Project Title:  MoMA Offical & "Unoffical" Audio Guides 

Museum/ Institution: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) - NY, NY

Media Category: Podcast/Audio Guide

Program Created: The official Podcasts were created by MoMA the unofficial Podcasts were created as a class project by students at Marymount Manhattan College starting in 2004.

Program URL:  

Offical:

http://www.moma.org/wifi/EN/select

Unofficial:

http://mod.blogs.com/art_mobs/

Project Image(s) and/or Video

The Authorized MoMA "Les Demoiselles d'Avingnon" audio guide...

http://www.moma.org/wifi/stop/56?language=EN

The Unauthorized MoMA "Les Demoiselles d'Avingnon" audio guide...

http://homepage.mac.com/dave7/ArtMobs/FileSharing52.html

(select the "Picasso, Les Demoiselles..." option. Sorry - PBworks wouldn't let me upload the files directly.)

Media Source(s)/Credit(s):

Image taken from Wikipedia 2/9/11 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon.jpg

"Apologia" is a screen capture 2/10/11 from - http://mod.blogs.com/art_mobs/

Painting background info from Wikipedia 2/9/11 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon

Background information from an NYT article taken from NYT Website 2/9/11 - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/arts/design/28podc.html

Program Description:

What do you do when the museum-created audio guide isn't to your taste? You create your own.

I learned about the Museum of Modern Art's unauthorized audio guides from a New York Times article that I had read for a previous class (link above) which described the guerilla tactics of a group of Marymount Manhattan College students who created their own audio tour for numerous works inside MoMA. These tours were created as a reaction to what they thought were dry and overpriced audio tours made available by MoMA. The unofficial guides were meant to be funny, cheeky and most of all free. They also contain more than the minimum of facts and insight, plus production values (it was a class project after all.) MoMA got wind of what they were doing and took it with grace, after all the students meant well. As they say on their website (pictured above) they believe MoMA is "the most vital museum in the city." In reaction to all the press MoMA began making parts of their own audio tour free and downloadable from their website.

(Almost) Firsthand review/critique:  

Of course, I wasn't able to get to MoMA to give a true firsthand review of both audio guides, but I chose to listen to both reviews of "Les Demoiselles d'Avingnon" a Picasso painting I am familiar with from my art history days. I listened to MoMA's official guide first and very quickly got an understanding of why the Marymount students decided to push the envelope. The Official MoMA guide was dry. It began with the classic date, artist, medium and measurements description one expects in an art museum. What followed was an exact description of the elements in the painting, figure by figure. It was certainly descriptive, in that it told me exactly what I was seeing, but it did not tell me anything new about the painting or its history. Of course, if I was unfamiliar with the piece or with looking at art generally, this would be a great way to get me to notice details.

Then we came to the unofficial guide. It was, in my opinion, funny - and that would have been enough. However, mixed in with the innuendo (okay, maybe not innuendo, it was blatant) were the sorts of facts and discussion I was expecting from the official guide. I remembered vaguely from my art history days that there had originally been two male figures in the painting, but it had been reworked. The unofficial guide discussed this at length, but there was no mention of this important background in MoMA's version. They also had an interesting discussion of momento mori, another important theme that was not brought up in the official guide. This was all woven in to a humorous/sarcastic conversation, with appropriately Spanish-sounding music interspersed.

The two guides did both share a discussion of the elaborate fabric draping and the pink color of the women's flesh, but other than that they have very little in common with each other.

It's obvious which of the two I preferred, but what is really great is that both are available for free - so everyone wins!

Technologies incorporated: Audio Recording/Podcasting 

Internally or externally produced: The official Podcasts were internally produced, the unofficial were externally produced. 

Entry Contributor and Date: Krista Menacher :: 2/11/11 

(Semi) Related projects:  In 1997 BJ Novak (of NBC's "The Office") and a friend played a prank on the Museum of Fine Arts Boston when they created a fake audio tour and systematically replaced the MFB's tapes of the actual tour with their own version. The prank became infamous and can now be downloaded from iTunes.

http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/prank-audio-tour-boston-museum/id256548204