Matters of Experience

What can museums learn from underground raves, video games, and experimental music? In this episode of Matters of Experience, ACMI Director and CEO Seb Chan shares his remarkable journey from Sydney’s early electronic-music scene to leading one of the world’s most innovative museums of screen culture.Seb explores how immersive experiences can spark curiosity without excluding audiences, why visitors often know more than institutions about the media they love, and how museums can provide the context that makes those connections meaningful. Enjoy a lively conversation about creativity, participation, and designing experiences that welcome everyone into the unfamiliar.

Charles Philipp believes museums can be small, surprising, and everywhere. As the founder of MICRO (www.micro.ooo), he creates immersive, research-driven exhibitions that fit into everyday settings, reaching audiences in hospitals, libraries, and other public spaces that traditional cultural institutions may overlook. In this conversation Charles traces the path from his early work in animation and fabrication to building a new kind of museum infrastructure. He discusses how MICRO designs for short attention spans without sacrificing depth, how optical illusions and tactile details can spark curiosity, and why exhibitions should speak with communities rather than at them. The episode explores the impact of MICRO's public-hospital installations during COVID, the value of rapid physical prototyping, and a new project that turns a retro refrigerator into a museum about food, biology, culture, and the microbiome.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Josh Perelman about the power of museums to shape memory, identity, and emotional connection. Through the story of The First Salute exhibition, the conversation explores how objects, narratives, and technology can bring overlooked histories to life. Dr. Perelman reflects on the responsibility of museums to create space for empathy, complexity, and multiple perspectives, while also discussing how AI and digital tools may change the way audiences experience the past. This episode offers an insightful look at how cultural institutions can move beyond simply presenting history and instead invite visitors into deeper conversations about who we are, where we come from, and how stories continue to shape our shared future.

What defines excellence in experiential design? In this episode of Matters of Experience, Abby Honor and Brenda Cowan welcome Travis Stanton, an award-winning editor, strategist, and global design competition leader. Travis reflects on his role judging the “World Expolympics” at Expo 2025 Osaka, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how international pavilions are evaluated. From emotionally resonant small-scale exhibits to spectacular multimedia environments, he explains why the strongest experiences are rooted in clear ideas rather than big budgets alone. The discussion also dives into trends shaping the industry and the evolving role of AI.

What does it take to turn a blank space into an unforgettable experience? In this episode, Carl Rhodes—Creative Director and exhibit design veteran—pulls back the curtain on the creative journey behind today’s most engaging museums.Starting as a painter unsure of his path, Carl shares how a willingness to explore led him into exhibition design, where storytelling, space, and technology intersect. He discusses how great ideas rarely arrive fully formed, but instead emerge through collaboration, iteration, and a bit of creative chaos.From rethinking how visitors connect with history to shaping experiences that resonate emotionally, Carl explores how narrative and physical interaction influence what we remember. Along the way, the conversation tackles key questions: When should designers enter the process? How do you balance innovation with authenticity? And what role should AI play in creative work?It’s an honest, thought-provoking look at designing experiences that truly connect.

What happens when a museum treats its floor like a laboratory? In this episode of Matters of Experience, we sit down with Allyson Feeney, Senior Project Director at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, to explore how experimentation, storytelling, and spatial design come together in one of the world’s most iconic interactive museums. Allyson takes us behind the scenes of the museum’s Time Corridor renovation, sharing how her team reimagined the balance between hands-on interactives and powerful visual storytelling.

If you’ve ever ridden an elevator, zipped a jacket, watched IMAX, or tapped a touchscreen, you’ve experienced the legacy of a World’s Fair—whether you knew it or not. In this episode of Matters of Experience, hosts Abby and Brenda Cowan welcome Charles Pappas, one of the world’s leading authorities on World Expos, to uncover how these massive, temporary gatherings quietly shaped everyday life.From the Crystal Palace of 1851 London to Dubai, Osaka, and beyond, Charles traces the evolution of World’s Fairs through what he calls three eras: products, progress, and panic. Along the way, he reveals how expos introduced groundbreaking technologies, redefined optimism during global crises, and now confront urgent environmental challenges. The conversation explores why these events function as powerful engines of cultural exchange, national identity, and human connection—something no digital platform can fully replace.With vivid stories about iconic monuments like the Eiffel Tower, immersive pavilion design, and moments of pure serendipity, this episode is a love letter to shared, in-person experience—and a compelling argument for why the World Expo still matters today.

Designer and creative leader Lucy Holmes traces a life shaped by letters and by people. From hand drawing alphabets at RISD to orchestrating typographic rhythm through major museums, she reveals how the most resonant design often disappears so visitors can be fully with the work. Holmes describes turning words upside down to see relationships rather than read them, printing and pinning, tracing and testing, until a single word on a wall feels inevitable. Designing permanent galleries means thinking in decades, choosing people and stories over brittle technology. The result is quiet clarity, composed for the present and built to meet the future.

Creative designer and AI educator Marlena Emig reveals how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the exhibition design process, not by replacing human creativity, but by amplifying it. She discusses how AI has transformed the painful constraints of pitch deadlines into opportunities for deeper research and richer storytelling, allowing designers to iterate freely and course-correct without fear. Most provocatively, she argues that clients are already ahead of creative agencies in embracing these tools, seeking dialogue and variety over polished perfection. This conversation illuminates a future where technology serves human imagination rather than supplanting it.

Light carves stories from darkness, transforming spaces into emotional journeys that transcend mere illumination. Abigail Honor and Brenda Cowan explore the sculptural art of lighting design with Steven Rosen, founder of Available Light and recipient of the Edison Report’s Lifetime Achievement Award.From his theatrical roots to museum environments, Steven reveals how lighting designers serve as storytelling enablers—elevating narratives through orchestrated moments of revelation and concealment. The conversation explores the balance between presence and absence of light, collaborative design processes, and Steven’s work co-founding SEGD’s Museum Exhibition Professional Practice Group during challenging times for cultural institutions.