I Miss Bill

Do you feel my pain? The exhibition was overly cool (as in not warm), slick, modern, and pretty much immersion-free (a made-up term that connotes an exhibit that surrounds visitors in a multi-sensory recreation that takes them to the space of the story. Think actually going to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyworld, feeling the bats fly by, watching the ghosts appear, feeling the goosebumps on your back, rather than reading about it in a book). There were some of what I would call "immersive-lite" spaces: a replica of the Cabinet room, complete with touchscreens built into a giant conference table, one long wall blown away to reveal a huge projected media show/collage. And of course, the obligatory Oval Office replica was there, just like everywhere else. Would be nice to have one that visitors can actually interact with someday. Actually sit in the Prez chair, have to make some hairy decisions, face up to Newt Gingrich...I could think of some fun ideas that Ralph Appelbaum & Associates did not. I don't know why Presidential Centers have to be so goddamned reverential that they skip the idea of iteractives that could actually allow visitors to step into Bill's shoes and be him for a bit. That would be fun, and eye opening (no, not zipper opening). The exhibit was beautiful though. The building itself is a gem, and not the "flying trailer" that I'd heard it described as. Arkansas is so swampy, humid, and bug infested in the summers though, I hope they have a big budget to maintain the building. The entire is skin is nearly 100% glass. It is very open, and bridge-like, apparently an homage to a Bill quote: "Let us build a bridge to the twenty-first century together."