artcasting at sfmoma: first-year lessons, future challenges for museum podcasters

Peter SamisAssociate Curator of Education

& Stephanie PauAssociate ProducerInteractive Educational TechnologiesSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Artcasting at SFMOMA: First-Year Lessons, Future Challenges for Museum Podcasters

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are needed to see this picture.Museums & the Web 2006 - Albuquerque, NM - 3.23.06

Cult object…

The hottest thing since sliced bread?

Valentino boutique window, Venice

Is it just San Francisco that’s so iPod-obsessed?

• Feb 2005: Over 22 million people (age 18 or older) own iPods or other MP3 players

• Jan 2006: 14 million more iPods sold in 4Q 2005, bringing total to 42 million sold to date

Sources: Pew Internet Project; Apple Computer, Inc.

So is it just a new vehicle for an audio tour?

Well not exactly…

Pitfalls of Podcasts as Audio Tours

• Playlist behavior: no pausing between tracks

• Menuing: multi-tiered • Sync ability:

discouraged• Imaging: clumsy• Mapping old medium

onto new one… not the best fit?

San Jose Solution: The Notes feature

aka Apple’s Museum Mode

• Hyperlinks from Notes field lead to each commentary

• Audio tracks play and stop

• Locks out system access

• Can work with enhanced podcast images

Podcasting ≠ Museum Mode

User’shardware

Museum’shardware

RSS/downloads

Museum desk/staffed

Next question: DIY or hire out?

• How experienced are we at producing entertaining audio? What would the learning curve be?

• Are we able to set up a recording studio?

• Are we willing to “settle for less”?• Which existing projects will have to fall

by the wayside?• Do we have an outside partner who can

help?

Considerations:

Our First Two Experiments

Richard Tuttle Robert Adams

Very time consuming…

In our case, the answer was Yes.

Did we have an outside partner who could help?

• Nearby in Sausalito• Playful and creative audio in their genes • Expert sound designers/producers • Wanted to experiment with us

Given the confidence, creativity &capacity we were afforded by our collaboration with Antenna…

We were able to dream larger.

Enter 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 Believer of the airwaves.

One that people can listen to on the go.

One they have an incentive to bring back.

A $2 admission discount at all price levels when they show their Artcast:

• Adults• Seniors• Artists • Teachers• Youth

Each Artcast episode has Two Tracks:On the Go In the Museum

Monthly audio art “zine”• Co-produced with

Antenna Audio• 15–20 minutes

comprising 4–5 NPR-style features:– Voices from the

Collection– Guest Takes– Exhibition Highlights– Vox Pop– Visitor-submitted

podcasts

Exhibition Tour Supplements:

• Produced in-houseArtists:• Richard Long• Wangechi Mutu• Chuck Close & Kiki Smith• Robert AdamsCurator:• Madeleine Grynsztejn

Voices from the Collection

Bruce Conner

Voices from the Collection

Cellist-composer Joan Jeanrenaud

Voices from the Collection

Chuck Close Janet Cardiff

Guest TakesPamela Z

JT Leroy

Beth Lisick

Vox Pop

Entering the Blogosphere… Viral Marketing

Contact and recruit “Guest

Take” talent

Pull audio from

archives or record live

visiting artist

Review Transcripts

Workflow for creating a podcast

SFMOMA

Draft and

edit Script for Narrator

Add layers of music, editing magic

Record narration, mix “Vox

Pop”

Antenna Audio

Hand all of this over to Antenna

Review “roughs”

and finalize!

SFMOMA& Antenna

Meanwhile, back at SFMOMA…

Update RSS Feed

Update SFMOMA

web, newsletters,

print

Get the word out in

the blogosphere

Sync images to

final audio

Begin brainstorming for the next

episode!

Record Vox Pop w/

Antenna

So a big question remains…

Does all of this point to a device-independentfuture…

Audio tour companies becoming contract sound designers without the liability of amortizing an arsenal of equipment?

And everyone out of the hardware business? (except for the PBX server folks!)

with a variety of audio/media formats and tones suited to different audiencesand moments…

We shall see!