After the heroism, collaboration: Organizational learning and the mobile space

Peter Samis Associate Curator Interpretation Stephanie Pau Manager Interpretation San Francisco Museum of Modern Art After the heroism, collaboration : Organizational learning & the mobile space Museums & the Web 2009 • 16 April 2009

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

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

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 28 18 Stops on cell phone tour 22 706 Art of Participation 19 585 246 and Counting Incoming calls/day Incoming calls/month Exhibition

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/day Live 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 These had been part of our “interpretive plan.” Artist invitation to participate & comment Behind the scenes insights on how a museum collects Supplementary info re: each piece & the conditions of its production Back-story on how a work was acquired Artist voices Artwork-specific interpretation

On the other hand, the purpose-built & delivered multimedia 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 Of course, that doesn’t solve all our problems. In fact, And that’s a lot of collaboration. Staffing of Distribution Points Hardware Marketing & Promotion it’s the beginning of a whole new set !

Thank you.