Comments on: Podcasting: The Beginning

By: Brent Gustafson

Brent Gustafson — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 15:15:52 +0000

I think part of our goal, as a department at the Walker, is to do just that, use technology to help educate people in different ways. You’re comment about wider artist exposure is noted, and one of the reasons we started doing blogs. In the future we plan to have an Aritst in Residence website, and one of the features each artist will have is their own weblog to document their work and process while they are in residence with us. It will also allow users to comment on their postings, to have a sort of diaogue with the artist.

We’re also trying to do as much webcasting as possible. Though it isn’t always feasible, when we can do it, I think it’s a great asset to those who can’t be here to view a lecture or artist talk, etc, as well as a great archival tool.

And you’re right, Podcasting is just another extension of all that, as is Art on Call. As we move forward we hope to do even more exciting new things like this.

By: Robb

Robb — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 22:21:05 +0000

I think there are a variety of uses that you could make with podcasts and the Teen remix is a very good idea for a creative community involvement use. I also very much enjoyed the Walker’s old in the lobby theater and found it an excellent resource and/or introduction for education and providing curatorial perspective on the exhibitions.

Podcasting would allow walker curators and educators to take this further out into the community by allowing people to view/listen or just listen to a podcast similar to the old Walker sideshows either prior to arriving at the Walker or docking in the lobby. The Walker could also extend the viewers background experience of the art works or artistic process by providing sounds and interviews with the artists during the period of the installation. I could easily see people setting up a Walker playlist on their iPod with a variety of music, essays, poems, interviews, artists reflecting on other artists, your guest critic during the Regis dialogue (Kenneth Turan on Alexander Payne reading a statement) that play in conjunction with your exhibitions as a compliment, a teaser, and/or an educational resource to all the activities at the Center. You might also consider working with artists-in-residence at the Walker to have them provide spoken word pieces and diaries. My impression is that very, very few people in the community get access or even know who Walker Art brings in for the residencies.

Frankly, very few people get to see Alexander Payne and the other guests for Regis dialogues because tickets are impossible to obtain and other community exposure and contact is discouraged. Even with the Walker expansion and the ability to boast about sold out events, reaching further into the community and giving a wider more popular exposure to artists and art should continue to be a mission in the community.

Thanks for making the effort to explore new technologies and see new opportunites like Podcasting as part of Walker’s scope of serving the community.

By: Brent Gustafson

Brent Gustafson — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 15:31:36 +0000

Yup, that’s actually where we got the idea to do the Teen remix of the audio tours. Thanks for sharing that link with others who are interested.

By: Renda

Renda — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:11:15 +0000

I read in the nytimes a while back about ‘unofficial’ audio tours to museums, like MoMA. I checked for the article, which is available only by purchase now, but here’s a link to the people who are doing it: http://mod.blogs.com/art_mobs/2005/05/art_mobs_to_rem.html