Architectural Spotlight: Designing the Museum of Portable Sound

Dr John Kannenberg07/03/202207/03/2022Museum Design and Theory, online visitsaluminium foil, app, architecture, audio, design, Frank Gehry, Frank Gehry Commemorative Wing, information architecture, information design, iOS, iOS 7.1.2, iPhone 4S, mobile, mobile app, museums, sound

The sounds we exhibit in our Permanent Collection Galleries are stored on a single iPhone 4S. It is this single iPhone that all our visitors – online and in-person – listen to when accessing our collections of digital audio files, which are not available to stream online nor in a mobile app they can listen to on their own time.

But why? Why would a 21st century museum keep a collection of digital audio offline and inaccessible? Isn’t online access the only thing that keeps museums relevant in the digital age?

Now you can learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the design of our museum’s conceptual, performative architecture in our new architectural spotlight essay.

Read ‘The Museum’s Architecture: An iPhone 4S’

Published by Dr John Kannenberg

John Kannenberg is an artistic researcher whose work investigates sounds as museological objects. Via an acoustemological approach, he considers the histories and cultures surrounding sounds, the technologies that generate or record them, and the auditors who hear or listen to them. He holds a PhD in sound & museums from the University of the Arts London, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art degree and Graduate Certification in Museum Studies from the University of Michigan. He is Director and Chief Curator of The Museum of Portable Sound. Learn more about his work at https://www.johnkannenberg.com. View more posts

But why? Why would a 21st century museum keep a collection of digital audio offline and inaccessible? Isn’t online access the only thing that keeps museums relevant in the digital age?

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Published by Dr John Kannenberg

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