Exploratorium: experimental design spaces

Museums have a mission to educate and inform their visiting public. How museums achieve this goal is a disputed practice. While many museums have education departments and utilize research and development as a part of understanding how their visitor base interacts with their exhibitions, many museums do not employ the interactive spaces that the Exploratorium uses. 

The Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA calls itself a "museum of science, art, and human perception" immediately setting itself apart from science museums across the country. 

http://www.exploratorium.edu/

The Exploratorium, located in the Marina District in SF

Museum floor space

Designed to ultimately be recycled, the Exploratorium's exhibit interactives are consistently changing to not only reflect ongoing experiments in the museum but also reflects what the visiting public wishes to see. Visitors are encouraged to contribute to the overall design and experience at the museum. The museum places the utmost importance on the visitor and the experience not only through the exhibitions but also through public programming. Such programming includes as Research and Development laboratory which is open to the public, The Learning Studio, an interdisciplinary workshop for artists, scientists and innovators, and weekly events scheduled for the visitor in mind. 

Visitors enjoying a perception exhibit

Through experimental spaces, visitors not only experience an exhibit but they become a part of it for a brief time. Most of the interactives at the Exploratorium only function with visitor participation either through the use of physical or mental interaction. One of the more interesting exhibit spaces is called the Tactile Dome, a maze in complete darkness. It's main feature are walls filled with different textures making visitors use their sense of touch to finish the maze. Created in 1971, the Tactile Dome is one of the museum's most successful and high-in-demand exhibit spaces. 

So what does this suggest? We all know that the visitor-centered model is more successful with museum visitors; acknowledging visitor important in not only good for the museum, it's crucial for its' future. Should all museums be in constant change, allowing for visitors to affect museum structure or space? Is this even a feasible option for most museums? What is the lesson that non-science based museums can take away from the Exploratorium?