The eyes want to have it: Multimedia Handhelds in the Museum (an evolving story)
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Transcript of The eyes want to have it: Multimedia Handhelds in the Museum (an evolving story)
The eyes want to have it: Multimedia handhelds in the museum(an evolving story)
Peter SamisAssociate Curator, InterpretationSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art
WCC 2008 Milano • 8–10 September 2008
Setting the Stage
Museums! Even if they look like this on the outside...
...they look like this on the inside.
…and this...
…and this.
This is our Problem Space:
Modern art—like all the objects museums exhibit —exists in a framework of meanings.
• Physical aspects• Process of its making• Relationships (to its maker, to ideas, to
other works)• Documents (journals, letters, sketches)• Media• Methods of approach and understanding
Of these, art museums typically strip away all but one or two.
• Process of its making• Relationships (to its maker, its time)• Documents• Media• Methods of approach and understanding
• Physical aspects
Experts………………Novices
Somewhere along the linethat leaves us to restore the
context.
Hypothetical Demand Curve:
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
First Forays
Points of Departure — SFMOMA 2002
First use of artist videos on PDAs in a museum space.
Sometimes interpretation’s a case of what’s missing…
Sometimes it’s a case of what’s there.
QuickTime™ and aSorenson Video 3 decompressorare needed to see this picture.
The goal is to meet people where they are—both conceptually and physically.
So the Goal, at least, is clear.
But the means are constantly changing…
.
as is the Museum environment.
Technology & museums change at very different paces.
With that in mind, a bit of history.
Early prototype: MEG @ Experience Music Project, Seattle, 2002
Mobile Exhibition Guide
Lessons learned
• Bulky & cumbersome to carry
• Long development cycle
• Expensive to build (prohibitive for non-profit institutions)
• Technology surpassed by time of its introduction!
• Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs with video clips stored on 64 MB Compact Flash cards• Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player running on Windows CE (imperfect)• Used to present video clips of artists in each gallery
Points of Departure iPAQ Gallery Explorer2002
CIMI/Renwick Gallery prototype,
Washington, DC
• Visual menus for each gallery• 20–45 second clips• 30-second message length deemed
ideal• Add’l layers can be selected• Video clips ask: “Why did you
become an artist?”
The Visitor Experience
Tate Modern’s Multimedia guide, 2002/3…
Casual cues shift attention from artwork to screen… and then back to artwork
Just-in-time learning/modeling how to look
UBC’s Museum of Anthropology demo 2004…
Ubiquity Interactive, Vancouver
…through use of QTVR and animations
Augmented space: physical spaces filled with electronic and visual information
…and social sharing of that information
Question of constantly changing hardware models,
not to mention form factors
…and of consequent lack of technical support!
Visionary Failures*
*aka reach exceeding grasp/techno-hubris
GettyGuide Handheld (A Cautionary Tale)
• Works of art: image & stops• Events: tours & exhibitions• Map• Audio stops - keypad entry• Location sensing
• Download content• Wayfinding
• Integrate with kiosk & web
GettyGuide Handheld: The Execution
• Five internal departments• Five vendorsYet none had a vested interest in the complete system functioning
Internal: Interactive Programs (interpretive content), Collections Information (object/registrarial information), Museum Information and Media Systems (academic programming and hardware), Web Group (academic programming), IT department (infrastructure hardware and software)Vendors: Server and application programming, location sensing hardware & software, handheld hardware & programming
“There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.”- McGeorge Bundy
GettyGuide Handheld: Evaluations
Visitors would rather pay for a simple audio player with all artworks covered than a free but fancier handheld with only some, e.g., family audio stops.
Visitors would also approve of a handheld that had all the audio content with a touchscreen keypad & improved on-screen map
Inform the potential of handhelds – can we use them? How can the handheld and audio player be used in conjunction What to See guide
—Handheld vs. simple MP3 Audio Player (Antenna X-plorer) Study Result
ArtScape @ the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.
Good idea, but an absence of further in-depth content made the return visit to the website superfluous.
WiVID Messaging & Live Updates (prototypes)
Multi-modal communications
<— All these plus:• Interactive
gaming• Simulations• Tickets• eCommerce• & Concierge services!!!
Chasing the tail of technology was getting museums nowhere…
(except into debt)
Nancy Proctor’s Findings (Formerly Antenna Audio Strategic Planning in London, now at Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC)
• Wireless location-sensing’s just too problematic
• Onboard content’s “a good thing”
• Stabilize the platform
• Keep it simple• The best
technology is invisible
Capability - Maturity Model
• Initial phase: “heroic”• Managed phase: “1-deep”• Defined phase: Processes in place• Quantitatively managed: metrics • Optimizing: metrics fed back into
system
Institutions’ reach was exceeding their grasp.Don’t skip the steps. Just set your sights on the step you’re at, and the next.
Grassroots Returns & Tests
Enter a cheap & disruptive
Social Technology:
the Podcast
SFMOMA Artcasts
• A rapid response, audio zine format that blends structure and flexibility• A movement from the Museum out into the community, and from the community into the Museum
Beyond an audio tour:
A $2 admission discount at all price levels when they show their Artcast:
• Adults• Seniors• Artists • Teachers• Youth
Guest TakesPamela Z
JT Leroy
Beth Lisick
Vox Pop
disruptive
Social Technology #2:
The Cell phone
Why “disruptive” ?
They posed fundamentally new questions: • Should visitors bring their own devices?• Should Museums ask visitors to contribute their own voices and interpretations?*
Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint, 2006
Our problem: subtract the man/film from the gallery, and…
How to make the mute plastic speak?
Traditionally, this would have been cause for a multimedia feature.
…online, by the galleries, in the Koret Center.
To this, we were adding multiple format audio tours:
• Podcast: download from home
• Gallery X-plorer: rent in Atrium
• Cell phone: turn on in show
Collaborate with Antenna to develop content for all three.
Downloadable podcast map
Cell phone promotional card - collab w/ Guide by Cell
In fact, we thought we were setting out to measure visitor preferences for three different types of audio tours.
And we did that.
What did we find out?
• There is no clear winner• Traditional devices
skew older• iPods and cell phones
seem to skew younger*• Visitors appreciate
multiple experience options
* statistics not fully conclusive
Different devices support different touring styles:
Cell phones averaged less than 50% stop use, indicating à la carte, on demand use.
iPods and traditional audio tour devices averaged 70-80% stop use: a more immersive, custom experienceIn fact, iPod and traditional headset tour users had more in common than these users might suspect…
Those who chose the iPod and cell phone formats rated them more highly than traditional headset tour users rated theirs.
—although the content was identical!
Phone logs enabled us to see patterns in where visitors wanted information most:
(or perhaps where they or could find the labels!)
In fact, GuideBy Cell now mashes up area codes and Google Maps to reveal where visitors are from:
Stats: Cell-phone Tours
Good News: Guide by Cell records
• 1st exhibition with over 10,000 calls
• Average message selection in other museums is only 33%
Bad News:• Still only averaging
45 visitors/day• Only 3.7% of
exhibition visitors
So somewhere along the way,
the target
shifted.
The elephant in the room is that:
The vast majority of our visitors do not use technology during their museum visit.
So how do we reach them?
If our goal is to use technology, we may just nod and move on. But if our goal is to enhance visitor experience, we have to think larger.
“Variable on-demand mediation.”–Brad Johnson, Second Story Interactive
Interpretive Menu: analog + digital
• One curatorial intro panel• Exhibition brochure• Docent tours
Audio tour delivered via: • Antenna MP3 gallery guide• Downloadable podcast• Cell phone tour courtesy
GuideByCell
Learning Lounge in show:• Plasma screen with Barney
video interview clips• Barney FAQ wall graphics• Interactive feature/website• Books & catalogs
So what did we learn? What did visitors prefer?
Audio: Different people opt for different devices
Video: Visitors want to see and hear the voice of the artist above all else
and perhaps most surprisingly:
Visitors opt for the analog first.
Here’s what that looks like:
INTERPRETIVE OFFERINGS (COLLAPSED) USED BYRESPONDENTS (I N PERCENT)
USED
INTERPRETIVE OFFERINGS (n = 251) %
Exhibition introduction wall text 78Exhibition brochure 55Learning Lounge (one or more offerings) 51Audio tour (audio guide headset, cellphone, or podcast)
47
Drawing Restraint 9 film 17Exhibition Web site 15SFMOMA docent- led public tour 2
Use of offerings by respondents:
But on the other hand:
TABLE 43RATINGS OF INTERPRETIVE OFFERINGS
RATING7-POINT RATING SCALE:DID NOT HELP ME APPRECIATE BARNEY’S ART (1) /HELPED ME APPRECIATE BARNEY’S ART (7) n MEAN ±
Cell phone audio tour 46 6.2 1.10Podcast audio tour 18 6.2 0.81Antenna audio guide headset tour 50 5.6 1.44Learning Lounge 95 5.5 1.45Exhibition brochure 131 5.2 1.53Exhibition Web site 31 5.2 1.37Drawing Restraint 9 film 40 5.1 1.92Exhibition introduction wall text 182 4.7 1.65
What helped make meaning?
But taken together, Interpretation works:
FI GURE 7OVERALL RATI NG OF BARNEY EXHIBIT I ONBY TOTAL NUMBER OF INTERPRETIVE OFFERINGS USED IN THE EXHIBIT I ONANDBY FAMILIARITY WITH BARNEY’S ART
TOTAL NUMBER OF INTERPRETIVE OFFERINGS USED IN THE EXHIBITION
NO OFFERINGS( n = 1 6 )
1 – 2 OFFERINGS( n = 7 2 )
3 - 4 OFFERINGS( n = 8 8 )
5+ OFFERINGS( n = 6 2 )
MEANS MEANS MEANS MEANS
7 _
_ 6 .1_ 5 .9
6 _
_ 5 .6_ 5 .7
n 5.6S _ 5.4C
A n 4.8L
5_
_ 4.6E n 4.3
_ 4.04_
n 3.3MEAN SCORES:
_ Familiar with Barney’sArt
3_
_ 2.6 _ Unfamiliar with Barney’sArtn Combined
2_
1_ 7-POINT RATING SCALE: 1 = UNFAVORABLE / 7 = VERY FAVORABLE
Number of offerings: F=5.671; p=.001Familiarity with Barney’s Art: F=36.578; p=.000Number of offerings * Familiarity with Barney’s Art F=2.48; p=.062Model: F=12.500; p=.000 R2=.276
Statistics Courtesy Randi Korn & Associates
Or put another way:
Use Pattern / Value Rating of Barney Interpretive Resources
0102030405060708090
Introductory wall textExhibition brochureLearning Lounge
Audio tour (3 options)Exhibition Web site
% of visitors using resource
01234567
Visitor rating of resource value
USED (%)
RATING (1–7 scale)
This is ourOpportunity Space!
Is it time to re-train our visitors? Change their expectations?Change our approach? All of the above?
Next Tests: Traditional audio tour vs. iPod
When visitors were given the choice…
Exhibitions in 2007 (in sequence)
Antenna XP - “Classic”(mp
3)
iPod
Picasso & Brice Marden
59% 41%
Matisse 55% 45%
Eliasson /Cornell / Wall
51% 49%
Do we detect a trend?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
1. Picasso & Marden 2. Matisse 3. Eliasson /Cornell /Wall
XP-Classic (mp4)iPod
Fast forward to summer 2008 (right now):
Enter
Frida Kahlo
MENU: analog + digital mix• Brochure• Wall texts• Multimedia tour with low
price barrier to entry• Learning Lounge• Supplementary galleries
to add context • Kiosk / Website• Video • Podcasts
Visitor Feedback
iPod-Touch and iPhone
Using PDAs to harvest visitor feedback
• Tate SMART Tours for school groups• Favorites, drawing, even voice commentaries• Mesh with website for after-visit classroom assignments / follow-ups
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
iPod-touch interfaces
• Tate Liverpool’s Klimt exhibition
• Stops are a series of short enhanced podcasts mapped to the default iPhone interface
• Meshing of linearaudio tour with selected visuals
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
iPod-touch interfaces
• Museum of Modern Art (New York)’s MoMAudio program
• Wi-Fi throughout the galleries
• Download in advance or on the spot
• Optimized for iPod-Touch & iPhone; plays on other devices as well
Soon to come… an SFMOMA iPhone title:
In the meantime…
The beginnings of custom design using the iPhone SDK
Planning Today/State of the Art
Words of Wisdom from Chris Tellis, founder& former Chairman of Antenna Audio
• “People go to museums often to get away from technology.”
• “The subjective is always more powerful than the objective.”
• “Never be the early adopter… What’s hip is to have a program that works!”
A url to remember: http://tate.org.uk/modern/multimediatour
New Book
Digital Technologies & the Museum Experience: Handheld Guides & Other Media
Editors Loïc Tallon & Kevin Walker, AltaMira Press
Available now through amazon orhttp://www.altamirapress.com
Thank you.