When you want an honest opinion, the best person to ask is a kid. They offer unfiltered answers that might not be flattering -- but they are sincere.
Art collective Audio Tour Hack did just that with “MoMA Unadulterated,” when it brought New York City kids from kindergarten through fifth grade to the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent fourth floor collection and asked for feedback on iconic pieces of art.
“MoMA Unadulterated” is the second in a series of audio tours designed to make visiting museums entertaining and enjoyable for anyone, regardless of how much they know about art.
The first Hack tour, “Artobots,” took place this past May and imagined John Chamberlain’s sculpture collection at The Guggenheim as an exhibition about the Transformers. The audio tour was commissioned by Megatron of Transformers fame.
The audio tours can be downloaded for free from Audio Tour Hack’s website and used in sync when visitors take a trip to MoMA.
It’s worth a listen, even if you have no plans on visiting MoMA anytime soon. Online, users can listen to an individual critique while looking at a snippet of a childlike version of the actual art piece.
The first thing I learned upon listening to the tour is that I have the same artistic opinion of Jackson Pollock as a bunch of kids: It looks like splattered paint. I can totally do that. Some of my favorite snippets critiquing Pollock’s “One: Number 31, 1950” include: “Two-year-olds can do that,” “I would prefer a different picture that I can’t make” and “I think that a lot of people do this so it’s not really unique and original.”
Andy Warhol’s “Double Elvis” got this response: “He wants to kill people. He actually stabs people with broccoli.” In Wilfredo Lam’s “The Jungle,” one girl says, “I see a butt,” causing all the kids to break out in hysterics.
Kids say the darndest things.
Great article! I think the kids have it right! This article reminds me of the fable of the Emperor's New Clothes. Sometimes kids are brutally honest and I love the comments in this article. How did the tour leader ever keep a straight face!?