Over-Cross-Referencing

(You’ll either feel this one, or you won’t. And if you don’t, you might someday.)

Every so often, a subject matter expert or curator we work with suggests adding cross-references from one gallery to another. And occasionally, that every exhibit should cross-reference every other exhibit.

Call this over-cross-referencing. It’s a common tendency in exhibition projects. Not always, but regularly.

(See? You’re either feeling this now, or not.)

The instinct is understandable, and the underlying reason is good. History, science, and culture are indeed interconnected. Experts know those connections and worry visitors might miss them unless we repeat them often, make them explicit, and do it regularly.

But imagine a movie in which every scene had to remind us of every subplot. It would be … challenging. A scene doesn't need to be about the entire movie.

Exhibitions work the same way. When every exhibit carries secondary cross-references, its main point gets harder to find. Galleries lose their identities. Visitors would encounter the same subjects again and again, without necessarily understanding any of them better.

We recommend cross-referencing sparingly, only when it reveals something interesting, not simply because a connection exists, even when one does. Good interpretive planning sometimes involves deciding what to leave out.

Here's the thing:

Everything is connected.

But our exhibits don’t always need to say so.

Warmly,
Jonathan

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Subject matter expert, or SME. A person with extensive specialized knowledge, experience, and/or advanced degrees. Can be in any discipline, but in exhibitions, the term often refers specifically to content knowledge.