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.
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28:00
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28:00
Every Light a Paintbrush
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.
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25:32
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25:32
Truth, Repair and the Role of the Museum
What does it take to transform a colonial institution into one that centers healing, justice, and shared humanity? In this episode of Matters of Experience, hosts Abigail Honor and Brenda Cowan speak with Micah Parzen, anthropologist, attorney, and CEO of the Museum of Us—formerly the San Diego Museum of Man.Micah shares the museum’s bold journey toward anti-racist, anti-colonial practice: from the emotional complexity of repatriating ancestors and sacred objects to the decision to eliminate curators in favor of collaborative exhibit developers. He reflects on the power of language, leadership without fear, and the museum’s commitment to being a space of belonging for communities historically excluded from cultural institutions.For designers, museum professionals, and anyone navigating institutional change, this episode offers a roadmap of reckoning and a call to reimagine the museum as a place not of authority, but of accountability, curiosity, and care.
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25:39
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25:39
The Architecture of Play
Spencer Luckey doesn’t just build playgrounds—he sculpts experiences that invite curiosity, joy, and exploration. In this episode of Matters of Experience, hosts Abigail Honor and Brenda Cowan sit down with the artist, designer, and president of Luckey Climbers to talk about the intersection of play and public space.Spencer shares what it’s like to grow up inside a creative legacy and how he brings imagination, engineering, and poetic thinking to his large-scale climbing sculptures. He also opens up about the role of play in design, the creative tension between form and function, and how architecture can encourage not just movement, but wonder.For designers, educators, and anyone who believes space should spark emotion, this conversation is a reminder that play is a serious—and joyful—part of human experience.
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22:17
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22:17
Where Stories Becomes Spaces
Design can do more than communicate—it can captivate, transport, and transform. In this episode of Matters of Experience, Abigail Honor and Brenda Cowan sit down with Shirin Frangoul-Brückner, founding partner of the globally acclaimed design studio Atelier Brückner.Shirin shares her journey from architecture to experience design, the philosophy of “form follows content,” and how immersive exhibitions—from the Titanic artifacts to ancient Ephesus—use emotion, interactivity, and sensory design to create lasting impact. She also opens up about leadership, guiding clients through vision and complexity, and how her firm is integrating AI to serve creativity—not replace it.This conversation offers inspiration for designers, museum professionals, and anyone passionate about creating experiences that move people.
Matters of Experience is a podcast about the creativity, innovation, and psychology driving designed experiences and encounters. Each week Abby and Brenda dig into the who, how, so what and why of exhibitions, branded experiences, events, spectaculars, and all the crazy things designers and creatives are putting out there for people who just can’t get enough.
Netherlands