In the Hall of Biodiversity, there was a clear strategy used to grab the visitor’s attention—“the bigger the better”. This rule was showcased through the decisions of placing the endangered species, specifically the bigger ones, in the middle of the exhibit. Additionally, there were descriptions throughout the hall colored in bright red to draw attention to the anthropocentric effects on climate change and biodiversity loss. These were clear decisions made by the artists, architects, and scientists who were a part of building out this exhibit—the big tigers and pandas would attract the kids, and consequently their parents or guardians would read the descriptions by these animals. This is undoubtedly a tactic used to introduce the effects of climate change on biodiversity to the whole family to discuss even after their visit to the museum.
While these specific tactics were all clever, what stuck out to me the most from my own visit to the museum was the Giant Sequoia that was located in the Warburg Hall of New York State Environment. Although this exhibit did not contain as many details about climate change as the Hall of Biodiversity, a key component to the layout of the museum is that you must go through the Hall of Biodiversity in order to enter the Warburg Hall. As a result, most people would be entering the exhibit with the same analytical mind they used in the hall with attention-grabbing signs. When examining the cross section of the sequoia, one may automatically think to themselves how big and old the tree is. However, after going through the Hall of Biodiversity, it is possible that visitors are doing what I had done, which was to analyze it as a sign of human-induced destruction. From looking at such an amazing tree, I got emotional from the fact that humans decided to cut it down—and consequently, cut its life short. The tree was in total 1342 years old, and we will never know how much longer it could have lived if it weren’t for human intervention.