Lately it seems there’s an app for everything.
To be frank, I find all the apps – mobile phone applications – overwhelming. Do I really need a voice recorder, a stock market tracker, a shopping tool and three different ways to listen to music?
Even academic institutions, from universities to museums, are getting in on the app action.
In 2009, the Musée du Louvre in Paris introduced an app for iPhone users. Instead of visiting the museum, they can access 50 pieces and their descriptions through their phones.
When I heard local museums were developing apps for visitors, I couldn’t help but wonder whether a phone can fully capture the wonder of art and artifacts.
As anyone who has walked through the Canadian Museum of Nature can tell you, their massive, yellowing, 19.8-metre-blue whale skeleton – spanning the better part of the Water Gallery – just wouldn’t be the same seen through a three-centimetre-wide touch screen.
To my relief, the Ottawa museums seem more focussed on using apps to enhance rather than replace a trip to the museum.
The free apps offered by the Canadian Museum of Civilization and Canadian War Museum include standard audio tours, short quizzes on the exhibits, as well as general information like hours and location.
Personally, I love the extra details you get in a guided tour or audio tour at a museum. At the same time, the lack of freedom is frustrating.
With an app, I get access to interesting details, but only when I want them. I’ll pass on details the War Museum offers about Major-General Isaac Brock’s tunic, but I would love to learn more about “Nose Art,” paintings on the front of a Second World War aircraft. Even better, I can tour the exhibits at my own pace and on my own route, thanks to the detailed maps.
Museums hoping to stand out in the nation’s museum rich capital have to adapt to new trends quickly. Using social media helps draw visitors and encourage feedback about exhibits.
The Museum of Nature’s Dan Smythe says they plan on joining the War Museum and the Museum of Civilization in the ranks of app-savvy local attractions by next summer. They have already started using Twitter to promote events and Flickr to share photos.
Museums also have to compete with other leisure options and tourist attractions. Smart phones can be used to check everything from restaurant hours to twitter updates to bus schedules.
Apps such as Cineplex Mobile allow you to check show times, search reviews and watch trailers for the latest movies. The Québec Alcohol Corp., better known as the SAQ, has an app that lets you, among other things, find food and wine pairings.
Smart phones are becoming an everyday tool for many users, a sort of new Yellow Pages. By making themselves more accessible through smart phones, Ottawa museums are ensuring they stay on the radar of an increasingly phone based population.
Museum apps will appeal most to teenagers and young adults who rely on their smart phones. But unlike other new technologies, such as 3D technology in movie theatres, apps do not make the exhibit any less accessible for those without phones. Even better, unlike 3D glasses, the apps are free.
Apps are one of the most effective ways for galleries and museums to reach the new “smart phone generation.” But they should be treated as a complement, not an alternative, to a physical tour.
The phone apps can be downloaded from the Canadian War Museum and Canadian Museum of Civilization websites.
So get out your smart phone, check the hours at your local museums and try out a self guided tour for yourself. Even a technologically inept naysayer like me was pleasantly surprised.