Visit Interpretive Tracks by Emily Biggs ’19

About This Project

My name is Emily Biggs, and I’m a Smith College Museums Concentrator. This is my Capstone Project, a culmination of my work in the Concentration. More information about me and my museums journey can be found here.

This project is an examination of embodied experience, an attempt to bring more physicality to art museum gallery moments. Creating “interpretive tracks,” I intend these soundscapes to function as an alternative form of object label, pushing beyond the bounds of traditional word-based learning and combatting the interpretive limitations of text alone. Contemporary museum research continuously notes that labels are getting shorter and shorter, facing an ever-shrinking visitor attention span. The interpretive tracks are dual purpose; they offer both information about the art or artist, but also an enriched viewing experience, engaging visitors’ audio sense. More intellectual understanding of the project can be found here.

WHAT IS IT?

This project is a series of soundscapes, audio tracks mixed by me, for individual art pieces on view in the Smith College Art Museum. The pieces have been chosen solely based on my personal preference, they are not grouped into a tour. Each soundscape has been constructed at my own discretion, and by my own artistic license. This website houses the soundscapes, and is intended to function as an online reflection of in-gallery experience with the art and audio.