Podcasting in Museums
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[edit] Introduction
In the past museum curators used placards or signs to convey information about objects or art that was being displayed in the museum. As early as the 1950’s museums started using reel-to-reel players to provide audio tours for patrons (Samis & Pau 2006, p. 5). With the explosion of technology in the 1990’s these audio tour players have undergone multiple transformations. The most recent of these innovations is the use of mp3 players and podcasts to enhance visitors’ enjoyment of exhibits and their knowledge of museum collections. This wiki report will attempt to show some of the innovative ways that museums are using podcasts to enliven the interactive museum experience. Podcasts are useful for patrons prior to a museum visit to gain familiarity with what you are going to see. Podcasts are also useful during a museum visit to guide your way through the collection. Finally, podcasts are a way to get more in-depth knowledge following a visit to the museum. Museums will very likely use podcasts more and more in the future.
[edit] What is Podcasting?
According to Reid Goldsborough, “podcasting is the recording and broadcasting of audio, typically verbal rather than musical, for playback, often through a portable digital media player, like an iPod” (Goldsborough 2007, p. 1). One of the most convenient aspects of a podcast is that you have the opportunity to listen to the information at your leisure.
[edit] When did Podcasting Start?
Just five years ago no one had even heard of the term podcasting. According to the Wikipedia History of podcastingthere were many early variations of the technology and name before the term podcasting was suggested in February of 2004 (Wikipedia 2007). The Wikipedia History of Podcastingsaid that on September 28, 2004 technology columnist Doc Searls searched Google for the term podcasts and received 24 hits (Wikipedia 2007). That same search today for podcasts on Google, on December 7, 2007 resulted in 12,400,000 hits. Those search results create quite a statement about the unbelievable popularity and growth of podcasts in just three years. With such a huge increase of people using and creating podcasts it was inevitable that museums would take notice of the phenomenon.
[edit] When did Museums Start Using Podcasting?
The first museum podcast was produced by the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabiliain Burlingame, California in June of 2004 (Yasko 2006, p.1). The next museum to produce a podcast was not until one year later in June of 2005. That was the Frist Center for the Visual Artsin Nashville, Tennessee (Yasko 2006, p. 1). Most museums did not take notice of this new technology until a NY Times article, With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tourwas published in May 2005 about ArtMobs(Samis & Pau 2006, p. 2). But what are ArtMobs? ArtMobsare the brainchild of Professor David Gilbert at Marymount Manhattan Collegewho had his students produce a series of podcasts called Remix MoMA(Kennedy 2005). These unofficial guidesto the Museum of Modern Artwere very different from the normal audio tours offered by the museum. After the publicity generated by those ArtMobsmany museums started to think about creating their own podcasts (Samis & Pau 2006, p. 2). By March of 2006 there were 34 museums offering podcasts in English (Yasko 2006, p. 3). Today , as of December 1, 2007 there are 114 museums listed worldwide that are producing podcasts that are listed on the Museum Podcast Directorypage of the MuseumPodsweb site.
[edit] What are the Different Parts of a Podcast?
The word Podcast was derived from the terms “broadcasting” and “iPod” (Kretz 2007, p. 35). What a podcast does is create a way for individuals to produce audio only podcasts or video podcasts with audio and video and/or picture files that are available to listen, download, or subscribe to over the Internet. There are four basic steps to every podcast. First you must create the audio or enhanced audio file. Second you have to upload that file to the Internet. Third you need to have a RSS feed associated with that audio file and also upload it to the Internet. Fourth you need to have a feed aggregator or reader which then collects and downloads the file (Kretz 2007, p. 36). The ability to subscribe through a RSS feeder to many different podcasts and then have those podcasts collected together on your computer by an aggregator is what makes a podcast different from other digital media that were already available (Samis & Pau 2006, p. 1). These aggregators allow subscribers to be notified automatically if a new podcast is available for download from a feed that they subscribe to (Samis & Pau 2006, p. 1).
[edit] How are Museums Using Podcasts?
There are an incredible variety of ways that museums use podcasts to share the contents and knowledge of their collections with museum visitors. In June 2005 when Appleintroduced the free iTunes version 4.9 with its integrated podcast directory that allowed users to find, subscribe and download podcasts that grew tremendously the number of people who used them; over one million podcasts were subscribed to in only two days (Huffman 2006, p. 1). As podcasts become even more popular museums will also become more creative in their usage to attract more new visitors to their museums. Museums use audio podcasts that are sound only, video podcasts (vodcast) that contain sound files with video or pictures, and enhanced podcasts that are similar to video podcasts but contain chapter markers.
[edit] Podcasts for Special Exhibitions
Many museums use podcasts to highlight special exhibitions that are being shown. These podcasts give the visitor more detailed background information and also help publicize the events. According to Marla K. Shoemaker, The Kathleen C. Sherrard Senior Curator of Education at the Philadelphia Museum of Art their podcasts are intended to interest people in visiting the exhibition by sharing some of the curator’s views on what makes the exhibition special. The current exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is Renoir Landscapes. What is so nice about this exhibit pageis that not only is there an in page podcast from the curator of the exhibit but there is a wealth of other information available. There is a photograph of one of the paintings, information about the exhibit, a link to purchase tickets, a link to access teaching materials about the exhibit, and tabs at the top that highlight other facets of the exhibition including books available for purchase, special events and even hotels and travel.
[edit] Curator Narrated Tours of Galleries
Museums also use podcasts to provide tours of their galleries with commentary from museum curators interspersed into the podcast. The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers podcast Art Tours available through iTunes. You can see which galleries are available here. These art tours are individual podcasts for specific audio stops in the permanent collection. For example the Arms and Armour art tour has 41 separate audio podtours. The advantage of having each podcast as a separate episode is that you don’t have to start the audio until you are actually in front of the art work. The Seattle Art Museumhas a series called SAM audio podcasts where they have created 50 short audio comments abut their permanent collection that correlate to a audio stop in the museum galleries. You can download them through iTunesor look at them online. When you look from your computer they include an image, in page audio commentary from curators and artists, and other information. See them here. One other interesting thing the Seattle Art Museumhas done is offer these podcasts at the museum for those without iPods or other mp3 devices by lending patrons a free audio guide wand with the tours already loaded.
[edit] Student Narrated Tours of Artwork
There are a few museums that are using students to create podcasts of either, art tours of galleries, individual pieces of art in their collections, or just teen’s opinions on art. By using teenagers museums hope to encourage other teens to come to their museums and become interested in art. The Harvard Sackler Museum podcast project was a project by twelve Harvardundergraduates to provide an audio tour of their galleries that would appeal to the rest of the students and encourage them to come visit the museum. This is the link to the sacklerpodcast,the pod tour is thirty-eight minutes long. The Museum of Modern Art(MOMA) has a project called the Red Studio Podcasts where teens talk about specific works of art. They say it is “for teenagers by teenagers”. These podcasts are really well done and combine music and sound effects with the opinions of artists, visitors, and the teens themselves. The Bronx Museum has a Teen Council museCastwhere teens talk about art and other subjects that interest them. The teens say, ”that they have a voice and plan to use it” (Yasko 2006, p. 6). The last student produced podcast is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was written by their summer high school interns. It is called High School Intern Episode: “One of a Kind: The Studio Craft Movement”. It is an interesting view of how teens perceive a normal museum tour.
[edit] Artist Interviews
One of the most interesting uses of podcasts is for artist interviews or talks. This enables museum visitors to get to know the artists better and hear what they have to say. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardenhas a series called Meet the Artist that are included on their main podcast page. There is also a series from the San Jose Museum of Art called Artist of the Weekthat are interviews with different artists. These podcasts are nice because you can listen to the audio podcast right on the page or download an enhanced podcast in iTunes. The Corning Museum of Glass also offers a Meet the Artist podcast series with interviews with contemporary artists who work in glass.
[edit] Guest Lectures
Another way that museums use podcasts are to broadcast lectures that they offer. These lectures are given by a wide assortment of people. They can be curators, historians, or even an astronaut. Check out the lecture seriesat the Franklin Institute Museum of Sciencethese are mp4 quicktime movie files available for direct viewing on the web or you can subscribe to the feed. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardenalso has a lecture series available from their main podcastpage. . The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovationfrom the National Museum of American Historyhas a series of video podcasts with inventors called Prototype Online: Inventive Voices. If you want to learn more about the world of spies the International Spy Museumhas a monthly series of SpyCastswhere ex-spies and other experts are interviewed and share their experiences.
[edit] Interactions with Museum Visitors
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardensalso has a series called Hirshhorn After Hours, which is video and sound of their patrons in the galleries. It can be linked from their main podcastpage. You can also link directly to the May 18 After Hours. At the Frist Center for the Visual Artsin Nashville, TN they have a podcast series called ARTini where they have discussions with patrons about artists and their artwork. Here is a link to the main podcastpage. Here is the direct link to the ARTinifrom October 21, 2005.
[edit] Other Ways Museums use Podcasts
Some museums are also using podcasts in different ways to interact with their communities. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has two Internet Talk Shows about human rights issues in the world. The first one is called Voices on Genocide Preventionthat is a weekly interview show hosted by Jerry Fowler. The second one is called Voices on Antisemitism Another museum that interviews Native Americans so that their heritage can be shared is the podcasts from the National Museum of the American IndianThe Colonial Williamsburgsite has an educational podcast series called Past and Presentwhere they take you behind the scenes with their historical re-enactors to discuss the past. They have either audio or enhanced podcasts.
[edit] What are the Benefits and Drawbacks of Podcasting in Museums?
“If you upload it, they will come”, many museums hope to increase the number of visitors they have by adding podcasts to the mix of other web strategies they are using (Deusner 2005, p. 4). Marla K. Shoemaker, The Kathleen C. Sherrard Senior Curator of Education at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, feels that because their podcasts have been downloaded by thousands of people it has made it easier for patrons to learn about the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Podcasts help museums increase visiblity in their communities. Museums also hope that podcasts, especially those created by students will instill a life long interest in younger patrons for the arts and museums (Yasko 2006, p. 4). They of course also hope for increased revenues from patrons coming to the museum after downloading a podcast. However, it is very difficult to track how many people have come to a museum after listening to a podcast. One museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has come up with a novel way to track their visitors. They advertise on their websitethat if you show the box office a mp3 player loaded with the current artcast you get $2.00 off the price of admissions to the museum. This has allowed them to track the demographics of who is listening to their podcasts as well as how many people they actually bring into the museum (Yasko 2006, p. 5).
One of the main drawbacks to podcasting is sustainabilitly (Samis & Pau 2006, p. 4). Is there enough funding to keep creating podcasts “with no built-in financial benefit to the Museum” (Samis & Pau 2006, p. 4)? I have noticed that several museums I read about in articles about podcasting no longer have podcasts available on their websites or in iTunes. Did they just run out of funding or did the staff that created them move on to another museum? Which brings up another point do museums have enough qualified staff to produce a podcast or should an outside firm be hired? The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art decided after making one themselves that they needed some help and went to Antenna Audioto create a partnership (Samis & Pau, 2006, p. 3). According to Antenna Audio’s website they call themselves “The world leader in audio tours and multimedia interpretation”(Discovery Communications,2007). They are doing work for a number of museums all over the world including the Van Gogh Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,the National Gallery, and even the Louve. Antenna Audiosupplies many different audio services to museums so I am not sure which of those museums use them for podcasts or for other audio technology. Which brings up the last point by Samis and Pau whether podcasts take away income for museums from traditional fee based audio tours (Samis & Pau 2006, p. 4)? It is difficult to tell at this point whether the increase in traffic from podcasts offsets the loss of income from fee based audio tours. Despite these drawbacks it appears that podcasting is here to stay.
[edit] Conclusion
I believe that podcasts have a very bright future in the museum setting. When you go to the iTunes store and look in the podcast directory they now have a category labeled Museum Tours, each of those 31 museum tours are offered for free. One of the reasons podcasts are gaining in popularity is the unbelievable growth in iPod sales. According to Steve Jobs, over 42 million iPods had been sold by 2006 (Boutin 2006). Steve Jobs also said that in the last quarter of 2005 Apple was selling over a hundred iPods every minute (Boutin 2006). Those figures don’t even take into account all the other brands of mp3 players that have also been sold. Podtours of museums are much easier to create now that you can use enhanced podcasts that allow chapter markers to be used. But even with the amount of mp3 players being sold, does everyone have an iPod? The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art started a new program in February of 2007 where patrons can rent an iPod for $2.00 that is preloaded with a self-guided tour of the galleries (Lee 2007). You might ask where did the museum find the funding to purchase those iPods? Well in this case Apple donated 100 iPods to the museum (Lee 2007). Museums are using blogs, websites and podcasts to go beyond their "brick and mortar" buildings to reach out to the public (Broun 2007, p. 2). Use of this new media gives museums the opportunity to tell stories and share a wealth of information about topics as well as engage their patrons interactively (Broun 2007, p. 4). The use of podcasts by museums is really just in its infancy and we can be assured that even more innovative uses of podcasting are yet to come.
[edit] Media Project
My media project is a video podcast that explores some of the different museums mentioned in my report. It talks about different podcast directories that are available and what kind of museum podcast tours you can access. Here is the link to Museum Podcasts
[edit] References
Boutin, P. 2006, Steve Jobs Keynote Live from Macworld 2006, Engadget. Available from: http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/10/steve-jobs-keynote-live-from-macworld-2006/ [11 December 2007].
Broun, E. 2007, 'Envisioning American Art 2.0', First Monday, vol. 12, no. 7, pp. 1-7. Available from: Wilson Web. [1 December 2007].
Deusner, S. 2005, 'Culture: Podcast Tours', Paste Magazine, issue 19, 28 November, pp. 4-5. Available from: http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/2462/department/music/culture_podcast_tours [1 December 2007].
Discovery Communications 2007, Antenna Audio. Available from: http://www.antennaaudio.com/ [1 December 2007].
Goldsborough, R. 2007, 'Podcasting Adds to the Media Mix', Tech Directions, vol. 66, no. 7, 9F, pp. 1-2. Available from: Wilson Web. [1 December 2007].
Huffman, K. 2006, 'Web 2.0: Beyond the Concept: Practical Ways to Implement RSS, Podcasts, and Wikis', Education Libraries, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 12-19. Available from: Wilson Web. [1 December 2007].
Kennedy, R. 2005, 'With Irreverence and an iPod Recreating the Museum Tour', The New York Times, 28 May. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/arts/design/28podc.html?ex=1274932800&en=db1ced6873dcc4b6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss[1 December 2007]
Kretz, C. 2007, 'Podcasting in Libraries', in Library 2.0 and Beyond, ed. Courtney, N., Libraries Unlimited, Westport, CT, pp. 35-47.
Lee, E. 2007, 'iPod Tours at the SFMOMA', The Tech Chronicles, 23 February. Available from: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=13771 [7 December 2007].
Samis, P. and Pau, S. 2006, 'Artcasting' at SFMOMA: First-Year Lessons, Future Challenges for Museum Podcasters Broad audience of use, in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.). Museums and the Web 2006: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, published 1 March. Available from: http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/papers/samis/samis.html [1 December 2007].
Wikipedia contributors 2007, 'History of podcasting', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_podcasting [7 December 2007].
Yasko, J. 2006, 'Access to Experts: Podcasting in Museums', CLS Journal of Museum Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 13-35. Available from: http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/Knowledge-Exchange/podcasting-museums.php [1 December 2007].
[edit] Resources
- Apple iPod Notes Features Guide The iPod notes feature allows you to set up a "self-paced electronic guided tour" with your iPod. This manual explains how it works.
- Apple Podcast Tutorial This is a link to the tutorial from Apple for Garage Band '08 on how to make a podcast.
- Global Museum This is a link to the Global Museum's Podcasting Directory. They have lots of information and links to museum podcasts.
- LearnOutLoud.com This is a link to a podcast directory that says they are a source for educational podcasts you can learn from.
- MuseumPods Podcast Directory This is a wonderful link to a directory of museum podcasts around the world. From this page you can subscribe to the podcasts or access the museum's webpages.
- Podcasting 101 This is a paper by Ken Dickson of the Ontario Science Centre that gives you step by step directions to create a podcast.
- Podcasting with the Museum Detective This is a great article that talks about seven reasons museums should podcast.
- The Museum Detective This is a link to a blog post called The Museum Detective. They find stories from behind the scenes in the museum world.
[edit] Podcast Directories
- Doppler Say they are redefining podcasting. It is free and good for non-iPod mp3 players.
- iTunes Download A very popular free program for MAC or PC operating systems.
- Juice A free cross platform podcast receiver. It is open source software that used to be called iPodder.
- Podcast Alley It is another free site that says they are the place to find a podcast.
- Podcast.net A free site that calls themselves The Podcast Directory.
