N Proctor Mobile Interp9 Dec08

Outside in the Agora

Presentation to the 2008 DEN (Digital Heritage Netherlands) Conference

Nancy Proctor, Smithsonian American Art Museum

ProctorN@si.edu 9 December 2008

Mobile Interpretation and Socratic Dialogue in the

21st Century Museum

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It’s NOT about the Technology

‘Teaser’ from the Soundbytes audio tour of the Science Museum, London, by Antenna Audio

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Nancy Proctor, ProctorN@si.eduFIAMP 16 October 2008

3Fraunhofer Institute, Kunstmuseum Bonn: ‘Beat Zoderer’ exhibition (Listen project) 2003

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Interpretation is as essential to the Museum as cutlery is to a banquet

Beth Lipman, Bancketje (Banquet) 2003

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• Some visitors may bring their own,

• Some may eat only the finger food,

• Some may choose another restaurant,

• Many will go away hungry,

feeling uninvited and unwelcome.

If the Museum doesn’t provide it:

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But what is the Museum

in this Web 2.0 world of information on demand?

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The American Art Museum

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The Museums…

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The Museum has become a Distributed Network

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Photo by Mike Lee, 2007; from SAAM Flickr Group

Our audiences now access American Art through a wide range of platforms

beyond the museum’s walls and website

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The Museum is transforming from Acropolis…

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… into Agora

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1. A Community

2. A Mash-up

3. A Site for Socratic Dialogue

4. Fun!

The Museum as Agora is:

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1. The Museum as Community

Nikki de Saint Phalle, Tirage, 1961

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Voting & Polling

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MyCollection

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Bookmarking

Tate Modern Study 4-25 June 2005

• 43% of visitors bookmarked

• 3.53 pages bookmarked on average

• 44% of visitors clicked through to the Tate website from their emails

• 19% of visitors taking the multimedia tour went to Tate’s website after their visit as a result of their bookmarks

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Tate Txt

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2. The Museum as Mash-up

“Meet them where they are, and take them some place new.”

- Michael Edson,

Head of Digital & Web Strategy, Smithsonian Institution

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Save Outdoor Sculpture!

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The Museum Shuffle

EyeLevel.si.edu

April 4, 2008

Blog post by

Howard Kaplan

on

“Merce C”

By Franz Klein

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3. The Museum as Site of Socratic Dialogue

SmartHistory.org

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Curators in Dialogue:American Art Podcast

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Learning through Teaching

AmericanArt.si.edu/podcasts

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User-Generated Content

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4. The Museum is Fun!

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Ghosts of a Chance: A Case Study in the Museum as Agora

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What is an ARG?

• Alternate Reality Game• A kind of ‘scavenger hunt’ for the 21st century• Played across both ‘real world’ and digital

spaces, including web, phone & text message• Involves collaboration among large and

disparate communities to ‘solve’ the game• Unfolds through stories that change and are

developed dialectically by the game’s designers in response to the players

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Ghosts of a Chance is:

1. The mystery of the haunting of two Luce Center ‘curators’, Daisy and Daniel

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Ghosts of a Chance is:

2. The story-within-a-story of four, 19th century characters who are haunting the American Art Museum

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Ghosts of a Chance is:

3. A hunt for clues to the identity of the ghosts

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Ghosts of a Chance is:

4. A one-day exhibition in the Luce Center of objects related to the story, made by players in response to four ‘challenges’

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Ghosts of a Chance is:5. A series of events and tours of sites where the game’s story unfolds

– An ARG festival– The Natural History Museum– The National Cemetery– The American Art Museum

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Ghosts of a Chance is:

6. Six scavenger hunts at SAAM

on October 25, 2008

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Where GOAC was played:In the ‘Real World’1. An ARG fest for ‘hard-core’ players in Boston2. The basement and forensic labs of the

Natural History Museum3. The Congressional Cemetery4. In the American Art Museum, including the

Luce Center and GOAC exhibition

Over 250 players at the Museum on October 25, 2008.

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Where GOAC was played:Online1. The GOAC website: GhostsofaChance.com2. The Argers’ forum (a blog):

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=26261

3. The SAAM website: AmericanArt.si.edu4. SAAM’s blog: Eyelevel.si.edu5. Facebook6. Smithsonian Magazine website:

www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/atm-game-200810.html

More than 6000 players participated online over 2 months.

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Clues by text message

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A clue from a mystery caller

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A clue seen through a window

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An Art Demonstrator?

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A chef in the galleries?

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Let them eat cake!

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And dance!

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Getting Creative

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Everyone’s a winner!

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Player Feedback• I just first want to emphasize how fun Ghosts of a Chance was. My

husband and I had a really fun time doing it.

• …We also like the integration of text messaging and cell phones -- both of those things made it more than just a 'regular' scavenger hunt.

• I think it did make me look at art museums, in particular SAAM, in a different way. We certainly spent more time in the museum than we would have otherwise…

• Even though we were 'exposed' to the whole museum, I also liked that there were a couple of pieces of art that we actually had to sit and ponder… I never would have spent the time staring into the painting and trying to understand it if it weren't part of a task.

• I think it would be great to turn this into a shorter, user-centered, on-demand version. In fact, I think something like this would be a LOT more fun than some of the passive audio tours that you get in a lot of museums, and would allow for more user-generated content.

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Player Feedback• My 8 year old (3rd grade) daughter and I had a FANTASTIC time, and … she

wants to bring her friends with her next time. • We definitely went to parts of the museum that we would not have gone to

previously. It definitely made art more interactive. • I LOVED INTERACTING WITH THE MUSEUM & OBJECTS INSTEAD OF JUST

LOOKING AT THINGS AND OBSERVING AND JUDGING - IT WAS TONS OF FUN TO FEEL A PART OF IT ALL! … ALSO MADE IT FEEL LESS PRECIOUS … ALL FELT A LITTLE MORE PERSONALLY CONNECTED …

• I liked the game because normally at art museums I get bored after a while but this gave me something to do. I would definitely do it again or recommend it to someone else.

• I have spent quite some time in art museums and this is probably the first time that it felt like the museum was meant to be fun and interactive rather than more somber and pensive. It was really refreshing and definitely gave me a sense of community with the people who were coordinating the event and the other people participating in it.

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Three Principles for the 21st Century Museum

1. Interpretation is essential.2. It’s not about the technology.3. The Museum is a Distributed Network.

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Four Characteristics of the Museum as Agora

1. The Museum is a community.2. The Museum is a mash-up.3. The Museum is a site of Socratic dialogue.4. The Museum is fun!

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Above all, the Museum’s Agora is

Outside

or beyond the Museum’s walls and website

As well as

central toand at the heart of

the Museum experience

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Credits & Links

• ScienceMuseum.org.uk

• AntennaAudio.com

• Tate.org.uk/modern/multimediatour/ Wiki

• SmartHistory.org

• EyeLevel.si.edu

• AmericanArt.si.edu/podcasts

• Nancy Proctor at ProctorN@si.edu