Interview about audio tours at DIA

Notes from phone conversation with Swarupa, Alison & James.

Some cell phone tour companies the DIA is considering using: Guide by
cell, On Cell systems

DIA will be using cell-based tours for its upcoming Richard Avedon
exhibition & possibly Through African Eyes
With Acoustiguide wands, there's lots of staff time involved in
distribution of equipment, sanitizing, etc.

Development is costly; of tours themselves; scripts, creative part,
etc.
TYPICALLY FOR EXHIBITIONS, COSTS RUN $40K FOR content development,
equipment rental, etc.

DON'T SEE VERY MANY PEOPLE USING AUDIOTOUR FOR PERMANENT COLLECTION
POST-REINSTALLATION. NOT SURE IF DECLINE IS B/C OF ABUNDANCE OF OTHER
INTERPRETIVE OPPORTUNITIES, IF PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT, OR B/C WE NOW
CHARGE A COUPLE OF $$ FOR USE.
People using audio tours in special exhibitions (audio tour built
into the ticket price)
LARGE-PRINT paper copies of text available as alternative
stops 2-3 minutes

With cell system:

Visitors can leave audio comments
Text voting can occur
development/production process is simplified. E.g. Director can just
record comments/content into a phone - you don't have to use a
recording studio
piloting a cell phone tour with 6-8 stops; an adult tour FOR AVEDON
EXHIBITION. This is in
contrast to acoustiguide tours of gallery, which typically have 15-20
stops & 40 minutes per tour roughly, as well as youth tours
stops = aiming for 1-2 minute ON CELL PHONE B/C MANY PAY PER MINUTE
Benefit - People can use their own equipment.
drawback - DIA has historically discouraged cell phone use in
galleries. Also, how many have their own cell phones?
able to track usage, how much of the content they listened to, where
people stop, how long until hang-up - visitor research component
Cell phone COMPANY doesn't provide any web interface (for listening
to audio content, recording audio content post-visit, etc.). DIA CAN
LIST PHONE NUMBERS ON DIA WEBPAGE. DIA would
have to build this. BUT DIA owns the content w/ a cell system.
Getty Museum provides print brochures with a small thumbnail and the
cell phone number of the object so that they can interact with it
after the visit, comment from home
With cell phone system, options for people participating are a lot
broader (e.g. scholars from afar)
How do you choose what audio responses can be accessed by other cell
phone users?
Try to provide a structure for soliciting responses to galleries/
objects. Questions for responses need to be carefully positioned to
inspire a response (not typically a yes/no question); questions are
made for works of art that are particularly interesting/emotional,
likely to instigate a reaction