Reviews
Independent reviews of tours and mobile programs
...of cultural sites, cities, monuments and places of natural beauty, wherever they may be found.Can you recommend a tour or mobile interpretation program?
Help us build a comprehensive guide to audio, cellphone, multimedia, mobile web and app-based tours at museums and cultural sites around the world by adding it to this index - and post a review below if you can!If you are a museum or other cultural site, you may create a page to describe your project in the Projects section of the wiki.
If you are a vendor, please add information about your Products & Services in that section of the site.UNESCO World Heritage iPhone/iPad App: Challenges Publishers Face in the Age of Digital Convergence
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | January 22, 2011 | No Comments
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has partnered with Harper Collins and the folks at Aimer Media to develop an app which is a comprehensive pocket reference guide to the 911 World Heritage sites. Based upon a book between Collins and UNESCO, the UNESCO World Heritage app allows you to search through these sites by alphabetical index, year inscribed, country, or the classification of the site (Cultural, Natural, Mixed). The user can also add sites to a list of favorites, review a list of the last 20 sites the user has viewed, or tap “Random” allowing the app to pick a site for the user to view. When the user selects a category to search by, say sites classified as Cultural, the user can then search within this subset either alphabetically or via a search field. The strength of this app is the ease of use by which one can navigate and explore the UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Read the full review here.
Tags: Aimer Media > Harper Collins > heritage apps > iPad culture apps > iPhone culture apps > iPhone paid apps > publishers > reference apps > UNESCO > United Nations > World Heritage sites
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LACMA iPhone App v1.0: A Study in User Frustration
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | January 8, 2011 | No Comments
The current version (1.0) of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) app is as a study in creating a frustrating user experience. This app, in its current version, is not ready for prime time. Twice in exploring this app I’ve had to uninstall and reinstall the app in order to proceed. This app doesn’t crash but it does lead the user down poorly designed paths from which there is no return. No hints. No suggestions. Just a dead end. Although graphically the LACMA app is aesthetically appealing the accumulated frustration from frictions great and small in interacting with the app results in a poor user experience overall.
Read the full review here.
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NYC Must Have iPhone Art App – cultureNow: Guidbook for Museums Without Walls
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | January 4, 2011 | No Comments
If you live in New York City, have an iPhone and an appreciation for art or a curiosity about NYC history then the cultureNOW: Guidebook for the Museums Without Walls is a must have app. Even if you don’t live in NYC this is an enjoyable app to explore as a virtual visitor. For your $1.99 you get mobileaccess to a database of literally thousands of public works of art and architecture (4000+ in Manhattan alone!!). One of the real strengths of this app is the numerous ways the user can explore this vast wealth of content. If you are in the city you can search by location using the iPhone’s GPS. Planning to visit NYC or curious about a specific area then you can choose to enter an address. The user can also search the entire cultureNOW database by the name of a work of art, a building, by artist, by architect, and even projects such as Arts for Transit and Percent for Art. The cultureNOW folks have “mapped any artwork paid for a public agency or visible from a public space” and this app makes it all so conveniently accessible. In yet another way this app is user friendly the handy “Prefs” icon allows the user to set over 20 search categories as on or off. If you want to focus on only the historic buildings near a specific location this app makes it easy to do that. And the handy “Prefs” icon makes it easy to change to explore in a whole different direction when you choose.
Read the full review here.
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iPhone Art Apps for Cars, Quilts, Copyright Humain, Grünes Gewölbe, & Graphic Design
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 24, 2010 | No Comments
This week we have an eclectic mix of apps. Some you may like because you are interested in the subject and in such cases I’m sure the app developers would appreciate your support and feedback as the apps covered here are not as developed as they could be with some user feedback. Even if the particular subjects of these apps do not draw your attention if you are developing an app for your institution there are design pluses and minuses of each that are worth reviewing.
Read the full reviews here.
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10 iPhone Apps for Current Art Exhibitions (Part 2)
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 18, 2010 | No Comments
Amidst your holiday preparations and travels here are some iPhone apps for current art exhibitions in Paris, London, Zurich, and Lincoln, Massachusetts to perhaps give you a few moments of enriched time .This is the second of two post related to current art exhibition apps.
Read more here.
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10 iPhone Apps for Current Art Exhibitions (Part 1)
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 12, 2010 | No Comments
I wish everyday involved an exhibition visit or at least two or three each week. While institutions are putting more and more information about their collections and exhibitions on their websites it is the apps which for me are really making this type of content accessible. With a website I’m very often multi-tasking when viewing but with an app I’m focused on being engaged with that content. Headphones on and iPhone or iPad in hand I’m asking the app to entertain, engage, and inspire me. To take me on a journey.
Here I take a look at 10 iPhone apps for current exhibitions (divided into two posts with 5 each) to see how they compare in their approach to engaging the virtual visitor. Do these apps invite one to attend the related exhibition after viewing? And how well do these stand on their own as an experience for the virtual visitor? I start from the perspective of the virtual visitor because this visitor’s travel budget is limited but his curiosity budget is not and with these apps I can attend an exhibition anytime, anwhere. Read the full review here.
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Why Visit? 3 iPhone Apps for Historic Places
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 12, 2010 | No Comments
Let me confess up front that I have a weak spot for apps that focus on local historic areas. These are like someone inviting you into their home. This is where they live and work. There’s an element of pride based upon a true appreciation for a place that shines through the best of these apps. Even if it’s unlikely you’ll be able to make the physical journey to everyone one of these, the best historic places apps create a soft spot in your heart that you don’t forget by taking you on a mental journey. Read the full review here.
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Follow A Culture Trail App
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 12, 2010 | No Comments
Guide books for culture trails have aided travelers for ages and now we’re seeing these become available as apps for smartphones. This certainly makes the traveler’s load a bit lighter during the journey but are these apps good at inspiring traveler’s to make the journey in the first place? Do they give the user a reason to follow the culture trail? To get excited about the various stops along the trail? To want to return to portions of the trail missed on a first or second visit? Or are they reference tools for when the traveler is in the midst of the journey providing logistical information in a convenient easy to navigate format? I would suggest that the best culture trail apps will inspire the journey, prove useful during the journey, and of course these days, allow the traveler to share real-time bits of their experience on the trail with not only their social network of friends but also leave tips for future travelers on the trail. Read a review of two culture trail apps here.
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10 New Culture Apps for the iPhone
Posted by CharlesOuthier on | December 12, 2010 | No Comments
November saw the release of a number of culture apps on the Apple App Store. Some were as alive as a business card or a flyer but others were very creative, fun and inspiring in their approach to engaging users in this space. Here is a review of ten culture apps which give a representative range of the releases from cultural institutions in the month of November.
Read more here.
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Mobile Social Media: Halsey Burgund’s “Scapes”
Posted by Nancy Proctor on | October 21, 2010 | 5 Comments
Over the past decade, I’ve taken innumerable audio tours and tried a lot of variations on that basic mobile theme at museums and cultural sites on five continents. Inspired by Janet Cardiff and by Antenna Theater, to whose creative vision and innovative spirit I owe my career, I have said for years that it would be the artists who would show us how to use mobile to its fullest: how to push the boundaries of the technology and create truly transformative experiences and content. More recently, I have argued that mobile should be deployed primarily as a social media platform, creating conversations that go beyond the uni-directional, broadcast mode of traditional audio tours. But never did I dare dream that the realization of these principles would result in a mobile experience as profound or as exciting as what I experienced earlier this week at Halsey Burgund’s installation, “Scapes,” at the deCordova Sculpture Park. I have never left an exhibition so reluctantly in my life.
Ilan Averbuch, Skirt & Pants (after Duchamp), 2000
You can download the Scapes app or borrow an iPhone at the DeCordova’s museum. The welcome screen gives you two options: Listen or Speak. Tap hear, and as you stroll the gardens you are wrapped in an inspired musical soundtrack, blended with voices speaking to you of what they are seeing, thinking and feeling about the art and landscape around them – around you. Entranced by the music, I wandered past a large work by Ilan Averbuch. A young boy’s voice called me: “It’s made of wood and glass, and there’s a boy wearing pants and a girl in a dress and an overturned canoe.” I stopped and turned around. Sure enough, the abstract form took on figurative shapes I hadn’t noticed before. I walked back to read the label: Skirt & Pants (after Duchamp) – one of my favorite artists! A man’s voice tells me how he put his head into the ‘canoe’; I followed suit. Suddenly, I was inside the sculpture, living it rather than passing it by.
The DeCordova also has an app with maps and more traditional interpretive content and a cellphone tour, which I thought I’d try as I went around. I dipped in once, and quickly went back to Scapes: the app and its cellphone component are perfectly respectable examples of the traditional audio tour genre, but felt so flat in comparison to visiting the garden with a chorus of perceptive strangers. Despite being short of time, my companions and I concocted excuses to linger. I began seeding the garden with questions for those who will come after me. Ed Rodley from the Boston Museum of Science, pressed “Speak” and wondered aloud which was more beautiful: the sculpture on such a fine day, or the autumn leaves against a perfect blue sky. Seconds later, his voice was weaving in and out of the sounds of a fountain and the ever-present music of Scapes. The audio quality was remarkable – as if Ed had been recorded in a professional studio. This made a big difference and helped maintain the tone and ambiance created by the musical score. (Read Ed’s review of “Scapes” on his blog.)
The elegant interface is simple to use and clear prompts appear at helpful moments without distracting you from what you’ve really come to the park to see. Visitors are invited to reply in 45 seconds or less to one of five questions:
- Scapes is an excuse to talk to yourself about anything at all. Go for it.
- Ask a question of those who come after you.
- Tell a story inspired by something you see or feel here.
- Look straight up and describe what you see.
- Tell us about someone you wish was here with you right now. Talk to him/her.
Comments are not edited nor censored as long as they don’t include irrelevant profanity or incendiary language – and none has in over 4 months of operation. Burgund has simply built a platform and turned it over to the sculpture garden’s audience. The audacity of this experiment is breathtaking: how did he know the visitors wouldn’t abuse their 45 seconds of fame? How could he be sure they would say interesting and important things? How could he – and the deCordova – dare to take such a risk?
“People say interesting things,” answers artist Halsey Burgund, and they “say things in interesting ways.” His installation does not patronize us with didactic content or educational exercises. Rather, it gives us meaningful work to do: we help build the visitor experience at the sculpture park and can hear the results in real time. We become part of something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our single transitory visit, something enduring that will have real impact on others’ connections to the art.
Speaking to another colleague about the experience, he reminded me of the amazing 826 Valencia Writing Center, that helps kids aged 6-18 develop their writing skills – not by giving them writing exercises, but by having them write for publication. Suddenly, their work takes on a much bigger audience and import, which, as we saw at deCordova, focuses the mind, filters out the noise, and brings out the best in people.
What would happen if we adopted this model with much more of our interaction with museum audiences? Instead of feeding them interpretation, education and entertainment, we could recruit them to our staff and mission. The numbers of volunteers and interns who help keep the doors open at cultural institutions around the world for no monetary reward are legion. Visitors’ curiosity about behind-the-scenes information about the museum is well known. How can we develop programs, mobile or otherwise, that engage that dedication and enthusiasm and put it to work helping us make the museum more sustainable, more relevant, and of a greater quality than has ever before been imagined possible?
I never thought I’d say it, but this is an “audio tour” that actually brings people to the exhibition, not just the other way around. The exhibition has been extended until the end of 2010 because of all the interest! If you can’t get there, consider inviting Halsey to create Scapes for your community.
Some links to find out more:
- Exibition website: http://decordova.org/art/exhibitions/current/scapes.html
- Video demonstration of the installation: http://vimeo.com/15058020
- Review by Adam Ragusea: http://www.wbur.org/2010/07/21/scapes-at-the-decordova
- Artist’s website: http://halseyburgund.com
Tags: audio tour > deCordova > Ed Rodley > experience > garden > Halsey Burgund > mobile > museum > park > Scapes > sculpture > soundscape
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