Comments on: The iPod tour at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

By: Alex Lovell

Alex Lovell — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:20:08 +0000

I was alerted to your review of C-H NDM, both v interesting and informative. We are dealing with these subtle issues of what/how much/distraction etc in the UK right now. Our focus is more the remote access and pioneering the online experience – a compelling virtual tour: a real visual, interrogative experience (not second life type) my door to the world NOT the world to my door and to create an invigorating informative experience within the Gallery/Exhibition/Museum envioronment.

Has anybody else pursued or experienced this route either commercially or seen good on-line examples. Our response by operators in the UK is generally v good/excited but hard to provide definitive case egs.

Would be interested to hear your views.

Thanks, Alex

By: Sarah Dines

Sarah Dines — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:55:19 +0000

Koven,
Would love to see those pics if you make it back to the museum.

Meanwhile, I’ve done the SF MOMA rooftop app on site and at home. I’ll send you my thoughts if you’re interested. Let me know your email. I’m at first.last@gmail.com

Cheers, Sarah

By: Morgan

Morgan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:50:20 +0000

Hi Koven,
I think you summarize the experience with the iPod in this exhibit quite well, both its strengths and weaknesses.
I found it took me about 10 minutes to get used to how to use the iPod best while also viewing the pieces. This turned out to mean that I did not look up additional content on the iPod unless I found a piece particularly interesting or wanted to learn more about the designer. I missed a lot of fascinating content, I’m sure, but it lead to a satisfying experience and better integration than trying to get through all of the in-the-room or on-the-device information. I could watch multiple 10 minute videos without spending more than 2 hours at the museum, including the upstairs exhibition.
I strongly agree with your point that I would love to see the open material available via email or even on the museum’s website. But I also found the statistics that were sent to my email address about my visit telling in terms of what type of content I gravitated towards.
Again, thank you for writing such a thoughtful piece. I enjoyed reading it and think Cooper Hewitt’s experiment merits continued discussion among the museum and digital communities.
Regards,
Morgan.

By: Koven

Koven — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:00:15 +0000

Sarah,

Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a camera with me to the show, so I don’t have any screenshots. I might go back to see the show again in the next couple of weeks; I might try to add some photos then. And in reply to others who asked, no, I don’t believe this is available in the App store. It’s too bad, because it would work rather well as a stand-alone app–it’s self-contained enough that you don’t really need to be in the gallery to use it. It’s kind of strange that most of the functionality from the application isn’t mirrored on the exhibition Web site; it would be rather useful there.

By: Maria

Maria — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:12:59 +0000

Thanks for sharing your impressions! The NYT review had a number of our curators abuzz and your description & thoughts are v informative. I shall point colleagues to your post.

By: Sandy Goldberg

Sandy Goldberg — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:04:37 +0000

Hi Koven,

Thanks so much for this; very insightful. Of course it was great to see Roberta Smith actually covering interpretation in her review of the show – and frustrating that the designers and the museum went for the ‘more-is-better’ approach, which we know doesn’t enhance an on-site experience. Using existing content is often great. I’ve used youtube videos and the like in some of my projects for museums – but they’ve got to be really honed, tightly edited, etc to make the on-site experience more, not less, resonant.

By: Duffau

Duffau — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:18:23 +0000

Hi,
very interesting review indeed. It gives a very good idea of what is available.
Do you know if the application be available in the App Store?
Regards,
Gilles

By: Sarah Dines

Sarah Dines — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:42:16 +0000

Hi Koven,
Thanks for your review. After reading the Times review I was really encouraged by the potential fabulous-ness and step-forward-in-the-right-direction-ness of the application.

Great point on integrating existing, free, out there material into in-gallery interpretation. I wish (and expect) more museums would (will) do this, and that providers would try harder to drive museums to do this – hopefully yours will!

Also very disappointing that the experiences don’t seem to need each other (in-gallery interpretation 101) and irksome as I would very much like to see the exhibition app but cannot seem find it in the app store, and will not be in New York for a couple of months. I mean, if you don’t need to be there, why not make it available to all?

Did you take any screen shots of the application? Would love to see them here.

Cheers,
Sarah