Concept Mapping and Exhibition Design

2020

The history of listening to recorded music has changed dramatically and exponentially over the past few decades because of its correlation with the development of technology. With each musical listening device change, there had also been a change in the sociality of listening. All of these factors, physical and social history, combine to give us modern music platforms. With this project, I organized this research first through stages of concept mapping, and finally created an exhibition that allows the viewer to efficiently and easily understand it.

Black and White Concept Map

The black and white visually displays all of the research and categorizes them in branches stemming from the four categories; history, people, practices, and settings. The hierarchy and connections allow the viewer to understand how each category fits into the big picture.

Full Color Concept Map

The color concept map takes the information from the black and white concept map and adds another layer of analysis, by organizing the research into the categories of individual versus social listening as well as including descriptions and imagery.

Final Exhibition Design

The exhibition features a timeline that shows the viewer the physical advancements that took place in the history of listening to recorded music. The first part of the timeline highlights “precedent” technologies and supporting events that influence modern music. There is a break in the timeline to show how these events fall on the spectrum of individual and social listening and why, and how modern music combines aspects of all of them to be both an individual and social activity. Finally, the exhibition lists current music applications in the continuation of the timeline, and shows how the history has influenced each of them in the last panel.