The Problem
Art museums want visitors to personally connect with the art they see. Part of the burden lies with the visitors; if they don’t focus their attention on art pieces during some of their visit, they probably won’t meaningfully connect with the art. Although some effort must come from the visitor, that doesn’t mean we can’t help them achieve the focus and environment needed for a truly immersive art experience. Sound is both a frequent distractor and a potential focus enhancer.
Sound: From Distracting to Focusing
Museums are full of noises that can’t (and shouldn’t) be removed: visitors discussing art amongst themselves, laughter from another wing of the museum, a movie playing in an unrelated exhibit.
Fig. 1. Imagine the noise in this space. Photo of the 2010 San Francisco Fine Arts Fair, taken from http://www.artbahrain.org/archives/june2011/artguide_sf_artfair_june.php.
Even when intently observing a work of art, people can become distracted by random or out-of-place noises. WCMA likes to use technology (a potential source of sound) to keep visitors focused on art (1). The music in the background of a video, as we saw and heard on our visit, can change the atmosphere of an entire room. Visitors can achieve better connections with an exhibit through such an experience. Sometimes, however, added audio can detract from user experiences. Added sound bytes are used to augment some exhibits, but noticing the same clip playing over and over again can be jarring. Additionally, such sounds can spill over into adjacent exhibits. While such incidents can produce unintended positive results, they may instead be distracting and immersion-breaking. While we were sitting in the room of art pieces labeled for different Williams classes, I couldn’t help but notice the shrieking and ominous music coming from the adjacent exhibit. I can’t imagine I would have been able to focus on the art with that well-intentioned noise busting into the room. In an ideal world, added sounds would be audible only to the exhibits they were created for.
Improved Audio Experience
To help museum visitors to focus on and connect with artwork, I propose a phone app called ‘Augmented Audio’ that can play immersive sounds and musical scores in personal headphones as visitors make their way through different exhibits. This app should function automatically based on a visitor’s location in the museum, as required manual controls would take focus away from the art. If there happen to be multiple tracks for an exhibit (multiple songs for instance, or simulated ambient noise versus music), the user should have the ability to cycle between these options at the touch of a button. Immersive personal audio combined with minimal manual manipulation would improve visitors’ focus on and connection with the artwork, providing a deeper and more memorable museum experience.
Fig. 2. Portable audio, unlike the stationary example in this photo, could be both immersive and easy-to-use. Photo from a 2011 exhibition by the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool, taken from http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art354654.
(1) Discussion at WCMA, 18 September 2018