Tate Modern PDA tours

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Tate Modern PDA tours

• Gillian Wilson
• Tate Modern, UK

Mobile Learning Conference, ELG, 6 March 2008
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Interpretation at Tate Modern

• Interpretation is at the heart of Tates mission
• Works of art have no self-evident meanings
• Tate has an obligation to provide information
  about its collections and displays
• Interpretation should be offered in a variety of
  forms to suit different learning styles
• Interpretation should be layered
• Interpretation should offer a range of viewpoints
  about an artwork
• Interpretation should promote dialogue between
  visitors

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Audio guides

• Collections tour
• Highlights tour
• Childrens tour
• Architecture tour
• Tour for visually impaired people
• Audio points

Produced in association with Acoustiguide
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Mobile phone tours

• Pilot project for David Smith exhibition, autumn
  2006
• Low projected visitor figures
• Costs are less audio cheaper, no distribution
  desk required
• Very short segments of content little
  anecdotes about the work

• Interesting findings
• Significant amount of people uncomfortable about
  using mobile phones in the gallery
• UK audience particularly worried about cost of
  calls
• Younger people more attracted to using mobile
  phone tours than audio guides
• Those who are after a learning experience
  perceive that an audio guide will suit their
  needs better.
• People seem to be after a choice of devices to
  use

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Multimedia tours
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Multimedia tour programme

• Pilot 1 2002
• Pilot 2 2003/04
• Pilot 3 2005
• Launch of Multimedia Tour for the Collections
  Displays June 2006
• Adults tour
• Family tour
• Highlights tour (also in 4 foreign languages)
• Schools tour pilot Jan April 2008
• BSL tour launched in December 2007
• Also have produced tours for large-scale
  temporary exhibitions (Frida Kahlo, Rousseau,
  Kandinsky, Gilbert and George, Dali and Film)

Produced in association with Antenna Audio
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Podcasts

• Youth programme podcast
• http//www.tate.org.uk/youngtate/podcast/artlooker
  s/
• Material science podcast
• http//www.tate.org.uk/modern/tours/materialslibra
  ry/
• Modern paints podcast
• http//www.tate.org.uk/learning/learnonline/modern
  paints/default.htm
• Video podcast Tate Shots
• www.tate.org.uk/tateshots

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Multimedia tour content and design

• Some design tips
• Design of PDA interface should reflect standard
  website or digital design conventions.
• Visitors want to be in control of the PDA so
  dont make anything happen automatically allow
  them to stop and start commentaries
• Choices made need to be accompanied by visual or
  audio feedback
• Visitors experience of using the PDA needs to
  merge successfully with their experience in the
  gallery. For eg device tells visitor to look from
  the screen to the artwork they need to be able
  to find the artworks easily
• A choice of small chunks of information is better
  than lengthy commentaries
• Popular content
• Video clips of artists at work
• Audio contributions by artists and other
  commentators
• Audio commentary accompanied by still images
• Interactive interfaces (Touch and listen)
• Interactive games
• Less popular content
• Text

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BSL tour
Tour in British Sign Language, for deaf and hard
of hearing people

• BSL film clips are shown on the PDA screen
• Deaf people have independent access to BSL
  interpretation, on demand

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Schools tour

• Additional layer of interactive content for 20
  works
• New tools for students to make their own content
• - drawing
• - text
• - audio
• Follow up back at school on students own
  personal websites
• Results in creation of multimedia presentations

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Why use mobile interpretation tools?

• Gives rich contextual info

• Doesnt clutter up the gallery space

• Dispenses with crowding around gallery
  information captions

• Provides interpretation where the visitor needs
  it in front of the artwork

• Can give a range of point of views

• A non linear experience

• An interactive experience for visitors

• Supports different styles of learning

• Personalisation of content

• User-generated content?

• Content to be accessible on visitors own
  personal devices?