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A presentation given with my colleague and co-author Stephanie Pau on April 16, 2009 at Museums & the Web in Indianapolis. It starts out with a report of inter-departmental collaboration around interpretation planning for exhibitions at SFMOMA and then focuses on mobile technologies, including the results of two evaluations indicating visitor preferences. Finally, we outline future directions for mobile multimedia development at SFMOMA.
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Peter SamisAssociate Curator Interpretation
Stephanie PauManager Interpretation
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
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are needed to see this picture.Museums & the Web 2009 • 16 April 2009
After the heroism, collaboration: Organizational learning & the mobile space
The Interpretive Goals Process
A cross-departmental dialogue and interpretive brainstorm process involving:
•Educators•Curators•Publications•Communications/Audience Strategy
The Interpretive Goals Process: A collaboration
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Regarding each upcoming show:
•What is the rationale for the project? Why here, why now?
•List 1-3 main visitor takeaways.
•Who is the intended audience? Why?
•What didactic elements are planned (wall texts, extended object labels, etc.)?
•What other modes of interpretation, including multimedia, should we consider?
Key Questions in the Interpretive Goals Process:
Assistant Registrar Linda Leckart on Jonathan Ive’s iPhone(communicated via a cell phone tour)
Case Study 1: 246 and Counting:Recent Architecture + Design
Acquisitions
Case Study 2: The Art of Participation 1950 to Now
John Cage, 4’33”, 1952
Case Study 2
Case Study 3: Frida Kahlo
Interpretive Menu: analog + digital mix
• Brochure in 2 languages• Wall texts in 2 languages• Handheld Antenna multimedia
tour in 3 languages: English, Spanish & French
• Learning Lounge: film, kiosk, books
• Supplementary history galleries: Kahlo in SF, Kahlo’s Legacy
• Videos in Koret Visitor Ed Center
• Podcasts
2 Evaluation Studies
• Visitor Experience & Interpretive Goals: Randi Korn & Associates
• Visitor response to handheld multimedia guide (audio tour) Discovery Corporate Intelligence Group
Randi Korn Findings: Use of Offerings
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Wall texts Brochure* (most aftervisit)
Learning Zones MM Tour
What a visual interface brings to the party…
A way to point at and parse out the picture…
[3] [15]
Visitor feedback from Antenna’s comment book…
The stats, too, show this is a hit:
1
2
3
What about the cell phone idea?
Or the personal device download idea?
But then, who can blame them?
• Cell phone reception varies• The audio quality is often poor• Foreign visitors must pay outrageous international roaming
charges• Holding a device to one’s ear is fatiguing • Podcasts require pre-visit planning (Oops, I’m already
here!) • Wi-fi networks are temperamental, especially in crowd
situations
Until these obstacles are removed, pre-loaded devices—at a cost or for free—seem to correspond to the premium cultural experience museums are expected to provide.
Corroboration: Our 2 Case Studies
ExhibitionStops on cell phone tour
Incoming calls/month
Incoming calls/day
246 and Counting
18 585 19
Art of Participation
28 706 22
Was the fault in our promotion?
No doubt in part…
But then there was evidence like this:
Meanwhile, the story online & at home was different.
RSS feed: 18,613 mp3/m4a downloads or 194 downloads/dayLive Flash Streaming: numbers unknown
So what information did on-site visitors not get?
Hans Haacke, News, 1969/2008
Content allocated exclusively to cell phones via
246 Tour & AoP Tour
Artwork-specific interpretation
Artist voices
Back-story on how a work was acquired
Supplementary info re: each piece & the conditions of its production
Behind the scenes insights on how a museum collects
Artist invitation to participate & comment
These had been part of our “interpretive plan.”
On the other hand, the purpose-built & deliveredmultimedia tour for Frida Kahlo actually had a Halo Effect:
25% increase in satsifaction
Takeaways 1
• They seem to desire a high fidelity, immersive experience (at least for special ticket blockbusters)
• Parsing out audio through a touch-and-listen interface is a winner
Visitors apparently are not as eager to use their own devices as museums might wish.
Takeaways 2
• Universal Access: if a museum is going to delegate significant interpretive aspects to mobile devices, then those devices need to be as effortlessly available as artworks & wall texts
The Guggenheim, Whitney, and MoMA all offer (and promote) free audio tours of their Permanent Collection.
Take-up rates range between 20-65%(vs. a more typical 3%)
“Universal Access”
Takeaways 3
• If we are to free ourselves from dependence on outside providers and empower ourselves to develop our own content…
We need a flexible authoring and publishing platform for the mobile space.
• Re-thinking the audio tour based on research to date
• Touch-&-Listen• Concise & multi-layered • Artist Voices & Videos• 1st delivery on iPod-Touch and
iPhone• Working with NOUS-Guide to develop
Developing a Mobile Multimedia Guide for the Permanent Collection
•Need to promote permanent collection tours with a museum-wide strategy
•Same goes for special exhibitions of lesser known artists
Next Corollary
Content development &
Production
Staffing of Distribution
PointsHardware
Marketing & Promotion
it’s the beginning of a whole new set!
Of course, that doesn’t solve all ourproblems.
In fact,
And that’s a lot of collaboration.
Thank you.