museum hacking

This is the first use of podcasts that didn't strike me as totally useless and pretentious. A medium mostly filled with people talking at great lengths about nothing, at a speed much less than you can read, the idea of podcasts for anything other than music has always seemed wasted on me.

But not now.

When you go to a museum, you can often rent a set of headphones and listen to someone describe the art in a boring monotone. What if people could write their own museum tours, podcast them to you, and you could walk through and listen to an alternative soundtrack? I love the idea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/arts/design/28podc.html?ex=1274932800&en=db1c6d7173dcc0b6&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

"an unofficial, homemade and thoroughly irreverent audio guide to MoMA, downloaded onto her own iPod.

The creators of this guide, David Gilbert, a professor of communication at Marymount Manhattan College, and a group of his students, describe it on their Web site as a way to "hack the gallery experience" or "remix MoMa," which they do with a distinctly collegiate blend of irony, pop music and heavy breathing. It is one of the newest adaptations in the world of podcasting."