I’ve just read Will Stanley’s article on Medium: Museum tours on Twitter.
In it, he describes using Twitter to create virtual tours of selected galleries at London’s Science Museum. He describes the challenges of distilling an exhibition into a few dozen select tweets, while still retaining the curatorial voice. What’s essential? What can you leave out? This is often difficult enough with a 140-word exhibition label – let alone 140 characters!
It made me think – often I have to redraft a thought several times to make it tweetable. In the process you realise how many superfluous words and phrases you can live without. You find the core of idea you want to communicate, and that’s all there’s room for.
Makes me wonder – perhaps drafting exhibition labels as if they were tweets might be a useful exercise in becoming more (as Susan Cross would call it), “precise and concise”.
Hi Regan,
I thought that article was great, too. Writing short, concise, interesting to read labels no matter what the production medium (silk-screened on a wall or digitized for your smart phone) is an art form and Beverly Serrell and Judy Rand have led the way in this regard. Good writing takes time and concise writing takes more time. As Mark Twain said, “I would have written less, but I ran out of time.”
You might also check out Stephen Bitgood’s research on label length that showed even the most interested reader stops reading after 50 words. Of course that seems like the height of luxury after struggling with 140 characters!
I always like to say that the art of label writing is writing for people who are standing up. In the museum, labels are competing with cool lighting effects, sound, design techniques and, of course, the objects for visitor attention. That’s why hierarchy and headings are critical to help readers scan for what they need.
Sometimes when I’m stuck writing a label, I’ll see if I can turn it into a Haiku. Now I can add writing it as a tweet to my bag of tricks.
Thanks for the post Regan – I’m with Carol on this and glad she mentoend the fabulous research that has gone into label writing over the years. The “big idea” that Serrell championed some time ago seems ripe for Twitter – if you can’t encapsulate your big idea in 140 characters then you’re over-thinking it.
I think the value in Twitter also lies in it as an audience reseach tool – there’s nothing more interesting than seeing what people tweet about their experiences. Here’s two examples from my work at the Australian Museum:
* Twitter for audience research: http://australianmuseum.net.au/blogpost/Museullaneous/Twitter-as-an-audience-research-tool
* Twitter for learning outcomes: http://australianmuseum.net.au/blogpost/At-The-Museum/Jurassic-Lounge-tweets
Thanks also for the Science Museum link – what a fascinating idea!