Audio tours: Museums
We wanted to see what’s already going on in the world of locative storytelling, so last weekend the team went on audio tours to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t… Read on to find out more about what we liked and didn’t like…
Satta:
The Chicago History Museum’s exhibition, “Chicago: Crossroads of America,” is both traditional and innovative, allowing visitors to experience historic artifacts from the city’s history. For a $14 admission, you get an iPod with narration from Chicago’s famed Second City performers. There are 31 stops on the tour; each its own artfully performed mini-story of a time in the city’s history. It was a great user experience. I could fast forward or go back to certain parts and pause when I wanted to look at certain artifacts without the audio.
Thumbs Up:
-The original Chicago L Car - As museum goers walk through “L Car Number One, ” the audio tour plays sounds from passengers riding the L train in its early days.
-The 1871 Great Chicago Fire - The audio transports you to that time period by using natural sound of the fire and public panic.
-Sweet Home Chicago - The exhibit has video of Chicagoans talking about the city’s different ethnic neighborhoods.
-Michael Jordan exhibit - The basketball star’s championship sneakers are displayed and visitors can relive Chicago’s sports history.
Thumbs Down:
-In the beginning, the tour was difficult to navigate. I was lost for 15 minutes and had trouble finding the first stop on the tour. The actual signs located next to each artifact should be more visible or color-coded.
-Some parts of the audio tour were distracting and gimmicky. The narrator sometimes went on tangents that took away from the exhibit.
-The time spent narrating some parts of the audio tour were too long, while other sections of the exhibit could have used more explanation.
Hope:
The Art Institute of Chicago Musecast podcast describes itself as ‘the sound of art.’ It regularly provides descriptions of particular exhibitions, paintings and photographs on display each month in the museum. The podcast that I listened to introduced me to the photographs of Ed Ruscha, a pop and conceptual artist.
The section on Ed Ruscha began with a commentary from the assistant curator of photography, Katherine Bussard, which was particularly helpful in easing me into the exhibit space. Bussard described Rucha’s work as combining words, vernacular architecture and American landscapes to highlight the idea of a ‘common place.’ This description in particular helped me identify a theme to the works in the exhibit, which I might not have picked up on until the very end.
The best part of this section of the podcast included highlights from a gallery talk that Ed Ruscha had previously given at the museum. To hear the artist speak in his own voice, and describe how he was influenced by poetry, words and typography gave me a deeper appreciation for his work. It is one thing to read a printed mission statement by an artist, and another thing entirely to hear the artist read it himself, or discuss his thought process in a conversational way. Ruscha described, for example, how he is inspired by the experience of looking at a word for a long enough time that it no longer makes sense to him, or has a meaning associated with it.
Thumbs up:
-Overall, this was an incredibly effective audio tour for an art exhibit. It perfectly complemented my experience at the museum. I was able to gain better insight into the artist’s vision and goals in capturing the works on display. I was also given some helpful information about how the exhibit was curated, which is extremely important in creating a first and lasting impression of the media for the viewer. The level of detail provided was just right; I would have been frustrated if this podcast had said too much about the work. After hearing the audio tour, there was still plenty of room for me to explore the works and walk away with my own unique interpretation of the artist’s style and vision.
Ki Mae:
The recently renovated de Young museum in San Francisco offers a flexible audio tour that allows users to choose the stops they want to make on the tour. Although the tour includes enough audio content to last up to 3 or 4 hours, users can wander the museum (and its surrounding areas) at their leisure and learn about only the features that interest them. The audio device includes a simple keyboard that lets visitors key in the numbers that correspond to different locations on a map. The locations are also color-coded so that visitors can select different kinds of tours (i.e. family-friendly, architectural, etc.). After keying-in the appropriate numbers, the audio track gives a brief description of the feature and then gives you the option to proceed to the next stop or hear more information on your current stop. At the moment, audio-only tours are available but the museum hopes to offer multi-media tours soon.
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