Another series of audio recordings with curators (from the museum and other institutions), artists and guests.
The exhibition was presented at MASP and Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo and then traveled to the USA. It received amazing press coverage.
We’ve designed the content so that everything we produced could be re-used when the artworks return to the permanent display at MASP in São Paulo.
My role: director, editor
This is a series of audio recordings with 40 curators (from the museum and other institutions), artists and guests, who picked and talked about artworks from MASP’s permanent collection.
A touring exhibition was presented in three CCBB (Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil) locations: in Rio de Janeiro, next in Belo Horizonte, and then in Brasília.
We’ve designed the content so that everything we produced could be re-used when the artworks return to the permanent display at MASP in São Paulo.
My role: director, editor
How might we… build a cheap, accessible, open-source audio device?
We organised two Design Sprints at We Fab, a Fab Lab in São Paulo.
The first event brought together a dozen makers over a week-end in July 2016, the second event attracted about 20 people on a Friday evening and Saturday in October 2016. By the end of the first event, we had a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), a working prototype. The goal of the second Design Sprint was to refine this prototype and add more functionalities.
As the “expert”, I gave a quick overview of the use of mobile devices in museums since the 1950s. I also participated as an apprentice maker, messing around mostly with the laser cutter and a little bit with the 3D printer. Finally, I documented the Sprint, taking pictures and making a short “usage” video.
My role: “expert”, “product owner/decider”, apprentice maker, photographer
How can we record children’s stories for an exhibition about childhood?
How can these children sound spontaneous and not as if they were reading?
How can they tell rich stories in their own words, yet tackle some of the very serious issues affecting Brazilian society today?
https://www.facebook.com/maspmuseu/videos/10153718777256025/
About 100 children from two schools (one public, one private) visited the museum several times with the mediation team to learn about the collection. One group had a private viewing to see some of the photographs and paintings that would be included in the upcoming exhibition. They all picked some works and did some extra research at home or at school. Some wrote some scripts, others didn’t. We recorded them in groups of 2 to 4 children at their school and questioned them to get the best out of these recording sessions by improvising some conversations. We didn’t want them to sound stiff or superficial. When editing the material, we tried to adopt a COPE approach, to Create Once and Publish Everywhere. Some stories were isolated to be broadcast on facebook or instagram (15s snippets).
The content I produced is now available on several channels: soundcloud, instagram and facebook.
Interview in Folha de São Paulo.
I presented this project at #MCN2016 in New Orleans.
My role: producer, director, editor
Can stories from the past help design the future?
Why should a historic housing complex, that was once squatted in, be made public?
How can the public contribute to the creation of a cultural center?
Vila Itororó was built at the beginning of the XXth Century in the heart of São Paulo.
This project consisted of a series of audio interviews and portraits of all stakeholders. Architects, curators, former residents, social activists, construction workers and night watchmen discussed the renovation of this whole block and its transformation into a cultural center. And yes, someone told us about ghosts!
Rather than hosting the content on Soundcloud, I adapted the “Scorsese” audio guide web app code that was recently released on Github by the ACMI team.
I wrote a short blog post about the process of “Cloning Scorsese”.
A longer version of the interviews is also available on vilaitororo.org.br.
My role: producer, director, creative technologist
What technology and content strategies can help tell the rich narratives of a derelict neighbourhood?
I produced and directed this binaural (spatialized-audio) walking tour. We released it both as a podcast and on basic mp3 players provided by the institution. The goal was to keep people off their smartphones and create a truly immersive experience in a neighbourhood that is very culturally rich but can also be a bit edgy at times.
My role: producer, director, creative technologist
How can we share stories about contemporary art with a larger audience?
The São Paulo Bienal is one of the most popular exhibitions in South America.
I produced and directed interview-based audio guides in Portuguese and English, with a few tracks in Spanish. I made the suggestion to bring on a variety of voices: the 7 guest curators of this edition, some artists and staff from the Bienal Foundation including young educators. According to the Bienal team, it was the most creative audio guide they’ve ever had. Stats showed a strong increase in the number of listeners when compared with previous editions.
My Role: producer, director
Can mobile content and technology enhance a museum experience for visually impaired, blind, deaf and foreign visitors?
Rio de Janeiro’s MIS / Museum of Image and Sound is moving to a new home on Copacabana beach, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
I worked as a consultant to help the team decide how mobile technology should be used to improve accessibility for visually impaired, blind, deaf and foreign visitors.
My role: consultant, creative technologist
What’s happening on the Brazilian cultural scene?
In April 2014, two months before the start of Brazil’s World Cup, I worked as a fixer, translator and photographer for Radio France, helping to produce a series of interviews discussing contemporary Brazilian culture beyond football and samba.
Working alongside one of the station’s journalists, first in Rio and then in São Paulo, over a period of 10 days I met more than 40 Brazilians – artists, musicians, cultural producers, hackers, activists, entrepreneurs…
The report, a web-doc, can be found on the Radio France website at http://nvx.lemouv.fr/bresil/
My role: co-author of a webdoc, fixer: location and character scout, researcher, photographer, translator
Can a mobile app improve the visitor experience for an architecture biennale taking place in several locations spread across a megalopolis of 20 million people?
We produced all original content, in audio and video. After testing several app frameworks (the open-source TAP, smArtapps), we used Tristan Interactive’s Autour platform (now Acoustiguide Mobile).
My role: producer, director, creative director
Is it possible to leverage on digital content production and distribute stories in different formats, on several platforms?
To promote Brazilian culture and Rio de Janeiro as the next Olympic destination, the Brazilian government set up Casa Brasil at Somerset House during London 2012. Three exhibitions were organized: about Brazil today; about contemporary Brazilian art and design; and about Rio 2016.
We recorded 14 interviews with artists in their studio, in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, in audio and video, that ended up on a free audio guide and as promotional videos. We traveled to London a week before the start of London 2012 to shoot a making-of. I produced the audio guide content for the three exhibitions, in Portuguese and English. Devices were made available on site.
My role: producer, director
Can you produce a short movie in the Mojave desert on a shoestring?
Ok, that one was tough. We didn’t sleep very much but we did it!
Congratulations to the team that was there with me in the middle of the Mojave desert and the other team that took over to complete post-production later in Paris.
My role: executive producer
The first ipad-based multimedia magazine about museums.
As an associate editor, I edited a number of stories for the first issue of this electronic magazine. Then I traveled and accumulated a lot of material for a second issue that was never released ; visiting different museums, interviewing curators and architects in and about Naoshima, Kanazawa, Aomori, Tokyo, Kitakyushu (CCA), Hobart Tasmania (Mona), Sydney (MCA, Kaldor Public Art), Melbourne, Hong-Kong (West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Para Site), Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Inhotim…
http://edition29.com/index_e29_the_museum.html
I have continued to gather interesting articles and blog posts about mobile technology in museums in my flipboard magazine “the mobile museum“, and about the museum of the 21st century in “the museum“.
Can an audio guide give visitors value for money in a minimalist exhibition?
When Richard Serra decided to install “only” 5 massive steel plates in this huge exhibition space, the organizers were concerned about the reaction of the visitors.
I produced a very rich, multi-layered audio guide, commissioned original music and sound effects. Visitors stayed to listen to Serra and many other guest experts. Some even sat down during their visit, the guide thereby added demonstrable value to the visitor experience.
audio sample (“Ma – Zen Gardens”)
My role: producer, director, creative director
I produced a collections tour and an architecture tour in 4 languages, an audio description tour for the visually impaired, a kids tour, and many temporary exhibition tours. I designed and built the tours in the proprietary CMS. It was published as a Flash application on PDAs running Windows CE.
One of my highlights on this project was recording a podcast series with teenagers. Very spontaneous, very inspiring. Every opinion counts!
My role: producer, creative director
How do you completely re-imagine the audio guides for the most visited museum in the world, and switch from audio to multimedia in less than 6 months?
This was the largest project I was involved in when I moved back to Paris from London and priority number one for the company at the time.
My main achievements on this project:
creating prototypes for the new content format, switching from voice-over actors reading catalogue entries they didn’t understand to passion-fuelled curators and experts interviewed in situ, in front of the artworks ;
defining processes and budgets for a large production, involving more than 80 people (producers, translators, native voice-over talents) in several countries (France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Korea) ;
building (hiring, training and managing) a strong creative team in Paris (journalists and writers, project managers, sound engineers, voice-over talent) ;
ensuring delivery of 40+ hours of multimedia content in 8 languages (including French Sign Language) and several tours (for kids, for Visually Impaired visitors, etc.) ;
setting up a professional recording studio in Paris and choosing mobile recording solutions that are still in use today.
I am very proud that the key people I have recruited on this team are still in place.
Most importantly, producing quality content was worth it: this content has survived several technological changes and was ported to the official mobile app and then to the Nintendo 3DS.
A good lesson that only reinforces my belief in the value of investing in good stories. And then choosing the technology that’s most fit to share these stories with the target audience.
How can we change how audio guides are perceived by the public and prospective clients?
For Anselm Kiefer’s Monumenta show at the Grand Palais in Paris, I produced a one hour audio guide featuring the artist, the curator, a controversial art critic, extracts from poems by Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann etc. And also an extra hour of “conversations” with specialists of German philosophy and German history, translators, etc. The take up rate was impressive for a contemporary art exhibition (it was free) and the feedback from visitors amazing.
Visitor: “I don’t want an audio guide, I came to see the artworks, I know about contemporary art.”
2 hours later: “Do you have this on CD? Can I take it home to listen again?”
audio sample (“Écrire sur les tableaux”)
My role: producer, creative director
“Hear curators, conservators and staff from the Scientific Department talking about the techniques used to create some of the masterpieces in the National Gallery Collection. Get beneath the surface of the paintings; find out what has been discovered using x-rays and modern scientific techniques.”
(from the National Gallery London website)
I produced this thematic behind-the-scenes tour in 2005-2006 and it is still available. Good stories are eternal! Recording interviews with the experts backstage in the lab and in the galleries was a fascinating experience and a great inspiration for later projects.
A few audio samples are available here.
“Shhh… was an ‘invisible exhibition’ which took you on a sonic journey through the V&A. From the magnificent Raphael Gallery to the grand Victorian stairwells, a diverse group of leading artists and musicians – Cornelius, David Byrne, Elizabeth Fraser, Faultline, Gillian Wearing, Jane and Louise Wilson, Jeremy Deller, Leila Arab, Roots Manuva and Simon Fisher Turner – created unique responses to the objects and spaces in the museum.”
(from the V&A website)
This was the first project I was assigned, in my first week on the job. My involvement was limited: mostly, testing content and infra-red sensors that would trigger the tracks when you entered a specific room.
Yet I am surprised this format – a curated playlist, a musical tour within the galleries and other spaces of a museum – hasn’t taken off and become more popular. It was thrilling to hear Roots Manuva rap in the gilded, ostentatious Norfolk House Music Room. Or to hear David Byrne’s experiments in a Victorian toilet…
a couple of reviews:
The BBC’s DNA collective http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2654552
Frieze Magazine http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/shhh/
Let’s perform a live, improvised, software-driven audio-visual show without hiding behind our laptop!
As the visual half of the audio-visual duet ezDAC+corrupt!, I performed a series of live shows, receiving real-time data from the musician that could influence the image, just like I was sending video related “events” that could be connected to sounds.
I designed and coded my own video editing software (a MAX/MSP/Jitter patch). Rather than using video loops (I hate video loops) I would jump cut through video footage I had shot myself, in London, Rotterdam and elsewhere, dynamically altering this footage on the spot. Live data was sent as OSC messages over TCP/IP with an ethernet cable – it was before Wi-Fi!
We started using game controllers on stage because we were bored to go to shows where performers were looking at their laptops: you couldn’t say if they were making live music or checking emails once they had started an mp3 playlist.
This physical interface was very intuitive, with some random and programmed accidents. Anyone, with a little bit of practice, could achieve results in a few minutes. We were just privileged users, familiar with the raw material.
This live exploration of a large collection of rushes, live non-linear editing, was all about control and loss of control. I wrote a short text in French about it on the occasion of the climax -and end- of this project: our doubledash show at the Pompidou in 2003.
What happens when you bring a group of artists, programmers, musicians, videographers, in the same room?
In 2000 & 2001 I took part in many workshops about real-time audiovisuals and sensors, using MAX/MSP and Nato.0+55+3d, at Hangar in Barcelona.
I didn’t know anyone using this software in Paris so I invited some people I had met in Barcelona to teach a couple of workshops in my studio. We also put together live demos, exhibitions and shows.
We founded a non-profit called betaville to explore the relationships between art and technology, hands-on, by making things together.