Identity from UK, China and India

Interest in language and linguistics

Familiarity

Ordinary that is actually extraordinary

Hidden and secrets

Protection

Independence

Mandarin

French

Hindi

Marathi

Braj

Bhojburi

Marwadi

Bengali

Indian sign language

Spanish

Sakshi: Air and space Udvar-Hazy centre

African American History and culture museum

Anacostia Community Museum

Xiyu: Air and Space Museum

American Art Museum

Arts and industries Building

Portrait Museum

Frankie: American History museum

Cooper Hewitt

Postal Museum

1. Hidden women climate scientists of the Smithsonian explored through photographs

2. Effect of technology on rural women's domestic lives in 20th century America

3. Women working in Aviation in 20th Century America

Xiyu- Flight attendants

Frankie- Scientists

Sakshi- Pilots/Amelia Earhart

We carried out a skill's audit and considered what connects us as a group.

We were focused on looking at the different cultures we come from and the languages spoken as a group.

There was a particular focus on our experiences within those cultures as women.

Object- Women's Aviation fashion.

Action- 1. How Aviation fashion changed over time.

2. What this tells us about how women's role in the workplace is changing.

   
   

Consequence-

1. To inspire confidence in the idea that women can thrive in any workplace.

2. That fashion can serve as a powerful means of liberation.

Green- Definitely need to use

Yellow- Useful but won't use

Red- Not related anymore

We also found that we had too many items and it was important for us to be ruthless and to remove anything that wasn't useful anymore even if it was interesting to us.

Amelia Earhart:

Pilot

Fashion designer

Future generations (legacy)

Air Hostesses:

1930's

1950's

1960's

Hollywood

Male Gaze

1980's

1990's

We removed any items that were no longer needed to have a more concise item list.

Introduction panel- context of America specifically the role of women in the workforce

Amelia Earhart- introduction panel

Amelia Earhart as a fashion designer intro panel

Air hostesses - intro panel

Panel talking about the male gaze

We decided that we should include true stories of women in the Aviation industry. This allows people to feel more connected to the topic. It also allows us to highlight lesser known stories.

Frankie- intro label

-Jean Louis fashion line photo

Xi Yu- Air hostess intro panel

-Ellen church photo caption

Sakshi- Amelia intro panel

- Amelia modelling

Leeds University students:

Design students

Feminists

Women

International students

This means we are going to use very simple and clear language.

The topic focus of America is also interesting to us as it is not a country any of us are from. We wanted it to be accessible to people who didn't know the context meaning we put a lot of time and focus on the introductory panel.

This is to grab people's attentions, whilst also introducing the sections and topics.

'This accounts for how visitors interact with displays. Ultimately, some engage more than others. You can think of visitors in a display space as paddlers, swimmers and divers. Paddlers will skim the surface, only reading very top line information. Swimmers will delve a little deeper. They will read some of the panels and labels but not every one in detail. Divers will be searching for as much information as possible. They will be invested in the narrative and prepared to read information on every level.'

We wanted to have a short and snappy phrase as part of the title but also thought it was important to explain the key points of the Big Idea. We felt that one of the interesting parts of the exhibition is it's specificity so we wanted that to be clear to potential visitors.

For example 'you might be able to spot the interlocking "9s" in her design that later became the iconic logo for the organization.'

This was part of our effort to refocus the fashion elements but also part of us wanting to make the exhibition engaging and interactive.

We found that when editing them it was very useful to read them out loud, to make sure that it was conversational. This also really helped us to make sure that the sentences weren't too long.

The word used has changed throughout history and does reflect the specific time period. The terms are often gendered and reflect how the role has been gendered throughout history. We decided that it would be best to use one consistent term throughout and that as flight attendant is the main term used nowadays that it would be the best.

It is also nice to have a gender neutral term as we are discussing how the male gaze has affected the role and wanted to avoid adding to that ourselves through the name.

I noticed this when we trying to add in the photo references.

We had failed to notice that none of the items we had planned in using were within creative commons usage.

1. substitution

2. illustration

3. curator's response

It does mark an epoch, doesn't it, when a girl in an evening dress and slippers can pilot a plane at night," Eleanor Roosevelt remarked after the fact (per The Baltimore Sun). 

We had been looking for something to ground us as curators back into the exhibition as that had been so important to us at the beginning.

We approached them as if they were streams of consciousness or your inner monologue before leaving the house. I found it easier if I said the checklist out loud when creating it and then committed it to paper.

'Engaged Community Drivers see themselves as being interested in almost everything. They are particularly interested in food and nutrition, photography, art & design, nature and the environment, and science.'

This fits because our exhibition is quite niche and we think it suits people with broad interests. It ties in interests of feminism and fashion and also the Aviation industry. We are not aiming it at Passionate Specialists as although it is specialised, the way we have created the interpretation is not as in depth as it would have been if aimed at passionate specialists.

The exhibition specifically relates to those with interests in art and design which is one of the areas of interest for Engaged Community Drivers.

We mostly used the brown and blue colours throughout as they were more neutral and complimented the black and white photos well and created a cohesive tone.

For our final section which is a curatorial response and breaks away from the exhibition we wanted to use that brighter colour to indicate it as a section that was different. But it was still connected by having it being a colour from the previous display.

We found it really interesting during this process how the response added to the theme throughout of gaze. By adding these pictures we were inviting people to gaze at us directly. This process did feel very vulnerable but it also felt like a really lovely way to connect on a personal level with themes we had been exploring for weeks.

This activity is based off what could have been done as an engagement project with groups responding to the exhibition. So, it was very interesting to think about putting this response into the exhibition itself.

It was particularly interesting when Xiyu mentioned that in Chinese schools on mirrors there is a quote that translates to:

'Correcting your dress is the first step to correcting your morality'.

This connects so clearly to our project and we might not have got to it otherwise let alone include it.

Adding in a mix of languages to the section made it feel even more that it reflected us as a curatorial team.

We used this Gif of a plane taking off as it added to the theme and included the main colour scheme of blue and brown.

This was instead of having a home page that leads to different sections, we wanted there to be a specific journey through the exhibition.

The exhibition was created to be in chronological order with one section flowing into the next. A big part of our big idea was to show change over time and by doing this online we were able to create one route through the exhibition that presented this.

This created a clear first part of the journey and you could only move to the next part by clicking the button. This was so that people would be encouraged to pause and read the introduction.

But we weren't sure where to put this section about Ellen Church. Because content wise it fitted best with flight attendants. But the design element of the logo matches the elements from the pilots section. But we decided that we would put it with the section that it fitted with from a design point. Then we made sure to highlight in the text how this section works as a bridge. Ellen church wanted to be a pilot and because she wasn't allowed she created the flight attendant career.

Having these bridge sections is something that is perhaps easier in a physical exhibition but online as we are directly splitting them up by webpages we found it hard to place this section and to get it to be effective as a connector.

These sketches were done by Sakshi with watercolour pencils and by Xiyu digitally.

Create presentation

We had really interesting conversations about breadth and depth within exhibitions. We discussed how useful parameters can be. We talked a lot about how you decide what those parameters are.