I hate boring old museums that just give you a piece of art or an artifact and an index card with a date.  Instead, I would like to recreate my awesome memories of places like the Austin children’s museum where the educational material is interactive and fun.  I would want to revisit such a place and I hope those aboard the ship would too.

My space will be a recreation of the interior of the Pantheon.  It once held many sculptures in its coffers and I think that bringing in the works of Tintoretto, Sun Tzu, and Eisenhard would make it look like a museum.  I don’t want these ancient works presented in a space ship setting because it will make them look modern.  Instead, I want them all housed in a structure which is thousands of years old to bolster their authenticity.  That’s not to say that I don’t want at least some parts of it to be modernized.  The oculus of the Pantheon will be sealed so everything doesn’t get sucked into space because that would be a terrible way to preserve ancient artifacts.  On top of sealing the oculus, I will put a screen over the opening that shows an image of the sky and it will adjust its darkness in accordance with the time of day.  People on the spaceship were never able to see the sky when it was blue.  Before they left earth, if there was a break in the acid rain and they went outside, the smog made everything too grey to be worth looking at.  They will now have an opportunity to see the sky the way it was before we polluted it.  I want the floor of the Pantheon to be a part of the spaceship.  It doesn’t need it to be sloped like in the real Pantheon because there won’t be any rainwater coming in through the oculus.  Instead it will be white and backlit (kind of like an Apple store) so that the coffers high in the ceiling are lit and easier to enjoy.<!--more-->

The work of Tintoretto will be mounted on the wall with lights pointed at it.  They will have special light bulbs that don’t bleach the paint and the painting will be mounted behind a layer of protective glass.  I will have a small part of the painting blown up and shown in close detail so that everyone can see just how painstaking the process of painting with small brushstrokes was.  I think I would put in a screen that went to different parts of the painting and zoomed in on the painting to show off the details of the entire work to do this.  I want people to understand how difficult the entire process of painting such a piece used to be.  The painting wasn’t even the entirety of what needed to be created by the artist.  I will have a little station where people can put their hands into rubber gloves (like where people can play with space rocks) so that they can reach in and handle tools an artist would have needed to create the paint colors they were looking for.  For example, there would be a mortar and pestle for grinding up a piece of mineral that was necessary for creating a specific color of paint.  There would be many minerals and clays to choose from so that visitors would be able to mix them and create new colors.  I want to have an example of a paint color Tintoretto used in his depiction of “The Last Supper” and challenge them to recreate it.  I think this would be an excellent way to show off the difficulty and accuracy to create a color just by looking and seeing what it needed to look like.  For the Pantheon, I would cut out a piece of the wall so that people could see just how much empty space was in there to save weight.  I would also have a replica for them to look at and pictures of the outside of the Pantheon because if they walk in and the interior of the room is made to look like the Pantheon, they won’t have an opportunity to see what the outside looks like.  I would include a short video depicting the large columns and their journey from Africa.  This would make them realize how much work went into building the Pantheon and they would hopefully appreciate it more.  There would be a large dolly of clay floating in the pantheon (on antigravity technology) that people can use to try and make bricks as well as a piece of marble they can try to cut with tools implementing the same technology that the Romans had when they cut the various types of rock used in constructing the Pantheon.  Eisenhard’s <em>Life of Charlemagne </em>will be harder to display.  It is a biography so I would include a screen that constantly showed depictions of Charlemagne and his buddy Eisenhard.  Hopefully I will get lucky and find a few of them together.  I would create a list of accomplishments and use a time travelling robot with a video camera to capture some of Charlemagne’s greatest moments.  Because this invention is new even to the spaceship I’m sure it will create the buzz that my museum needs.  It wouldn’t play the footage until the end of whatever slideshow of pictures I decide to play so hopefully people will stick around for the whole thing in hopes of seeing the film.  I also want it to be a bit humorous.  People wouldn’t expect a film of this genre to be entertaining but I will prove them wrong by showing scenes of his crazy daughters getting into trouble and maybe a couple of candid moments caught by my time travelling film robot.  It would show him at his best, the ruler of a large kingdom, but it would also show that he was only human.  I will have the book left open on a pedestal so the passersby can see it and appreciate its age.  My last piece is <em>The Art of War</em> by Sun Tzu.  One of the original copies of this work was found in a tomb and is written on bamboo.  I will bring this copy along and mount it on the wall.  There will be a bunch of quotes from the book on the wall so that people can quickly learn see his brilliance.  There will also be a short but very informative film of Sun Tzu and his men battling because I will send my time travelling robot with a video camera.  There will be a few video games set up in this area of the pantheon so that people can implement Sun Tzu’s teachings and realize how effective they are.  Also, there will be different levels from different time periods that will show how some of his teachings are universal and still apply today.

The work of Tintoretto is a good example of art from that time period because it depicts jesus and was commissioned by a church.  The Pantheon is a building created by the Roman government for worshipping the gods.  This was very common in that time and place.  Sun Tzu’s <em>The Art of War</em> was written during the Warring states period.  With all of that fighting going on, it’s little wonder that a book about warfare was written.  With all of that fighting, new ideas could be tested and it could be decided whether they were right or wrong.  Life of Charlemagne is not typical of its era because it is a biography and these were never written at the time.  However, its content is entirely about that time period so it depicts life at the time and thus is a very accurate representation of the time period.

The Pantheon is unique because of its size and the use of coffers and hollow space in the walls to reduce weight.  Also, most buildings at the time didn’t have an oculus or such impressive pillars in front.  It was created with the intention of impressing visitors and instilling nationalism in the Roman citizens.  This explains, the architectural pieces are so large and impressive.  Buildings and monuments have been created throughout history with the intent of showing off.  The people on the ship will be familiar with this and get to compare impressive buildings from the past with those from the present.  I think that the combination of concepts with which they are already familiar, and those which they didn’t know about, like weight reduction in domes, will make for an enjoyable exhibit.

Eisenhard’s Life of Charlemagne is significant because biographies were never written at the time.  It was the first in hundreds of years to be produced and I am not aware of any others from the time period.  It provides a detailed look into the life of someone who was powerful successful and very famous.  The account of his life is biased but innovatice for its time.  It also brings up aspects of Charlemagne’s rule which are significant.  For example, his funding of public education and literature is something that people on the ship will probably appreciate.  His ideas were modern and will hopefully be just as well received in 2100 as they are today.

Tintoretto’s Last Supper is innovative because it shows the transition into impressionism.  Tintoretto learned to paint at a school in Venice which was progressive for its time.  They had just begun to create works from tiny brush strokes so the art looked like smears of paint from up close but when viewed from further away, clearly made a picture.  At the time, art was created with brushstrokes.

<em>The Art of War</em> by Sun Tzu was revolutionary because a wealth of knowledge as vast as Sun Tzu’s had never been recorded.  His work isn’t just full of information, it is well organized and he clearly knew what he was doing when he wrote his famous book.  He seemed to have a keen understanding of every factor that can influence the outcome of a war and he explained them all clearly.

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People will interact with the exhibit a lot.  I’ve included a lot of activities that will allow them to get involved with the exhibit while they’re learning about it.  The activities will also make them appreciate the artifacts more as they try to recreate some of the things that ancient people did regularly and they understand how much time and effort is embodied by these artifacts.