NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art announces the creation of MoMA Audio+, the next generation mobile platform delivering a new level of interpretive content for Museum visitors. The program, delivered on an iPod Touch, is made available free to MoMA's millions of visitors, thanks to generous support from Bloomberg.
The MoMA Audio+ mobile guide provides visitors with the ability to listen to audio commentaries for selected artworks, and to access, share, and save additional content. An integrated camera allows visitors to take pictures, which are saved along with everything else viewed in the app during a visit, for access later through the Museum's website, MoMA.org. The My Path feature connects the in-museum experience with a post-visit experience on MoMA.org, encouraging further exploration and discovery.
MoMA Audio+ replaced the handheld audio wands being distributed in the museum starting in early July 2013, following a year of research and development by a cross-museum team of educators, researchers, programmers, and designers. Since then, more than 160,000 visitors have taken advantage of its numerous features, taking and sharing more than 700,000 photos and accessing and sharing their saved personal paths. Antenna International provides the mobile guide operation, including staffing, device distribution, and audio production.
"This informative and interactive app brings the experience of visiting MoMA into the digital age," said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mayor of New York City. "It's only fitting that MoMA, always on the cutting edge, is finding innovative new ways to connect visitors to great artand to allow them to share their experiences with others."
"The traditional audio guide has now evolved into a more fluid and personal resource that we are thrilled to make available to millions of our visitors. With relevance to our mission to help the widest possible public understand and enjoy modern and contemporary art, the Audio+ program is adaptive to visitors' needs and is coupled with an ever growing understanding of the digital environment and human behavior," said MoMA Director Glenn D. Lowry.
This project marks a new way of working for the Museum, one that is iterative and nimble, allowing us to better implement and maintain MoMAs digital programs. MoMA Audio+ sets the stage for the next generation of MoMAs digital initiatives and strategy. said Allegra Burnette, Creative Director of Digital Media at MoMA.
MoMA has always been a place that actively stimulates new ideas, connections, conversations and sparks creativity, and now visitors will be able to personalize, share, create, and collaborate on a new level, and enjoy an ongoing engagement with the Museum and its resources, said Wendy Woon, Senior Deputy Director for Education.
MoMA Audio+ offers a robust program of audio tours, including Collection, Kids, and Visual Descriptions tours in nine languages, in addition to many special exhibition tours.
MoMA will continue to develop MoMA Audio+, creating a publicly downloadable version that will be available as an update to the existing MoMA App in the spring of 2014. The new, downloadable version will be available for devices using the iOS system and for Android, with additional features such as the inclusion of the Museums calendar of events and ability to share content on social media platforms.