Trendswatch: get real - Museums Association

Conference 2024: The Joy of Museums booking open now – Book before 31 March 2024 for a 10% discount

Conference 2024: The Joy of Museums booking open now – Book before 31 March 2024 for a 10% discount

Trendswatch: get real

Virtual reality technology is making museum visits a thrilling experience, says Jonathan Knott
Participants might well flinch as they see a hawk flying towards them in the new virtual reality (VR) experience at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, London.

The bird of prey, called Rufus, is kept at the All England Club, which hosts the annual Wimbledon Championships, to scare away pigeons.

The museum’s curator, Anna Renton, says the 3D technology provides a vivid experience: “It feels as if Rufus is coming straight for you.”

The 360-degree video footage used was captured during the 2016 Wimbledon tournament, along with a wider selection of film to give a flavour of life during the event. As well as Rufus, the VR show includes action shots during matches from just below the royal box, so viewers can turn around to see Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge.

The experience, which lasts about 15 minutes and is narrated by tennis veteran Tim Henman, also includes an animated history of the championships, during which people join Victorian tennis spectators.

Renton says the show elicits positive reactions. “A lot of people say they have not seen anything like this before.

It’s great that we are able to let people experience what it’s like to be here during the championships.”

As VR headsets capable of transporting wearers into 360-degree 3D environments become both more advanced and affordable, museums are increasingly using them to offer immersive on-site experiences as well as engage with people beyond their walls.

In 2015, the Great North Museum: Hancock, in Newcastle, took visitors to a virtual Greek villa featuring objects from its pottery collection. And the British Museum used VR to recreate a bronze age roundhouse that included 3D scans of objects.

The Wimbledon museum launched its VR experience last summer, with the 2016 championships video added in September. It takes place in the cinema space, where there are 14 HTC Vive headsets. Although such advanced VR technology is expensive, headsets that work by connecting a smartphone offer other museums a more affordable option.

In 2015, London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery launched a virtual tour app that uses Google Cardboard, a VR platform that works by placing a phone into a foldout cardboard viewer. And Samsung’s Gear headsets, which work with its phones, have been used at the Natural History Museum (NHM) for two VR experiences narrated by David Attenborough. The London museum was also involved in creating an online exhibition on the Google Arts and Culture website, which launched in September 2016 and includes VR content. Using YouTube and Google Cardboard, visitors can witness a Rhomaleosaurus (or sea dragon) fossil coming back to life in the museum.

We can expect to see museums doing more with VR technology. The NHM announced a five-year partnership with Atlantic Productions, which it worked with for its VR shows, in June.

And the Science Museum, London, recently unveiled its Digital Lab, sponsored by Samsung, which will explore how digital technologies can be used to engage audiences.

Its first project focuses on a 1920s wooden biplane, named the Handley Page after the aircraft company’s founder, which hangs in the centre of the Science Museum’s new mathematics gallery (see below).

The facilitated VR experience, which lasts five minutes, is available in the gallery for a few hours a week and at the museum’s monthly lates events.

“VR offers an immersive experience – you don’t just get to see the object, you can be in it and see how it works,” says Dave Patten, the museum’s head of new media.
Flying High: VR at the Science Museum
“This experimental piece, based on the Handley Page biplane, will allow us to research visitors’ responses to VR, as well as the relationship between a real museum object and a VR-based experience that helps interpret it.

Visitors experience a short flight in the aircraft, see how the shape of the wings allows it to fly and visualise the way air flows around some of its innovative features.

We are interested to see how the interpretive narrative changes the way visitors engage with the interpretation by immersing them in it. Early tests suggest that people are picking up on key facts from the experience.

The reaction has been extremely positive. People have been amazed – for many of our visitors, this has been their first experience of VR.”

Dave Patten is the head of new media at the Science Museum

Jonathan Knott is a freelance writer

Leave a comment

You must be to post a comment.

Discover

Advertisement
Join the Museums Association today to read this article

Over 12,000 museum professionals have already become members. Join to gain access to exclusive articles, free entry to museums and access to our members events.

Join