Planetarium Expectations

Expectations.

This subject I've heard comes up in Planetarium discussions all the time, with the usual lament being that to wit: Kids and Adults today suffer from expectation overdrive. Special effects in the digital realm have rendered the star projector obsolete goes the refrain! Just visit any major facility and you'll maybe get 5 minutes of stars, and the rest an explosive 3D movie no doubt narrated by either William Shatner or Mark Hamill. Expectations are WAY TOO HIGH for a simple home managed planetarium to overcome. Woe is me! Why bother, who can compete!

This is what I've heard anyway. But to my mind it may be the exact opposite if you look at it the right way. Thats right. Expectations dont run too high. They run way too low!

I submit that this may be the case because todays audience .. todays kid if you will.. is probably oversaturated with effects. Jaded even. Blockbuster after blockbuster ups the ante until the ante cannot be upped anymore, and where might that leave an audience? Hungering perhaps for substance? A real story? Real myths .. real facts .. real stars! Expections may be lower than you think .. a millenial kid coming into a dome is just waiting for the explosions .. the black holes .. the singing and dancing molecules, and they may actually be pre-yawning. Not expecting anything to sink their teeth into. Not ready to be challenged with natures true majesty, which requires no adorning digitially. Not ready to be asked to imagine pictures in the stars above.. these low expectations may well be shattered and a new love and awakening achieved. Precisely because todays 'seen it all' kids havent seen it all. Chances are they have NOT seen the stars in their glory. Their low expectations may play right into your hands, and they may leave with more awe, more wonder, and more questions (and a few answers) than they ever did leaving the latest superhero extravaganza.

Perhaps the lesson is this .. never assume your audience has even imagined what you are about to show them. And its something they may struggle to see again anytime soon in todays world.

Go in imagining you will raise their expectations, not try to meet them. You just might be surprised.