Elephant, Dog, Gerbil … Fly?

When we plan our exhibitions and experiences, it’s critical that we take into account the different aging speeds of the elements of a project. I’ve described this before as Elephant, Dog, Gerbil.

Briefly:

- Buildings age like an elephant (50 years plus). 

- Furniture and exhibitions age like a dog (10-15). 

- Media tech ages like a gerbil (3-5).

For example, never permanently build media technology (aging like a gerbil) into a building (aging like an elephant). If you do, your building changes aging speed: it now ages like a gerbil too.

And that was a fine, well tested metaphorical principle.

But things just got faster. AI tech (ChatGPT, Midjourney, the currently-new Sora for video) is now in our exhibitions too.

AI ages so fast, gerbils seem long-lived. We measure AI revolutions in months.

Our three-critters metaphor needs a fourth, for AI tech. A critter that only lives a few months.

Elephant, Dog, Gerbil … Fly?

Here’s the thing:
AI is in our projects, aging even faster than media. We have months before the next revolution.

As makers of physical spaces … how do we plan for that?

Hit REPLY and LMK. Because I don’t know yet.

Warmly,
Jonathan