We took the kids to the Carnegie Museum of Art yesterday.  To keep little kids interested they have a scavenger hunt, where they describe a painting in each gallery that the kids need to find.  I always appreciate businesses that provide these types of family activities, or at the very least a way to distract the kids (like a restaurant that hands out crayons and coloring paper to kids – every restaurant should do this).

As I walked around the museum I had two separate thoughts on innovation.  First, I began to really appreciate the artist as an innovator.  They have an incredibly high rate of production – hundreds and even thousands of pieces created over the course of their careers, whereas innovators in other industries might be lucky if they get to produce a fraction of that.  They constantly iterate with the production of each piece, developing new styles and challenging conventional thinking.  They are obviously visual thinkers, and use that skill to envision creating something that will connect with their audience – solving an ambiguous problem without a clear solution.  Then they do it all over again.  Pound for pound, artists might have some of the most innovative minds around.

My second thought was how much more I would enjoy the museum with some innovative technology to guide me.  I checked into the museum using Foursquare, but it was an entirely unfulfilling experience – aside from a nice, shiny online badge, it didn’t really do anything for me.

What I would really like is an augmented reality app that would allow me to view each piece of art through my phone; generate text and audio description of the art and artist; and allow me to “like” certain artwork to create intelligent recommendations for what else I might like.  Basically, what Shazam/Pandora is for music.  In fact, it could even have the same business model, linking me to where I could buy the artwork, books about the author, etc, and keeping a percentage of those transactions.  Not only that, but I think this could also be sold as a $4.99-ish app, especially since you are making the purchase decision at the time of a related, more expensive purchase – museum admission.  (See my other article on the psychology for this type of upsell).

Not only would this be great for adults, but I think it would greatly enhance the museum experience for kids as well if the app could generate a different description for kids versus adults.  After all, my kids already know how to use iPhone/iPad.