If a Tate River Pilot Captain, an underground MC or a member of an indie rock band don't sound like normal tour guides, that's because the Tate Modern's latest audioguide is anything but normal.
In fact, it can't even be found within the gallery's walls. Of course, you can bring it into the Tate. All it requires is an mp3 player and some knowledge of the internet.
These audioguides are offered only on the Tate Modern's websites as podcasts: audio or video files made available online that can be automatically downloaded to either an mp3 player or a computer.
A handful of UK institutions are taking advantage of this fledgling technology with the hope of reaching out to a tech-savvy audience that already digests most of its information online.
Anyone can produce a podcast just like anyone can publish a blog or upload a video onto a website. Depending on the desired quality, the cost of producing a podcast can be as little as buying an external microphone to as high as hiring professional narrators and a production studio; all you need to podcast is to create an audio or video file and make it accessible online through an internet address. To listen, you need a program such as Apple's iTunes that can 'catch' the podcast and either play it directly or upload it onto an mp3 player.
Some museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Tate Modern, have produced separate podcasts as alternatives to the tours already played by handheld audioguides, swapping the scripted omniscience of some professional narrators for a moody rock song or informal commentary between ordinary visitors.
The Tate Modern's Artlookers series is an extension of its youth initiative, Raw Canvas, and targets 15-23 year-olds by providing a quirky choice of commentators ranging from a rapper to a senior lecturer to a riverboat captain. On one track, a commentator discusses the cliched tendency to rub beards while brooding, and commands the goatee-less listener to just 'fondle your chin'. Then he goes on to deliver a thoughtful treatise on Miro's use of balance, to the background of acoustic indie rock.
For those looking for a more traditional commentary, the Tate Modern's website also offers Modern Paint, which features established experts from the museum staff. Trish Smithen is a conservator of modern and contemporary painting at the Tate and commentator on Modern Paint. She says the aim of this podcast is to provide an outlet for her colleagues to reach a niche audience.
'We had this skill base and wanted to get all the facts out to the public,' Smithen says. 'Some people want the history and context. This is aimed at those who want to know more about the actual paint and materials.'
To David Wynne, the vice president of marketing and business at Acoustiguide, a producer of audio tours and equipment, podcasts are a potent marketing tool that can get through to a younger audience that's more inclined to own mp3 players and know about podcasting.
'I think it's a very good vehicle to reach those demographics,' Wynne says. 'Museums are quite hungry to reach them at the moment. That audience may never get to the museums by themselves. It's one way to reach out to those who have never experienced the museum environment before.'
Even though podcasts are only a little more than a year old in museums, Wynne says the sector is already at a turning point when it comes to content.
'We're at a crossroads,' he says. 'To start it was repackaging existing audio tours. Now museums realise the value of specialised content. Podcasts reach out to an audience that embraces the technology.'
So far, only two British museums - the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and the Tate- have made podcasts available through their websites. The V&A offered podcasts for this summer's Che Guevara show and also provides a monthly series of podcasts called CultureCast. Other UK museums are planning to join the Tate and the V&A. Wynne says that Acoustiguide is in talks with three more museums that want to develop podcast projects.
However, some smaller attractions are opting for the in-house treatment. Anglesey Abbey in Cambridge, a Jacobean-style country house owned and maintained by the National Trust, is currently conducting an evaluation of a pilot podcast programme: a 40-minute, 26-track introduction and three-room tour narrated by the BBC's Tim Wonnacott, who has featured on programmes such as Bargain Hunt and the Antiques Roadshow.
Philip Warner, the house manager at Anglesey Abbey, says he came up with the idea of offering audio tours as podcasts after hearing about a group of New York college students that made their own tours of MoMA for a school project and posted them online last year. These unofficial podcast tours garnered a New York Times article as well as the attention of Warner, who shortly afterwards pitched his own podcast project to the National Trust's Visitor Experience Group, which gave Anglesey Abbey £5,000 for the project.
Warner says there is often a tug-of-war in museums between hardware and content when it comes to funds. With the advent of podcasts and less expensive and easier to use audio-editing software, museums can divert more of their funds from pricey equipment such as handheld wands and focus on 'getting the right people to do the right talking'.
Warner's prototype podcasts also come with pictures that correlate with the object or area for mp3 players with such capabilities. He says interactive ideas geared for children, which could inform listeners about a certain area while instructing them on a scripted treasure hunt, may be available in the future.
Meanwhile in the US, where 22 million people own an mp3 player, museums have had a headstart when it comes to podcasting compared with their British counterparts.
Whereas the first UK museum to offer a podcast was the V&A in October last year, MoMA's first official podcast was in July 2005, when it began to provide its audio tours free of charge thanks to sponsorship from global information provider Bloomberg. Two weeks later, the museum moved these files to Apple's iTunes's newly added podcasting feature and made them available for subscription. Only one programme was on offer then. MoMA now has four programmes that people can access in five languages, with updates added monthly, as well as programmes for children and special exhibitions.
'Once we were able to offer our audio programmes free of charge to the public, it opened up an opportunity to make the programmes broadly available online as well as within the museum walls,' says Allegra Burnette, the creative manager of the digital media department at MoMA.
MoMA's podcast tour reached number 21 on the iTunes Top-100 last August, and downloads from moma.org have more than doubled from 618 in its first month to 1,444 in May this year. Burnette says the reception to the podcasts has been generally positive.
'Once it becomes possible for visitors to download the programmes to their mp3 players while at the museum, we imagine that more people will want to use their own device,' Burnette says. 'Not only do they have something that they are already familiar with, but they can also walk away with the content and continue to listen to it after they have left the building.'
Several other US museums have been experimenting with podcasting, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which has been working with audio tour specialist Antenna Audio on Artcasts. These are a series of audio art-zines that include several short features about the museum and its collection.
But the question remains whether or not podcasting is a passing phase or a lasting and useful tool that reaches an untapped audience. Toby Travis, the web developer for V&A Online, says that from the number of those who subscribe regularly to the V&A's monthly podcasts - which hovers around 200 - only about a fifth use their mp3 players. The majority opt to listen on desktops or laptops, making it hard to tell if these subscribers are visiting the museums.
But most surveys say podcasting is here to stay. Last April, one research firm (Diffusion Group) predicted there would be 56 million US podcast listeners by 2010 while another firm (Forrester Research) claims a more modest 12 million. Both figures suggest a boom in podcast listeners may be imminent.
'It's not reaching its potential yet, but in the long run it will be quite cheap for museums and quite useful,' says Travis.
Podcasting is still in its infancy as a medium and its many uses are being explored in and outside the museum sector. But as more and more visitors become tech-savvy, it may become as permanent a fixture on museums' websites as mp3 players have become on teenagers' trousers.
Jeff Morganteen is a student journalist
Links
MoMA: www.moma.org/visit_moma/audio/downloadMV1.html
Tate: www.tate.org.uk/learning/youngtate/artlookers/
Anglesey Abbey: www.stridedesign.net/nt/tour.aspx
V&A: www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/podcasts/
In fact, it can't even be found within the gallery's walls. Of course, you can bring it into the Tate. All it requires is an mp3 player and some knowledge of the internet.
These audioguides are offered only on the Tate Modern's websites as podcasts: audio or video files made available online that can be automatically downloaded to either an mp3 player or a computer.
A handful of UK institutions are taking advantage of this fledgling technology with the hope of reaching out to a tech-savvy audience that already digests most of its information online.
Anyone can produce a podcast just like anyone can publish a blog or upload a video onto a website. Depending on the desired quality, the cost of producing a podcast can be as little as buying an external microphone to as high as hiring professional narrators and a production studio; all you need to podcast is to create an audio or video file and make it accessible online through an internet address. To listen, you need a program such as Apple's iTunes that can 'catch' the podcast and either play it directly or upload it onto an mp3 player.
Some museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Tate Modern, have produced separate podcasts as alternatives to the tours already played by handheld audioguides, swapping the scripted omniscience of some professional narrators for a moody rock song or informal commentary between ordinary visitors.
The Tate Modern's Artlookers series is an extension of its youth initiative, Raw Canvas, and targets 15-23 year-olds by providing a quirky choice of commentators ranging from a rapper to a senior lecturer to a riverboat captain. On one track, a commentator discusses the cliched tendency to rub beards while brooding, and commands the goatee-less listener to just 'fondle your chin'. Then he goes on to deliver a thoughtful treatise on Miro's use of balance, to the background of acoustic indie rock.
For those looking for a more traditional commentary, the Tate Modern's website also offers Modern Paint, which features established experts from the museum staff. Trish Smithen is a conservator of modern and contemporary painting at the Tate and commentator on Modern Paint. She says the aim of this podcast is to provide an outlet for her colleagues to reach a niche audience.
'We had this skill base and wanted to get all the facts out to the public,' Smithen says. 'Some people want the history and context. This is aimed at those who want to know more about the actual paint and materials.'
To David Wynne, the vice president of marketing and business at Acoustiguide, a producer of audio tours and equipment, podcasts are a potent marketing tool that can get through to a younger audience that's more inclined to own mp3 players and know about podcasting.
'I think it's a very good vehicle to reach those demographics,' Wynne says. 'Museums are quite hungry to reach them at the moment. That audience may never get to the museums by themselves. It's one way to reach out to those who have never experienced the museum environment before.'
Even though podcasts are only a little more than a year old in museums, Wynne says the sector is already at a turning point when it comes to content.
'We're at a crossroads,' he says. 'To start it was repackaging existing audio tours. Now museums realise the value of specialised content. Podcasts reach out to an audience that embraces the technology.'
So far, only two British museums - the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and the Tate- have made podcasts available through their websites. The V&A offered podcasts for this summer's Che Guevara show and also provides a monthly series of podcasts called CultureCast. Other UK museums are planning to join the Tate and the V&A. Wynne says that Acoustiguide is in talks with three more museums that want to develop podcast projects.
However, some smaller attractions are opting for the in-house treatment. Anglesey Abbey in Cambridge, a Jacobean-style country house owned and maintained by the National Trust, is currently conducting an evaluation of a pilot podcast programme: a 40-minute, 26-track introduction and three-room tour narrated by the BBC's Tim Wonnacott, who has featured on programmes such as Bargain Hunt and the Antiques Roadshow.
Philip Warner, the house manager at Anglesey Abbey, says he came up with the idea of offering audio tours as podcasts after hearing about a group of New York college students that made their own tours of MoMA for a school project and posted them online last year. These unofficial podcast tours garnered a New York Times article as well as the attention of Warner, who shortly afterwards pitched his own podcast project to the National Trust's Visitor Experience Group, which gave Anglesey Abbey £5,000 for the project.
Warner says there is often a tug-of-war in museums between hardware and content when it comes to funds. With the advent of podcasts and less expensive and easier to use audio-editing software, museums can divert more of their funds from pricey equipment such as handheld wands and focus on 'getting the right people to do the right talking'.
Warner's prototype podcasts also come with pictures that correlate with the object or area for mp3 players with such capabilities. He says interactive ideas geared for children, which could inform listeners about a certain area while instructing them on a scripted treasure hunt, may be available in the future.
Meanwhile in the US, where 22 million people own an mp3 player, museums have had a headstart when it comes to podcasting compared with their British counterparts.
Whereas the first UK museum to offer a podcast was the V&A in October last year, MoMA's first official podcast was in July 2005, when it began to provide its audio tours free of charge thanks to sponsorship from global information provider Bloomberg. Two weeks later, the museum moved these files to Apple's iTunes's newly added podcasting feature and made them available for subscription. Only one programme was on offer then. MoMA now has four programmes that people can access in five languages, with updates added monthly, as well as programmes for children and special exhibitions.
'Once we were able to offer our audio programmes free of charge to the public, it opened up an opportunity to make the programmes broadly available online as well as within the museum walls,' says Allegra Burnette, the creative manager of the digital media department at MoMA.
MoMA's podcast tour reached number 21 on the iTunes Top-100 last August, and downloads from moma.org have more than doubled from 618 in its first month to 1,444 in May this year. Burnette says the reception to the podcasts has been generally positive.
'Once it becomes possible for visitors to download the programmes to their mp3 players while at the museum, we imagine that more people will want to use their own device,' Burnette says. 'Not only do they have something that they are already familiar with, but they can also walk away with the content and continue to listen to it after they have left the building.'
Several other US museums have been experimenting with podcasting, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which has been working with audio tour specialist Antenna Audio on Artcasts. These are a series of audio art-zines that include several short features about the museum and its collection.
But the question remains whether or not podcasting is a passing phase or a lasting and useful tool that reaches an untapped audience. Toby Travis, the web developer for V&A Online, says that from the number of those who subscribe regularly to the V&A's monthly podcasts - which hovers around 200 - only about a fifth use their mp3 players. The majority opt to listen on desktops or laptops, making it hard to tell if these subscribers are visiting the museums.
But most surveys say podcasting is here to stay. Last April, one research firm (Diffusion Group) predicted there would be 56 million US podcast listeners by 2010 while another firm (Forrester Research) claims a more modest 12 million. Both figures suggest a boom in podcast listeners may be imminent.
'It's not reaching its potential yet, but in the long run it will be quite cheap for museums and quite useful,' says Travis.
Podcasting is still in its infancy as a medium and its many uses are being explored in and outside the museum sector. But as more and more visitors become tech-savvy, it may become as permanent a fixture on museums' websites as mp3 players have become on teenagers' trousers.
Jeff Morganteen is a student journalist
Links
MoMA: www.moma.org/visit_moma/audio/downloadMV1.html
Tate: www.tate.org.uk/learning/youngtate/artlookers/
Anglesey Abbey: www.stridedesign.net/nt/tour.aspx
V&A: www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/podcasts/
