Raisin Muffin Principle

What’s a raisin muffin mostly made of? 

Raisins?

Despite the name, a raisin muffin is mostly not raisins. It’s mostly muffin. Star billing goes to the less common ingredient. Same with sesame bagels and chocolate croissants.

So, the Raisin Muffin Principle: “A small amount of a star ingredient can give an experience its name.”

Many museums want interaction, immersion, and high-tech. But few are so well-funded to have only those features. Usually, an “interactive” exhibition is mostly not interactive. It’s mostly muffin.

Imagine a new “interactive exhibition about forks.” We can expect lots of forks. And texts, videos, maybe … oral histories.

And some cool interactives. We just don’t expect the entire thing to require interaction. In fact, that might be a bummer. Like a raisin muffin made only out of raisins.

So what percentage of a muffin has to be raisins to merit the name? 37%? It’s less than you think. The art lies in making it seem like there’s more than there is.

Here’s the thing:

Our exhibitions can have less interactive-immersive-high-tech elements than we think, and still keep their adjectives. Which will save our budgets.

The art lies in making it seem like there’s more than there is.

Warmly,
Jonathan