Media Wall or Chain-Link Fence?

Which is better, a media wall or a chain-link fence?

Let’s imagine two exhibition experiences, which I will invent at random:

1. Media Wall
A giant, 10-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide, high-resolution, interactive media wall. Visitors gesture to create an ever-changing algorithmic artwork to raise genocide awareness.

2. Chain Link Fence
A giant, 10-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide red chain-link fence. Hung with thousands of custom-printed red notecards. Visitors each handwrite a pledge to help stop genocide.

Both are the same size. Both feature interactivity, participation, and self-renewing content for the same number of visitors at once.

The media wall cost $1,000,000.

The red fence cost $10,000 (1/100th as much).

If a million visitors see both, the media wall costs us $1 per visitor.

The red fence costs us a penny each.

Is the media wall 100 times better? Don’t answer that. Think how a visitor would answer.

Nothing against media walls. I help make them. But I also help make chain-link fences.

Here’s the thing:
It’s not about what something costs us. It’s about its value to our visitor.

Sometimes pennies have power.

Warmly,
Jonathan

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MtM Word of the Day:
Raceway. A covered channel that you can see, running along a wall or floor, that conceals wiring or cables. A plastic or metal raceway is a safe, inexpensive way to organize wires without opening walls or floors. (A similar channel buried in a wall or floor is called a "conduit.")