The Hancock Shaker Village near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, has introduced audio tours on MP3 players as part of its admission price.

A project two years in the making it continues the tradition of the Shaker community who had no issues embracing new technology.

Hancock Shaker Village President Ellen Spear notes, “The Shakers embraced new technology; they were the first Berkshire County residents to own cars and loved all manner of gadgets that made their lives easier. They didn’t, however, let these tools alter their core beliefs and it’s in that spirit that our audio tour is designed to artfully enhance the visitors’ experience of the Village by bringing the Shaker story to life through their own words, music and acting, and artful narration.”

The Village contains 22,000 artifacts and 95 room settings arranged in 18 original buildings. A visit to the Village can impart an understanding of a way of life, a design aesthetic, and a religious movement, as well as provide insights into how the Shaker experience has relevance and particular meaning to contemporary life.

The audio tour brings together the Shaker story of principled living by delving into five main themes: religion/spiritual life, family/community life, government/leadership, education/becoming Shakers, and economy/work.

It provides opportunities for visitors to explore different layers of content, including oral histories, lively narration and dramatic readings of historic texts, Shaker music, and commentary by scholars. The tour provides about 1 1/2 hours of richly layered audio interpretation.

The audio tour differs from existing interpretation methods at the Village by giving visitors a level of choice and customization options. These options are offered through the narration on the audio device, including color-coded buttons allowing visitors to delve deeper into topics of particular interest.

Signs on the site provide directions on how to interface with available audio tour content. Visitors can use the audio tour to explore the Village at their own pace, delving into the interpretation topics in any order, and stopping and starting the program anytime.

Another unique part of the project is three “people powered” audio stations, which are mounted on posts at key locations in the Village. Hand cranked, and thus sustainable, the audio boxes provide narration on unique landscape features and ask visitors to imagine buildings and features that are no longer present on the landscape. Benches nearby provide opportunities for visitors to sit, listen, look, and discuss the audio presentations.

The audio tour allows for interpretation of areas of the Village that had not previously been interpreted, such as an explanation of shop buildings that are no longer standing, and it provides foreign visitors and sight-impaired and blind visitors a richer interpretive experience of the Village. Tech-savvy children are also drawn to the MP3 players.

The Village’s costumed interpretive guides are still stationed throughout the Village to talk and facilitate hands-on activities with visitors. They amplify and explain additional features of the Village, adding to the audio tour explanations.

The new audio tour provides a flexible and entertaining addition to interpretation at the Village, designed to enhance the beauty and special peacefulness of the Village setting. The audio tour is available in English, French, Italian, and German.

For more information on the Hancock Shaker Village check out their website at http://www.hancockshakervillage.org

The Berkshires is a region rich in cultural and outdoor experiences and for more information on things to see and do check out our special Berkshires Vacation Guide at our web site.

Another New England post by one of our writers is being prepared right now so be sure to visit again or just subscribe to our RSS Feed here and get notified automatically of events and news.

Cliff Calderwood
Publisher
New England Online Magazine

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