No Robot Voice: Creating Powerful Narrative via Audio Tours

The Vatican Museum in Rome audio tour has a robot voice and I don’t like that. After 10 seconds, I just read the written description provided for each of the exhibits. The more conversational dialogue, such as, “And this is where we bid you a farewell, hoping you enjoyed this trip together! See you soon!” (ESN Italia) sounds awkward when it is spoken in a voice that is not human. The Art of Museum Exhibitions highlights the importance of a museum having a narrative. It says, “In other words, storytelling, or the narrative mode of thought, is about both the storyteller and the listener (or viewer or visitor). Narrative stimulates personal interpretation; the person watching the film, reading the book, or experiencing the exhibition is engaged in his own kind of internal dialogue with the story,” (Bedford 59). Listening to a voice void of voice fluctuations, tone, pauses, attitude, or even an accent made it difficult to feel engaged and connected with the dialogue presented. In addition to having a human say the dialogue for the audio I also have two other suggestions for giving audio tours, specifically the audio tour for the Zuckerman Museum of Art (ZMA), captivating storytelling qualities:

1. An engaging beginning and end

Every good story I have experienced, whether through a film or a novel, has had a great beginning and end. For example, in the movie Nope, I was instantly drawn into the film when the movie opened with the eerie and hypnotic tarp-like and other-worldly creature later nicknamed Jean Jacket, and at the end of the film I was on the edge of my seat with the audio and visuals presented during the action-packed conclusion. The audio tour is not a horror movie, obviously, but I think it should still have the same immersive qualities as a film. For example, the audio tour could begin or end with a relevant song, pun, or a brief story before or after diving into the more content-heavy information presented. 

        2. Repetition

Part of the mission of the ZMA stated on the website says, “In keeping with the University's mission of teaching, research, and service, the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art (ZMA) serves as a vital academic resource and cultural focus for students, faculty and members of the community and seeks to exhibit, collect, preserve, and interpret significant works of art,” (Kennesaw State University). To support this statement, the ZMA audio tour should continuously reference the Kennesaw State University student and faculty culture as well as the surrounding culture. Not only will repeatedly referencing tidbits about the various cultures nail down the mission of the museum, but it will also make people feel represented and in turn more engaged. 

Giving the audio tour a story and a human voice while promoting the mission of the museum at the same will most likely get people to come back. Whenever I read a book with vivid imagery, watched a TV show with a character where it felt like I was looking in the mirror, or went to a museum with a funny tour guide, I always wanted to come back for more and with some of the previous suggestions I believe the audio tour could have that same effect. 

Works Cited

Bedford, Leslie. The Art of Museum Exhibitions. Left Coast Pr., 2014. 

ESN Italia. “Musei Vaticani ICE 2022: ENG.” Izi.TRAVEL, 2022, https://www.izi.travel/en/10c9-musei-vaticani-ice-2022-eng/en#a43d-introduction/en. 

Kennesaw State University. “Zuckerman Museum of Art.” Kennesaw State University, https://www.kennesaw.edu/arts/zuckerman/about/index.php. 

Teamwork, Teamwork, Teamwork makes the Dream Work, Dream Work, Dream Work

 Repeatedly working with the same partner or group in a collaborative space hinders learning potential. During the fall semester, I took Chem 1211 lab and after the first week of school my lab partner dropped the class. During the second week of class and throughout the rest of the semester I was paired with anyone without a partner for our allotted class period. Although having the same lab partner throughout the semester would have resulted in me getting into a collaborative and swift rhythm with my lab partner, after some thought, I am glad that I worked with different partners throughout the semester. Working with many different lab partners allowed me to experience several ways of completing the lab. Some people liked to work each step one at a time as a pair, while some would rather divvy out the procedure. A few people preferred to work the calculations out during the lab period, while others preferred doing them at home. Sampling different ways of completing my chemistry lab helped me generate my strategy for completing labs. If I had stayed comfortable with the same lab partner throughout the semester I wouldn’t have developed the number of strategies that I did when working with numerous people. 

“Making Teamwork Work,” says, “Building relationships with teammates and knowing something about each of them a person helps produce a better outcome,” (Reifenberg). I agree with this statement and to add to the sentiment, I believe the more relationships you form with different people the better the teammate you will be. Tapping into different people's strategies and life experiences can help you to work efficiently and work out difficulties like the ones mentioned in “Coping with Hitchhikers and Couch Potatoes on Teams”. In “Coping with Hitchhikers and Couch Potatoes on Teams” it says, “Set your limits early and high,” (Cornell University). This process can be significantly simpler when you have worked in groups of many different people. Working with people and having conflict can introduce you to a limit you should start setting. For example, if you are working with someone and you later realize that they could care less what grade they get on the project when you want an A, then you might learn that in your next group project, you should make it clear to the group the grade you desire. 

In all classes, starting from primary school, teachers should have students change the groups they work in several times throughout the year. Learning about different perspectives can make you an efficient team member and generally a more well-informed and cognizant human being.

Works Cited

Cornell University. “Coping with Hitchhikers and Couch Potatoes on Teams.” CS 3110 Fall 2018, 2018, https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs3110/2018fa/teams/hitchhikers.html. 

Reifenberg, Steve. “Making Teamwork Work.” Inside Higher Ed, 7 Apr. 2021, https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2021/04/07/how-help-students-work-more-effectively-teams-opinion.

Suggestions for the Zuckerman Museum of Art Website and Audio Tour

Website

    The website needs some work. The weird map with teeny images, weirdly angled photographs, and a student garden map that should probably be left out of the website entirely makes the website feel incomplete and not enjoyable to navigate. However, my immediate suggestion for the website is to fix the introductory paragraph at the very top of the website. After reading this statement I still have a lot of questions about what exactly I am looking at:

• What would I get out of taking the tour?

• Who created the tour?

• How long is the tour?

• Is there anyone famous you can name-drop to get viewers' attention?

    In the chapter titled “Defining a Museum” from Museums 101 it says, “At their core, museums are public institutions that require the participation of an audience for an educational dialogue to occur” (Walhimer 5). This validates why a persuasive and informative opening statement is so important. If you are not able to summon passionate and inquisitive visitors, the purpose of any museum, to spark educational dialogue, can not occur.

Audio Tour

    Knowing how your audience behaves appears to be vital in every industry. It is why it seems like every movie or tv show from the 80s and 90s has a reboot or remake – because people keep watching them and money talks. For the ZMA audio tour to be successful, it must cater to its audience like Disney but less cringey. In “How the Creative Use of Audio Guides is Attracting a New Museum Audience” it mentions that the British Museum researched their visitors' habits and found that “people want the freedom to explore a museum in their own way and in their own time” (Carlsson). I think the ZMA audio tour should run with this statement and also do some research of their own when it comes to their visitors. Learning about their audiences such as college students and what they like (hint: free food is one of them) can make the audio tour a beacon of rich educational dialogue.

    My last suggestion concerns the dialogue of the audio tour. The dialogue of the audio segments should encourage ekphrasis and not shove someone else's ekphrasis down their throat. The audio should have prompts that encourage viewers to reflect on the art. For example, one prompt could have viewers focus on a specific detail that caught their eye and the audio could imitate something similar from “Transactions with Beauty: A week of ekphrasis prompts” which says, "What is it about the detail that caught your eye? Upon longer and closer looking, what do you see? What does the detail tell you about the work, about life, existence?” (Lemay). I think that teaching ekphrasis in a non-traditional teaching style would be an insightful instructional move that could be incorporated into the audio tour.

Works Cited 

Carlsson, Rebecca. “How the Creative Use of Audio Tours Is Attracting a New Museum Audience.” 

Museum Next, Museum Next, 14 Mar. 2022, https://www.museumnext.com/article/how-the-creative-use-of-audio-tours-is-attracting-a-new-museum-audience/. 

Lemay, Shawna. “A Week of Prompts – Ekphrasis.” Transactions with Beauty, Transactions with 

Beauty,18AD, http://transactionswithbeauty.com/home/weekofprompts.

Walhimer, Mark. Museums 101. Rowman and Littlefield, 2015.