My background
Exhibitions Manager, Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, Buckinghamshire County Museum (1994-present)
Assistant Keeper of Education, Derby Museums & Art Gallery (1989-1994)
Teacher, King Offa Junior School, East Sussex (1984-88)
PGCE: College of Ripon & York St John (1984)
BSc: Zoology, University College Swansea (1982)

My expertise
Exhibition planning
Concept and content development
Education programs

My focus
Museum exhibitions, visitor centers and educational environments

Mentor: Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Head of Exhibitions and Galleries (The Science Museum)
Placement: Event Communications Ltd.

Major Project
What happens next? Building Suspense in Museum Exhibitions
Exhibition Planning, Concept and Content Development

Suspense keeps us reading, watching, or listening to find out what happens next. In fact, wherever a story is being told, suspense is used as a narrative device to hold the audience's attention. Suspense can raise expectation, create anticipation, maintain interest, arouse curiosity, build tension and produce surprise. This project explored the potential of using suspense in exhibitions. Research into how suspense is generated in film and literature generated principles and models of suspense for exhibitions. These are demonstrated in an exhibition called 'Predator or Prey?', which placed the audience in the role of either the predator or prey within different habitat environments.
















Contact
dp.erskine@btinternet.com

Collaborators
Concept Development: Leandros Katsouris & Sophie Smith
Exhibition Storyboards: Leandros Katsouris
Exhibition Design: Ming-Jung Wu & Ariel Chen
Book Design: Lee Upton
Special thanks to: Jo Quinton-Tulloch (Science Museum), Lucy Carruthers (Event Communications), Georgia-Gina Koutsika (NHM) & Peter Higgins (Land Design Studio)