Screen shots from The American West in Bronze, 1850–1925 Audio Guide
The Met launched its first audio guide in the 1960s, and although technology has come a long way since then, the objective remains the same: to enhance the visitor's experience of an artwork or an exhibition with engaging, interpretive audio content.
For a behind-the-scenes look at the making of The American West in Bronze Audio Guide, I met with Staci Hou, Assistant Content Producer in the Met's Digital Media Department. As Staci explained, "This exhibition is particularly well suited for an audio guide. It features objects in the round with fascinating stories. We wanted to focus on these stories, as well as the backgrounds of many of the artists in the show."
Exhibition curator Thayer Tolles selected the twenty-six sculptures featured on the guide, highlighting works by both well-known and less-familiar artists, from Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell to Charles Cristadoro and Sally James Farnham. Each sculpture is discussed in an audio stop lasting roughly one minute and thirty seconds—a challengingly short amount of time in which to condense all pertinent information. Although audio guides are sometimes entirely scripted, this was not the approach taken for The American West in Bronze. "Having a curator read off a script can be uninviting," Staci noted. "Instead, we interviewed Thayer and asked her to speak openly about the objects, as if she were personally guiding someone through the exhibition." Excerpts from Thayer's interview were selected for the tour, and a narrative script was then written to frame her commentary. After several rounds of reviewing the script, a professional narrator was selected, and audio stops were recorded and edited. From beginning to end, the process took about six months.
The Audio Guide also includes interviews with Jeffrey Gibson, a contemporary painter and sculptor of Choctaw-Cherokee heritage, and Phimister Proctor "Sandy" Church, the grandson of artist Alexander Phimister Proctor (seven of whose sculptures are included in the Met's presentation of the exhibition). Jeff and Sandy share personal stories and pointed insights about several of the sculptures in the show, bringing additional perspective to the bronzes. Many of the audio stops also feature carefully selected music. "We wanted western-sounding music, but it was a challenge finding songs that were appropriate without being too obvious—cowboys 'yeehawing,' for example. The music is meant to be evocative, but it should never detract from the rest of the content," Staci said.
Charles M. Russell (American, 1864–1926). Meat for Wild Men, 1924 (cast 1924). Bronze, 11 1/2 x 37 5/8 x 20 5/8 in. (29.2 x 95.6 x 52.4 cm). The Petrie Collection.
When asked to pick her favorite stop from the Audio Guide, Staci narrowed it down to the one about Charles M. Russell's Meat for Wild Men. Featuring the voices of Jeffrey Gibson and Thayer Tolles, the stop balances formal and contextual analysis. "Jeffrey gives an artist's take on the piece, focusing on composition and style," Staci noted, "while Thayer grounds it in context, providing historical perspective on the subject matter. The stop provides guided viewing—what details to look for, what aesthetic distinctions to appreciate—and helps us understand why the work is important and why it is included in the exhibition."
Excerpt from the Audio Guide
Transcript
Narrator: This sculpture by Charles M. Russell portrays a chaotic, electric swirl of animal energy. Two mounted Indian hunters close in on a dozen terrified, bellowing buffalo, in a hunting maneuver known as a "surround." Artist Jeffrey Gibson.
Jeffrey Gibson: I really like where you can see the marks of the artist. You really get a sense of him being present, creating this image. You can feel the mud pulling everything together within the landscape. What I love most about it is how everything is swarming into one form, the way that they're amassed into this pile of animals.
Narrator: As Russell's title—"Meat for Wild Men"—explains, the two horsemen aren't hunting for sport. They need this meat to feed their families.
Jeffrey Gibson: You feel the movement. The buffalo are frenetic energy, clamoring to figure out which way they should go, and the warriors on horseback are circling and circling.
Narrator: Russell acquired his understanding of animal behavior during his time as a Montana cowboy, and during long days spent observing wildlife. He modeled this sculpture from memory after years of living in the West. Like his Buffalo Hunt painting nearby, it pays homage to a by-gone way of life. Curator Thayer Tolles.
Thayer Tolles: He was conscious of the fact that he was representing an old West that was very different from a new West, where fences kept in cattle, and prevented animals from moving in natural migratory patterns, and that Indians were now confined to reservations rather than hunting buffalo, which was one of his favorite themes, the buffalo hunt, emblematic of a purer time.
The Audio Guide tour for The American West in Bronze, which has a running time of approximately forty-five minutes, encourages close looking, and is available for daily rental at the exhibition entrance and at other locations throughout the Museum ($7.00 for the general public; $6.00 for Museum Members; $6.00 for groups of 14 or fewer; $5.00 for children under 12; $4.00 for groups of 15 or more; sales tax included). The Audio Guide is free for visitors who are hard of hearing, Deaf, blind, or partially sighted. Audio Guide players have volume controls and headsets. Neck loops for hearing aids with T-switches are available upon request. Regular and large-print Audio Guide scripts are also available upon request.
Audio Guide sponsored by Bloomberg.