[Bcma-l] Re: Guided Tours with Headsets]
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:52:38 -0700
I've wondered about this topic in the past.
It's not a simple question and, if your budget is too small, not a
simple answer either.
I found these two places by a simple search:
http://www.talkingstreet.com/
http://www.museum411.com/
There's a blog entry with notes on a conference talk on this topic here
http://blogs.walkerart.org/newmedia/2007/04/14/mw2007-cell-phone-tours/
Does your museum/gallery have docents? Or are the staff too overloaded
with just keeping it running, afloat and dealing with daily behind the
scenes activities to spend much time with the visitors? (meaning I guess
Is your shop primarily self guided?)
If you want to maximize the visitor's experience, don't have the docents
and have the budget (or clever grant getter ;) then this might be a good
thing ...
But how many of your visitors are tech savvy enough for this? A lot of
older ones don't really like to use technology if they can help it ...
some get flustered with it and that would colour their experience,
wouldn't it? Or they'd just miss the rest of your canned content after
their first flubbed interaction.
But ignoring those for the moment, will this cost your visitors even
more $$ for their visit to your museum?
Some plans have you hosting the machinery and possibly this makes the
cellphone use minimal or cost-free for the visitor (at a larger upfront
and maintenance cost to you).
Other plans have your content hosted somewhere else with a real phone
number to get to it. The cost to you is less but your visitors are
paying more since they're using their cell phones to make a phone call
aren't they?
Then there's the idea of planting small Blue-tooth devices in the
displays so that blue-tooth enabled devices (phones, pda's , headsets)
could interact with them and supply content streams.
Similar problems (except the phone call charges aren't there) regarding
tech savvy (or equipped) visitors. Not all would be able to use this ...
And do not forget ... every 'guided tour' is a production in itself. The
more you spend on the overall project the more important it becomes to
do this part correctly. As in 'not cheap out' and do it badly ... kind
of hard for small shops with volunteers and low paid staff that wear
many hats.
I feel kind of strange in this answer because I've been actively
involved in computer technology since the 70's but I find myself
suggesting that the best guided tours are those with a person doing
docent duty.
In my position with the Boundary Museum I found this was the best part
of my job by far. (my boss would insist that I keep it to a maximum of
15 minutes - far too short for the proper treatment of even our small
museum)
Another poster pointed out that some tours they'd been on the guides
might have been making it up and that with canned content you get
quality control.
Well ... I'll admit here that at times I did make it up. And when I did
I admitted it to the visitors because it was almost always in response
to a question I didn't have a specific answer to. And I'd preface my
answer with "Well, I/No one knows for sure but If I have to guess I'd
figure that ... blah blah blah" and almost all of the time they
appreciated the honesty and enjoyed the theorizing :)
I found that if you're completely open about these things the response
you get is in regards to your delivery rather than your content (or lack
thereof). The Docent job can be simply answering questions or it can be
Performance Art if you make it so. (I'd find myself actively
'channelling' Bill Nye The Science Guy and he's not even dead and I
don't believe in channeling :)
And as far as canned content goes: it's not interactive - you cannot ask
it questions or get clarification if something is confusing. The
delivery is lowest-common-denominator ... I mean that it cannot gauge
how what it said was received and thereby adjust how it delivers what it
has to say next the way a person can. So you deliver the least
objectionable, most accessible, concise content you can.
That can also be translated as bland, basic and glossed ...
In a big city it's different ... in a small town you're part of the
'best foot forward' for the visitors. It's in everyones' interest that
you be a shiny, attractive foot, isn't it?
So my suggestion is that smaller institutions invest in training
volunteer docents and getting the community involved that way ... you
save your money, the visitors get a better experience and the community
feels more involved with your museum/gallery.
IF you have play with the cell phone thing don't spend big up front and
don't get locked into a long expensive service contract ...
That's my 2 cents worth (sorry if I'm stretching those pennies a bit :)
Here's a question that just occurred to me:
Is there anywhere that docent volunteers can get trained on how to do
that job?
That small museums can send them too without breaking their budget doing it?
(Kind of like 'winter camp for museum volunteer docents')
Not talking here about the actual information but more about the ability
to engage the visitors and deliver the information in a fun and useful
fashion ... be the best small audience performer one can be.
- Les Johnson
bcma-l-admin@museumsassn.bc.ca wrote:
> Apologies if this suggestion was presented earlier.
> Another option to consider is a cell phone program. The New Museum in
> New York utilizes this system as well as some other New York art
> museums. I did not use it, however I noticed several people who did.
> Individuals dialled in a specific code related to an object and they
> received their information...kind of slick. The savings on
> purchasing/leasing or maintenance of hand-held devices would be
> significant. I do not know about the start up costs though - they may be
> more. Something to think about.
> Regards,
> Darrin Martens
> Director/Curator
> Burnaby Art Gallery
> 6344 Deer Lake Avenue
> Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5G 2J3
> Tel: 604.297.4426
> Fax: 604.205.7339
> E-mail: darrin.martens@burnaby.ca
> www.burnabyartgallery.ca
>
> Please note that the gallery's phone numbers are changing. As of
> February 28, 2008 my direct line will be 604.297.4426. The gallery's
> main line will be 604.297.4422.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bcma-l-admin@museumsassn.bc.ca
> [mailto:bcma-l-admin@museumsassn.bc.ca]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 6:20 AM
> To: bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
> Subject: [Bcma-l] Re: Guided Tours with Headsets]
>
> What a thoughtful response, Bill! And so insightful!
> Having worked at both Barkerville and Hat Creek Ranch as a live
> interpreter, I totally agree with all you have said, and have learned
> from it too. Thank you!
>
> During the course of my work in history interpretation over the past
> seventeen years, I have spent much time, money and effort, researching
> various other forms of bringing history to life, as well as that with
> which I'm so deeply involved.
>
> Most recently, I was privileged to visit the Philadelphia Art Museum and
> the Frida Kahlo exhibit in particular. They had audio tours there.
> Here's my
> report:-
>
> Headsets attached to remote controls were distributed by two personnel
> at the beginning of the exhibit and collected by another two at the end.
> Given that this exhibit was extremely popular and the PAG is an enormous
> institution, it still illustrates the fact that someone has to be
> available to distribute and collect the audio sets, check them for
> functionality and maintain them (including avoiding health risks by
> sterilization or earpiece replacement).
>
> There were attendants throughout the exhibit. They looked bored and
> disinterested and were, when approached, not particularly helpful or
> well-informed - a negative experience for both staff and visitor.
> However, these attendants were necessary to maintain security and
> protect the paintings/photographs from damage, as would be the case at a
> museum or historic site. Sections at a site can be fenced off, of
> course, but that could drastically reduce any sense of involvement with
> the past and generally creates a 'then and now/them and us' situation
> which I find reduces visitor interest considerably.
>
> A positive aspect, in this instance, was that the stations and
> corresponding audio were numbered in such as way as to guide the visitor
> through Frida Kahlo's remarkable work and life (both so inextricably
> linked), in a chronological and developmental journey that might
> otherwise have been missed.
>
> Numbers beside the paintings discussed on audio were large and well
> placed.
>
> The sets were expensive and sophisticated, light and easy to operate.
> The sound control was such that no one's audio journey interefered with
> that of another's (and the exhibit was crowded to capacity).
>
> Several different voices (both male and female; some Mexican, some
> American, some European; some old, some young) were used on the tape.
> This created variety and maintained interest. However, there were two
> voices that were
> constant: that of the 'guide' and that of the curator. This produced a
> sense of comfort, almost to the degree of friendship. Quite important,
> actually, in my view, and something that a live interpreter supplies
> automatically.
>
> I thoroughly enjoyed the audio experience and learned a great deal about
> Frida Kahlo and her work. However, I'd recommend headsets for a
> relatively small museum like Bella Coola, where visitors can be
> monitored and security of artifacts maintained, over an artifact on a
> living history site, like the roadhouse at Hat Creek Ranch, which is a
> long way from the Visitors' Centre and would mean some lonely soul has
> to stand around with little to do, when not maintaining the garden and
> dusting.
>
> Christine Pilgrim
> Hands-on-History
> Website: www.christinepilgrim.com
> Email: christinepilgrim@telus.net
> Phone/Fax: 1 877 767 7622 (Toll free) & (250) 542 4152 (Local) The
> Caetani House
> 4-3401 Pleasant Valley Road
> Vernon BC V1T 4L4
>
>
>> April 14, 2008
>>
>> Dear Colleagues:
>>
>> Back in 1990 we had tape players rented with guided tours. We came to
>>
>
>
>> the conclusion that they may have a place in a static museum
>> situation, but that they took away from the experience at a site like
>> Barkerville. They are not as free from the need of a human as one
>> would think - they break down, one has to manage them, etc. We felt
>> the money was best spent having a real person rather than the head
>>
> set.
>
>> I do see how they might have advantages in certain situations - like
>> the wands at the Egyptian exhibition at Expo 86 - an exhibit with a
>> beginning and an end where someone can be stationed to distribute and
>> pick up the equipment. But, they are pieces of equipment that you
>> have to drag around, that can become easily lost or misplaced -
>> especially at a place like Hat Creek where there are so many nooks and
>>
>
>
>> crannies. I would think twice before investing in technology that
>> requires servicing, maintenance and accounting, especially in an
>>
> outdoor situation.
>
>> If you are looking at technology that 'tells you as you go along' then
>>
>
>
>> one might consider motion activated devices that turn on when people
>> self actuate it or move past it. Signage can have the same effect and
>>
>
>
>> could be much cheaper in the long run. If you are trying to achieve
>> ambience with voice overs - i.e. the story told by a worker at the
>> ranch - remember that people have limited attention spans and will
>> only listen for a short while prior to making a decision to move on -
>> unless there is something visual to keep their attention. There are
>> digital picture frames now that also could be investigated - they can
>> be programmed to rotate from image to image and I would think that a
>> continuous play device could have voice overs for such a treatment.
>>
>> In general exhibit development, we gage that a sentence or two is the
>> most that one will actually read. We do have longer texts and some
>> recorded material, but, in general it is no more time consuming than
>> what a general visitor might endure. We have also utilized some
>> formats that are much lengthier, such as placement of an entire book
>> (laminated and with solid rings for turning pages) of information for
>> those who really want in-depth information that an interpreter would
>>
> just not have at their command.
>
>> However, in terms of getting a message across - a good headline is the
>>
>
>
>> best (newspapers are the best examples).
>>
>> Note that there are also health considerations with head sets - what
>> was in that last person's ear/hair, etc.??? And, not least, will it
>> distract people in the ranch setting - which has horses, wagons, etc.,
>>
>
>
>> that a person listening to the head set might become entangled with?
>>
>> W. (Bill) G. Quackenbush, Curator
>> Barkerville Historic Town,
>> Box 19, Barkerville, B.C. V0K 1B0
>> Telephone: 1-888-994-3332; ex. 25
>> Fax: 1-250-994-3435
>> bill.quackenbush@barkerville.ca
>> visit - www.barkerville.ca for general information
>>
>
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--
Les Johnson
Technician
The Boundary Museum
Grand Forks, BC
http://www.boundarymuseum.com