Black Death Exhibition Design Process Book

EXHIBIT ION DESIGNPROCESS BOOK12.9.13 | by Maria Ellen Boehling | GD400 with Meredith Davis

THE BLACK PLAGUE EXHIBITION | PROCESS BOOK


The objective of this project was to explore the design of a learning experience in exhibition form.

For my topic I chose The Black Plague pandemic which ravaged across Europe in between the years of 1348 – 1351. My “content universe” is contained within the book When Plague Strikes – The Black Death, Small Pox, and Aids by James Cross Giblin and supplemented by information and visuals outside this book.

The Black Plague Exhibition would hypothetically be installed in NC State’s Allred Gallery, located in Kamphoefner Hall on the College of Design Campus. I wanted the exhibition to be reminiscent of a medieval church because the Catholic Church ruled all aspects of life in the middle ages, and was also drastically impacted from The Black Death. I created stained glass windows that not only draw a visitor to enter the exhibition, but also creates a reflec-tion on the exhibition’s white floor. As you enter you follow the two time-lines on the floor. The time-line of the pan-demic continues throughout the exhibition, and the time-line of an infected person ends quickly – right in the foyer. Wooden columns and beams with glass interactive panels between them create a path for a visitor to follow which leads them to the exit. As a visitor goes deeper towards the end of the exhibition, the stained glass windows allow for the lighting to get dimmer, reminiscent of the destruction and absurd death rate of the plague. At the end of the exhibition there is a wooden wall, with an alter-esque table holding an oversized blank book with projected content helps explain how the world changed after The Black Death.

My deliverables for this exhibition include:+ Floor Plan+ Graphic Elements+ Graphic Elevations+ A model of the exhibition with a 1” = 1’ scale+ Photographs of the exhibition model creating an ‘exhibition walk-through’+ This process book

1


An unusually virulent strain of plague inflicts eastern Asia and China. Rats carried

infected fleas into the Black Sea ports.

The Italians take to their ships, south through the Black Sea and home to Europe. Inevitably they take with them the plague.

The

Blac

k De

ath

arriv

ed in

Sic

ily in

Oct

ober

. Al

thou

gh t

he s

ailo

rs w

ere

com

man

ded

to

stay

in th

e po

rt it

was

too

late

– th

e a

ctua

l ca

rrier

s ha

d al

read

y scu

rried

ont

o la

nd. T

he

plag

ue s

truck

Ven

ice

in D

ecem

ber.

Veni

ce c

ity le

ader

s de

cree

d th

at n

o on

e co

uld

leav

e an

inco

min

g sh

ip fo

r qua

rant

a gi

orni

– 4

0 da

ys a

nd n

ight

s –

the

leng

th o

f tim

e Ch

rist w

as s

aid

to h

ave

suffe

red

in

the

wide

rnes

s. F

rom

this

dec

ree

com

es th

e wo

rd ‘q

uara

ntin

e’. E

ight

een

mon

ths

late

r, ha

lf of

the

popu

latio

n of

Ven

ice

died

from

‘th

e pe

stile

nce”

.

The Black Death swept over France, entering via Marseilles and other southern ports. Before long it traveled inland and reaced the city of Avignon, where the Pope lived. The visitors paying their respects to the Pope, brought the pestilence with them.

At the peak of the plauge, the death rate in Paris was reported to be 800 a day. When the graveyards were filled the bodies of the dead had to be dumped into the Rhône River, which flowed through the heart of the city . By the time the epidemic had run its course in 1349, over 50,000 Parisians had died – half of the city’s population.

Mea

nwhi

le, t

he B

lack

Dea

th h

ad cr

osse

d th

e En

glis

h Ch

anne

l an

d wa

s wr

eaki

g fre

sh

havo

c in

the

Brit

ish

Isle

s. N

early

nin

ety

perc

ent

of t

he E

nglis

h po

pula

tion

lived

in

coun

trysi

de v

illag

es w

ith l

ess

than

500

pe

ople

. So

few

serv

ents

and

labo

rers

wer

e he

alth

y so

the

crop

s wh

ere

left

to ro

t in

the

field

s an

d th

e po

pula

tion

was

left

star

ving

. Th

e je

wish

pop

ulat

ion

wher

e co

nsid

ered

as

scap

egoa

ts fo

r the

pla

gue.

On

Febr

uary

14,

19

39, s

ever

al w

eeks

bef

ore t

he fi

rst c

ases

of

the

plag

ue w

here

repo

rted

in G

erm

any,

two

thou

sand

Jew

s we

re k

illed

in

the

city

of

Stra

ssbu

rg b

ecau

se th

ey w

ere

rum

ored

to b

e re

spon

sibl

e fo

r the

Bla

ck D

eath

.

The flagellants, where a group of Germans that carried self-blame to its furthest extreme by roaming central Europe for years, seeking God’s forgivess of the plague by beating and punishing themselves for their sins. By the Pope’s decree in 1949, the

movement had been wiped out in by 1350.

The pandemic finally dies out. It came in many smaller epidemics at least once every ten years until the end of the century. This marks the end of the first, and worst, wave of pestilence.

Afte

r th

e di

seas

e se

emed

to

have

run

its

co

urse

, Po

pe C

lem

ent’s

age

nts

calc

ulat

ed

that

23,

840,

000

peop

le h

ad d

ied

from

it –

al

mos

t thi

rty-t

wo p

erce

nt o

f the

pop

ulat

ion.

No

ne

of

the

late

r ep

idem

ics

was

as

wide

spre

ad a

s th

e fir

st,

and

when

the

di

seas

e ra

n ou

t of

fre

sh v

icim

s it

final

ly ea

sed

up it

s gr

ip in

the

eary

140

0s.

By th

at ti

me

Euro

pe’s

popu

latio

n ha

d be

en

redu

ced

by

near

ly fif

ty

perc

ent.

The

incr

edib

ly hi

gh d

eath

tol

l was

just

one

of

the

plag

ue’s

cons

eque

nces

. Li

ke

a re

volu

tion

or a

wor

ld w

ar, t

he B

lack

Dea

th

ha d

a pr

ofou

nd a

nd la

stin

g ef

fect

on

ever

y ar

ea o

f hum

an a

ctiv

ity.

A

36.6 feet

27.6 feet

2


You notice that you now staggerwhile you walk.

The lymph nodes in your groin, and occasionally in your armpits start to swell.

Soon they will reach the size of eggs.

You develop an awful headache.

These are Buboes, from the Greek word for groin , ‘buobon’. They give the disease its offical name: The Bubonic Plague.

The nervous system begins to collapse, causing horrible pain and bizzare movements in your arms and legs.

Your heart beats wildly as it tries to pump blood through your swollen

tissues in your oozing buboes.

The end usually came on the fifth day.

As death nears, the mouth gaped open and the skin blackened from

internal bleeding.

An unusually virulent strain of plague inflicts eastern Asia and China. Rats carried

infected fleas into the Black Sea ports.

The Italians take to their ships, south through the Black Sea and home to Europe. Inevitably they take with them the plague.

The Black Death arrived in Sicily in October. Although the sailors were commanded to stay in the port it was too late – the actual carriers had already scurried onto land. The

plague struck Venice in December.

Venice city leaders decreed that no one could leave an incoming ship for quaranta giorni – 40 days and nights – the length of time Christ was said to have suffered in the widerness. From this decree comes the word ‘quarantine’. Eighteen months later, half of the population of Venice died from ‘the pestilence”.The Black Death swept over France,

entering via Marseilles and other southern ports. Before long it traveled inland and reaced the city of Avignon, where the Pope lived. The visitors paying their respects to the Pope, brought the pestilence with them.

At the peak of the plauge, the death rate in Paris was reported to be 800 a day. When the graveyards were filled the bodies of the dead had to be dumped into the Rhône River, which flowed through the heart of the city . By the time the epidemic had run its course in 1349, over 50,000 Parisians had died – half of the city’s population. Meanwhile, the Black Death had crossed the

English Channel and was wreakig fresh havoc in the British Isles. Nearly ninety percent of the English population lived in countryside villages with less than 500 people. So few servents and laborers were healthy so the crops where left to rot in the fields and the population was left starving.

The jewish population where considered as scapegoats for the plague. On February 14, 1939, several weeks before the first cases of the plague where reported in Germany, two thousand Jews were killed in the city of Strassburg because they were rumored to be responsible for the Black Death.

The flagellants, where a group of Germans that carried self-blame to its furthest extreme by roaming central Europe for years, seeking God’s forgivess of the plague by beating and punishing themselves for their sins. By the Pope’s decree in 1949, the

movement had been wiped out in by 1350.

The pandemic finally dies out. It came in many smaller epidemics at least once every ten years until the end of the century. This marks the end of the first, and worst, wave of pestilence.

After the disease seemed to have run its course, Pope Clement’s agents calculated that 23,840,000 people had died from it – almost thirty-two percent of the population. None of the later epidemics was as widespread as the first, and when the disease ran out of fresh vicims it finally

eased up its grip in the eary 1400s.By that time Europe’s population had been reduced by nearly fifty percent. The incredibly high death toll was just one of the plague’s consequences. Like a revolution or a world war, the Black Death ha da profound and lasting effect on every area of human activity.

F L O O R T I M E L I N E S

3

2 fe

et

9 feet


8 fe

et

8.5 feet

Hippocrates believed the body contained four basic liquids, which he called humors: blood, which came from the heart; phlegm, from the brain; choler,

or

yellow bile from the liver; and black bile from the spleen. If these humors where in

balance, Hipporates wrote, a person would enjoy good health. But if one of them became more important thatn the others, the person was likely to feel pain and fall victim to a disease. Another Greek physician, Galen, took these ideas a step farther.

He stated that the four

humors in the body reflected the four em-lements of life: earth air,

fire, and water.

Blood was hot and moist, like the air in

the summer.

Phlegm was cold and moist,

like water. Yellow bile was hot and dry,

like fire, and black bile was cold and dry,

like earth.

1.25 feet 1.25 feet

F R O N T G L A S S I N T E R A C T I V E P A N E L

4



or





fire, and water.


the summer.




like earth.

Hippocrates believed the body contained four basic liquids, which he called humors: blood, which came from the heart; phlegm, from the brain; choler, oryellow bile from the liver; and black bile from the spleen. If these humors where inbalance, Hipporates wrote, a person would enjoy good health. But if one of them became more important thatn the others, the person was likely to feel pain and fall victim to a disease. Another Greek physician, Galen, took these ideas a step farther. He stated that the fourhumors in the body reflected the four em-lements of life: earth air, fire, and water.Blood was hot and moist, like the air inthe summer. Phlegm was cold and moist,like water. Yellow bile was hot and dry,like fire, and black bile was cold and dry,like earth.


or





fire, and water.


the summer.




like earth.


or





fire, and water.


the summer.




like earth.

Phlebotomy (blood-letting) was consid-ered by medieval medicine to be a form of surgery. This view was based on the belief that each organ within a human body had its own organ of origin and,therefore, letting the blood from a spe-cific vein would affect a particular organ."It was not enough that a patient be bled, he must be bled from a proper vessel. There was a theory that various internalorgans were connected with various su-perficial veins, so that bleeding from these veins drew noxious humours from organs which could not otherwise be reached" (Cameron 165). Because the internal organs were to be in a way worked on, phlebotomy became a surgi-cal procedure.

Blood-letting allowed for the control of

Phlebotomy (blood-letting) was consid-ered by medieval medicine to be a form of surgery.

This view was based on the belief that each organ within a human body had its own organ of origin and,

therefore, letting the blood from a spe-cific vein would affect a particular organ.

"It was not enough that a patient be bled, he must be bled from a proper vessel. There was a theory that various internal

organs were connected with various su-perficial veins, so that bleeding from these veins drew noxious humours from organs which could not otherwise be reached" Because the internal organs were to be in a way worked on, phle-botomy became a surgical procedure.

Blood-letting allowed for the control of humors in a particular part of the body.

BLOODLETTING –The most common method of cure for the plague was bloodletting. The doctors thought they could drain the plague out of the people by cutting a vein and letting it bleed. They sometimes cut open the festering buboes directley.

Phlebotomy (blood-letting) was consid-ered by medieval medicine to be a form of surgery.

This view was based on the belief that each organ within a human body had its own organ of origin and,

therefore, letting the blood from a spe-cific vein would affect a particular organ.

"It was not enough that a patient be bled, he must be bled from a proper vessel. There was a theory that various internal

organs were connected with various su-perficial veins, so that bleeding from these veins drew noxious humours from organs which could not otherwise be reached" Because the internal organs were to be in a way worked on, phle-botomy became a surgical procedure.

Blood-letting allowed for the control of humors in a particular part of the body.



F R O N T G L A S S I N T E R A C T I V E P A N E L U S E R P A T H

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Home Screen (shown as user approaches panel). The text slides up and down, explain-ing Hippocrates and Galen’s theories on the four humors, which served the basis of medieval medicine.

User touches one of the four humors (blood), revealing Galen’s addition.

User touches one of the four humors (choler), revealing Galen’s addition.

User touches the last of the four humors (melancholy), revealing Galen’s addition.

User touches one of the four humors (phlegm), revealing Galen’s addition.

User touches the blood again, revealing an animation swiping down to the left.

User touches the key word (blood-letting), revealing an animation swiping rising from the bottom, button’s that allow the user to jump to the different humors are also added.

User touches the key word (blood-letting), revealing a further explaination of the key word.

User touches the back button, which brings back up the home screen (now in its active state).

5


8 fe

et

8.5 feet

The so-called plague doctor or Medico della Peste were often little more than paid hacks and second-rate physicians hired by desperate municipalities.

These eerily clad public servants would become an iconic symbol of the plague that we easily recognize to this very day... harbingers of doom in a very dark chapter in the history of human suffering.

Presumably,

their principal task of the plague doctors was to help treat and cure plague victims, and some did give it their best shot. In actual fact, however, the plague doctors’ duties were far more actuarial than medical. Most did a lot more counting than curing,

keeping track of the number of casualties and recorded the deaths in log books.

Plague doctors were sometimes requested to take part in autopsies, and were often called upon to testify and witness wills and other important documents for the

scan your bracelet

to unlock your fate

1.25 feet 1.25 feet

B A C K G L A S S I N T E R A C T I V E P A N E L

6


B A C K G L A S S I N T E R A C T I V E P A N E L U S E R P A T H

1 Home Screen (shown as user approaches panel). The text slides up and down, expounding upon the barber-surgeon doctors role during the plague. You can click on the left graphic to further explain the science and transmission of the Black Death, or click the purple circle to explain the doctor’s creepy costume. However, this user decides to scan her bracelet (given upon entry of exhibit), to reveal ‘her/her fate’ (her treatment based on his/her given place in the medieval feudual caste system and whether or not he/she survives the plague.)

2 The finds out after scanning her bracelet over the yellow circle that he/she is a peasant, the user may read about her caste and what the doctor ‘orders’ him/her to do. The user will now want to scan her bracelet again on the red circle to find out if she survives The Black Death.

3 This user discovers that he/she has survived the plague! Information is also given explaining the outlook and consequences that specific caste system faced after The Black Death waned in medieval Europe.

4 The user may now choose to leave the screen or figure out more about the different caste systems (different than the one scanned by his/her bracelet), go back to the home screen, or still learn about the science behind the plague. This user decides to check out what would happen if he/she was considered a noble during the black plague.

7


27.6 feet

7.5 feet

8 fe

etB O O K P R O J E C T I O N T A B L E

2.8

feet

3.5 feet

PROJECTION

+ This book is an over-sized interactive blank book which explains the how the world was

changed by The Black Death. This book works by an installed overhead projector that

tracks the user’s movements. When the user flips a page (revealing another blank page),

the content will change and reveal more information.

3.5 feet

5 fee

t

8

PROJECTED BOOK

A


8 fe

et

27.6 feet

W I N D O W S

9

+ These windows depict different illustrations of “The Dance of the Dead” a macabre

movement that developed because of the plague. Usually artists would draw holy entities,

but after The Black Death, with their faith shaken, they turned to a more dark subject.

STAINED GLASS WINDOWS


36.6 feet

36.6 feet

8 fe

et8

feet

W I N D O W S

10

THE BLACK PLAGUE EXHIBITION | PROCESS BOOK 11






T Y P E T R E A T M E N T

A t r e y u R e g u l a r

G o u d y T e x t M T R e g u l a rG o u d y T e x t M T L o m b a r d i c C a p i t a l s

T r a d e G o t h i c C o n d e n s e d N o . 1 8

T r a d e G o t h i c C o n d e n s e d N o . 1 8 O b l i q u e

Tr a d e G o t h i c C o n d e n s e d N o . 2 0T r a d e G o t h i c C o n d e n s e d N o . 2 0 O b l i q u e

16

Black Death Exhibition Design Process Book

Documents

black death

exhibition model

black plague pandemic

exhibition walkthrough

exhibition form

black sea ports

virulent strain of plague

absurd death rate