in front of the guide served to present the large number of communications made during the day and the day after the drama around the world to present Shannon's theory.
For the Palo Alto school, the contextual, cultural background and language skills are important factors for communication to happen in the best conditions. Gregory Bateson used the analogy of the orchestra to explain the importance of the framework, codes and language in an interpersonal communication setting. Like in an orchestra, every relationship is seen as a vast network of communication.
The students also displayed photographs showing different places on the ship with passengers of different classes with musical instruments added in collage. The students also made a model of the boat that enabled visitors to visualise the plan of the boat with again references to music. Furthermore, visitors were divided into 3 categories according to the identity cards they received earlier. As we learnt, these ID cards which passengers of the Titatnic had forbade passengers in the third class to talk with those of the first or second class passengers.
The passengers were influenced by the public opinion relayed by the media and on the other hand the opinion leaders thus evoking the "two step flow communication" theory of Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz.
A student talked about weather constraints and his link to Bruce Ismay by presenting a painting done by the students depicting a ship at night under a frozen sea and a representation of an iceberg. Depicted in front of these, was a portrait of the captain with the axioms of Palo Alto. Another student (the saxophonist) played the music performed by the orchestra of the Titanic on the night of the shipwreck to accentuate the noise on the ship, pausing now and then to explain the situation on the ship and the captain's order. Visitors were then showed a representation of the list of the dead. A globe placed in front of the guide served to present the large number of communications made during the day and the day after the drama around the world to present Shannon's theory.
