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

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%

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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 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—even at a cost—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

246 Tour & AoP TourArtwork-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

On the other hand, the purpose-built & deliveredmultimedia tour for Frida Kahlo actually had a Halo Effect:

25% increase in satsifaction

The Guggenheim, Whitney, and MoMA all offer (and promote) free audio tours of their Permanent Collection.

Take-up rates: 20-65%

“Universal Access”

Takeaways

• Visitors apparently are not as eager to use their own devices as museums might wish

• They seem to desire a high fidelity, immersive experience

• Parsing out audio through a touch-and-listen interface is a winner

Takeaways

• 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

• Need for 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• Using words, images, and sound as

visual amplifiers for the artworks• 1st delivery on iPod-Touch and

iPhone

Developing a Mobile Multimedia Guide for the Permanent Collection

Any campaign to develop a comprehensive multimedia tour of the permanent collection, or of special exhibitions featuring lesser known artists, must be accompanied by a museum-wide strategy to promote these new resources.

Next Corollary

Content development &

Production

Staffing of Distribution

PointsHardware

Marketing & Promotion

That said, that doesn’t solve all ourproblems.

In fact, it’s the beginning of a whole new set!

Stay tuned…