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Story recording booths in exhibits

  • 1.  Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 05-18-2022 01:36 AM
    We are including a story booth in a temporary exhibit. I would love to talk with folks who have done this. I'm curious about their dimensions and layout, as well as sound proofing (ours will not be closed at the top nor have a door that can close). I'd also like to know how your experience with these has worked. Do people record on topic? What kinds of prompts have you used? What do you do with the stories that are recorded? Thanks for sharing your insights!

    Lisa Falk
    Head of Community Engagement
    Associate Curator of Education, Arizona State Museum
    Teaching Associate, Department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies, College of Education

    Arizona State Museum | The University of Arizona
    1013 E University Blvd | PO Box 210026
    Tucson, AZ 85721-0026
    Cell (520) 248-0417 Office (520) 626-2973 | 621-2976 FAX
    www.statemuseum.arizona.edu
    www.facebook.com/arizonastatemuseum





    The Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, is located on land that has been inhabited by Indigenous peoples for 13,000 years. Today, the Tucson area is home to the Tohono O'odham and the Pascua Yaqui. Currently there are 22 federally recognized tribes with reservation lands in the state of Arizona. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University and ASM strive to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities. 

    For there is always light, As long as we are brave enough to see it, As long as we are brave enough to be it. -Amanda Gorman






  • 2.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 05-19-2022 06:27 AM
    Any oral history project that records stories requires a signed written waiver.
    If you don't have a waiver, you can't really use the stories you collect.
    You might be able to create something within the booth program that gives the waiver.

    It's also becoming the norm in any research that requires interviews.
    I've had grad students in Museum Studies present me with waivers before interview on museum work.

    Chrisso

    Chrisso Boulis
    Registrar Records
    Penn Museum
    T: 215-898-4088





  • 3.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 05-19-2022 09:53 AM
    Edited by Leon Worden 05-19-2022 09:54 AM
    Hi Chrisso! Do you happen to have a template for a waiver to use an oral history?

    Thanks,

    ------------------------------
    LeonWorden
    Santa Clarita Valley (Calif.) Historical Society
    Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society
    email: info@scvhistory.com
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 05-19-2022 10:58 AM

    Sorry, I don't have a template for that – yet.

    I work with the objects, not the people.

    But I know the University has a pro-forma document that we would use.

     

    Chrisso Boulis

    Registrar Records

    Penn Museum

     




    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 05-19-2022 11:26 AM
    Edited by Leon Worden 05-19-2022 11:26 AM
    Thank you! Looks like this will work -- it's from LOC's Veterans History Project.

    https://www.loc.gov/folklife/edresources/edcenter_files/samplereleaseforms.pdf

    Best wishes,

    ------------------------------
    LeonWorden
    info@scvhistory.com
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 05-20-2022 06:41 AM
    Thanks. It's basic, but good to have on hand.

    Chrisso Boulis
    Registrar Records
    Penn Museum
    T: 215-898-4088



    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 05-20-2022 12:10 PM

    We got a couple interviews a day in a booth like this.  75% on topic, 25% off topic.  As Leon mentioned, there was a waiver you had to click through and by the time people got all the way through the procedure to do that, it weeds out the goons.   Of the 75% on-topic, about 50% were usable for the exhibit and 50% were not that great.  We edited the good ones into a loop we showed inside the exhibit paired with other professionally shot interviews.

    Asking museum experts about legal forms is akin to asking your attorney how to store your museum artifacts.  Expect bad advice.  If you are going to google and use a random waiver you found on the internet, it's probably no more protection than just going waiver-less.  Even with no waiver IMHO it is low-risk.



    ------------------------------
    Mike Watson
    San Diego History Center
    San Diego CA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 05-20-2022 04:52 PM
    Hi LIsa -- nice to connect here, too!  Based on experience with a variety of recording installations, from local history museums to science museums and children's museums, here are a few points that come to mind:
    • Generally a booth isn't needed, unless the topic is in some way sensitive. A booth can actually discourage interaction when people feel they need to make a commitment to open the door before knowing fully what's going on
    • Unless an exhibit is especially busy (like an physically active children's museum area), the ambient sound in an exhibit isn't especially bothersome. It can lend itself to an Antiques Roadshow feel, that there is a general buzz of conversation. (On the other hand, we wouldn't want an audio source such as music or a narrated video in the vicinity near the station)
    • Response rate can vary depending of course on the audience (schoolgroups in particular can be off topic), and how intrinsically interesting the question we're asking visitors to record is. If there are a lot of off topic videos, it may be a sign to tweak what we're asking visitors.
    I'm here at AAM in Boston, StoryHabitat booth 1260, if anyone has questions to ask in person.

    Best,

    Brad
    storyhabitat.com

    ------------------------------
    Brad Larson
    President
    StoryHabitat / Brad Larson Media
    Canton MA
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 06-09-2022 03:23 PM
    We did an in-person and online story recording setup that I designed to run on an iPad, using Jotforms. Very patched together but it worked well enough. Originally designed for in-person, but launching in March of 2020, we ended up primarily working online.

    Topics wise, it's a bit hard to say, but frequently I find topics in these kinds of things too abstract and people don't connect well with them. If you want really good entries I'd encourage you to try and figure out a way for a staff member to facilitate (even if only occasionally). 

    As always, over plan and over design, with public use you'll always be astounded with how much people don't know or just look past. Most of our in-person entries ended up a bit wonky because I used a Yeti podcasting mic as the input device (only audio) and people don't know how microphones operate (even when set to just work, people will needlessly mess with it).

    Usage wise, we uploaded entries to a Soundcloud account that we shared online. I'd also encourage you to either figure out or find someone who can do basic audio editing (turning up the gain, noise reduction, etc).

    ------------------------------
    Drew Whatley
    Museum Educator
    Whatcom Museum
    Bellingham WA
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Story recording booths in exhibits

    Posted 06-10-2022 11:10 AM
    Edited by Corey Timpson 06-10-2022 11:10 AM
    Some thoughts from experience across 3 different museum story booth projects:
    • Consider audio bleed and competing sounds in the space that can be picked up by the mic and then mitigate them (this does not necessitate a door).
    • Privacy is always important even if not dealing with what someone might or might not consider sensitive content. So make how you're dealing with affording privacy (or not) a deliberate decision.
    • Use of a door or a curved entrance should necessitate letting other visitors know if the booth is in use or not (many ways to surface this on the exterior from frosted yet transparent glass walls to lights, signs, audio cues, etc. and any combination of these affordances).
    • Consider how visitors might participate non-verbally (how might you accommodate ASL speakers?).
    • Ensure a good camera perspective especially when keeping body language and signed languages in mind.
    • Prompts work best (in my experience). Broad and/or less specific topics for commentary (vs targeted/curated questions) yield less useful content.
    • Accepting terms (release) is critical.
    • Allowing users to tag their content (from controlled vocabulary) as part of the submission workflow will come in useful time and time again.
    • If using a GUI the interface should meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards for accessibility.
    • Don't conflate asking people to participate by sharing a story with an oral history (which has numerous documented best practices and standards).
    Hope these are helpful food for thought.
    Corey

    Corey Timpson Design Inc.
    Design | Digital Media | Museology
    Twitter: @coreytimpson
    Chair, American Alliance of Museums Media & Technology PN 






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