Disruptive technology hits museums
Just as blogs have turned the written world upside down, now podcasts are threatening to do the same. The same informal, raw, conversation-style narratives delivered via your iPod are taking on the stuffy museum tours (that I have never ever rented myself...so I'm just making that assumption!). According to this New York Times story (registration required):
But the other day, a college student, Malena Negrao, stood in front of Pollock's "Echo Number 25," and her audio guide featured something a little more lively. "Now, let's talk about this painting sexually," a man's deep voice said. "What do you see in this painting?"
...The exchange sounded a lot more like MTV than Modern Art 101, but for Ms. Negrao it had a few things to recommend it. It was free. It didn't involve the museum's audio device, which resembles a cellphone crossed with a nightstick. And best of all, it was slightly subversive: an unofficial, homemade and thoroughly irreverent audio guide to MoMA, downloaded onto her own
iPod .