The Hayward Gallery in London’s Southbank Centre closed for refurbishment in 2015. But since the end of last year it has been possible for people to experience some of its “greatest hits” drawn from exhibitions that the Hayward has presented since 2000, using Google’s new Daydream virtual-reality platform.
“This initial curatorial selection gives people a glimpse of the diverse, far-reaching and radical artworks that have enlivened different Hayward exhibitions over 15 years,” says Suhair Khan, the UK lead of Google Arts and Culture, an initiative that aims to increase access to art and culture.
The Hayward is the only UK institution that has a virtual tour on Daydream. But Google’s more elementary virtual-reality platform, Cardboard, provides access to many other museums in the UK and around the world. All virtual visitors need is a smartphone, the Street View app and a cheap viewer – some models are literally made of cardboard.
Virtual reality, which immerses users in 360-degree environments, typically via a headset, was once a specialist tool used in industry and research. But in recent years it’s become an increasingly affordable consumer technology.
The highest quality equipment is still expensive, but headsets such as Google Cardboard that work with smartphones are much cheaper. And as virtual reality becomes more accessible, museums are experimenting with it to reach and engage audiences in new ways.
Thinking big
For purists, the term virtual reality only applies to computer-generated simulations. But it is often used more loosely to include 360-degree video, which is similarly immersive when viewed with a headset.
Street View can be used with a Cardboard viewer to experience 360-degree imagery of any location that Google has captured, including the interiors of an increasing number of museums. But the company is experimenting with developing virtual reality beyond this basic level.
Its Expeditions app, which launched in the UK in November, enables teachers to take their classes on virtual tours of more than 300 locations, including the National Gallery in London and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. One million pupils have already used the app to take a virtual expedition.
As well as increasing access, virtual reality has great potential for museums to enhance their interpretation.
Google Arts and Culture has worked on a range of experimental projects with museums and other cultural organisations. Some of these have had an educational focus, such as a Cardboard experience created with London’s Natural History Museum, where the Rhomaleosaurus “sea dragon” fossil comes back to life and swims around the gallery.
Others are more abstract. Google worked with the Serpentine Galleries in London for its recent exhibition on Zaha Hadid, animating four of the late architect’s early paintings in virtual reality.
Khan says that the videos are intended to “create a magical, immersive moment around these paintings that were never actually rendered as physical buildings”.
Visitors to the exhibition waited for more than an hour to try the virtual-reality experience. “We were actually surprised how enthusiastically people were about adding to their experience of the exhibition,” Khan says.
The potential to engage audiences using virtual reality has encouraged some institutions to work with creative studios to develop immersive shows. As well as bringing subjects to life, these can potentially be used to generate additional revenue.
Last year the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum launched a 15-minute virtual reality experience, narrated by veteran tennis star Tim Henman and viewed on HTC Vive, one of the most powerful headsets on the market.
The Natural History Museum has put on two different virtual reality shows narrated by broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough using Samsung’s Gear headsets. The Science Museum in London recently launched a virtual- reality experience (also for Gear headsets) that recreated British astronaut Tim Peake’s descent to earth from the International Space Station.
Bringing objects to life
Virtual reality can also be used for smaller-scale projects. Last year the Science Museum worked with games studio Preloaded to develop a four-minute virtual-reality experience focusing on the Handley Page Gugnunc, a 1920s aircraft that is the star object in its mathematics gallery, which opened in December last year.
The experience, which uses Samsung Gear headsets, can be used for anything from school visits or late-night events.
Phil Stuart, the creative director of Preloaded, says that the experience aims to bring the mathematics behind the plane to life. It is also linked to the design of the gallery, which is based on the way air would have flowed around the craft.
“The Science Museum asked us to explain why the plane is important, and also to contextualise the design concept of the gallery,” Stuart says.
As well as providing an immersive experience, virtual reality allowed Preloaded to show visually how forces acted on the plane.
Motion sickness can be a problem for some users of virtual reality, because the slight latency of the video means that the brain receives conflicting signals. Preloaded sought to eliminate this risk by avoiding rapid movements and managing people’s expectations.
“We’re aware that we may be giving this to people who potentially have not experienced virtual reality before or use digital content much,” Stuart says. “We felt a huge responsibility to create an experience that was high quality but didn’t put people off”.
Fad or future?
The potential health and safety issues of virtual reality multiply with more advanced equipment that allows users to control the experience through their movements.
But despite these challenges, the technology looks set to grow in popularity. One related area that has generated excitement is augmented reality, which layers virtual content on top of the real world.
Google Arts and Culture has used augmented reality on projects with a number of institutions, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, where visitors can move their phones over a mummy case to reveal an X-ray of the skeleton inside.
Such projects are at an experimental stage. But Khan at Google expects virtual reality to become a bigger part of museums’ work in future.
“It is early days in terms of how museums and the arts in general are engaging with virtual reality, but it is something that’s obviously growing in scope,” she says. “We certainly see it as one part of the spectrum of media that can showcase arts and culture, and also be a part of arts and culture as a medium.
“I don’t see it going away any time soon, and it will probably become more and more prevalent across the board.”
Suhair Khan will be speaking at Museum Tech 2017: A Digital Festival for Museums on 29 June at the Museum of London
Links
Museum Tech 2017: A Digital Festival for Museums
“This initial curatorial selection gives people a glimpse of the diverse, far-reaching and radical artworks that have enlivened different Hayward exhibitions over 15 years,” says Suhair Khan, the UK lead of Google Arts and Culture, an initiative that aims to increase access to art and culture.
The Hayward is the only UK institution that has a virtual tour on Daydream. But Google’s more elementary virtual-reality platform, Cardboard, provides access to many other museums in the UK and around the world. All virtual visitors need is a smartphone, the Street View app and a cheap viewer – some models are literally made of cardboard.
Virtual reality, which immerses users in 360-degree environments, typically via a headset, was once a specialist tool used in industry and research. But in recent years it’s become an increasingly affordable consumer technology.
The highest quality equipment is still expensive, but headsets such as Google Cardboard that work with smartphones are much cheaper. And as virtual reality becomes more accessible, museums are experimenting with it to reach and engage audiences in new ways.
Thinking big
For purists, the term virtual reality only applies to computer-generated simulations. But it is often used more loosely to include 360-degree video, which is similarly immersive when viewed with a headset.
Street View can be used with a Cardboard viewer to experience 360-degree imagery of any location that Google has captured, including the interiors of an increasing number of museums. But the company is experimenting with developing virtual reality beyond this basic level.
Its Expeditions app, which launched in the UK in November, enables teachers to take their classes on virtual tours of more than 300 locations, including the National Gallery in London and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. One million pupils have already used the app to take a virtual expedition.
As well as increasing access, virtual reality has great potential for museums to enhance their interpretation.
Google Arts and Culture has worked on a range of experimental projects with museums and other cultural organisations. Some of these have had an educational focus, such as a Cardboard experience created with London’s Natural History Museum, where the Rhomaleosaurus “sea dragon” fossil comes back to life and swims around the gallery.
Others are more abstract. Google worked with the Serpentine Galleries in London for its recent exhibition on Zaha Hadid, animating four of the late architect’s early paintings in virtual reality.
Khan says that the videos are intended to “create a magical, immersive moment around these paintings that were never actually rendered as physical buildings”.
Visitors to the exhibition waited for more than an hour to try the virtual-reality experience. “We were actually surprised how enthusiastically people were about adding to their experience of the exhibition,” Khan says.
The potential to engage audiences using virtual reality has encouraged some institutions to work with creative studios to develop immersive shows. As well as bringing subjects to life, these can potentially be used to generate additional revenue.
Last year the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum launched a 15-minute virtual reality experience, narrated by veteran tennis star Tim Henman and viewed on HTC Vive, one of the most powerful headsets on the market.
The Natural History Museum has put on two different virtual reality shows narrated by broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough using Samsung’s Gear headsets. The Science Museum in London recently launched a virtual- reality experience (also for Gear headsets) that recreated British astronaut Tim Peake’s descent to earth from the International Space Station.
Bringing objects to life
Virtual reality can also be used for smaller-scale projects. Last year the Science Museum worked with games studio Preloaded to develop a four-minute virtual-reality experience focusing on the Handley Page Gugnunc, a 1920s aircraft that is the star object in its mathematics gallery, which opened in December last year.
The experience, which uses Samsung Gear headsets, can be used for anything from school visits or late-night events.
Phil Stuart, the creative director of Preloaded, says that the experience aims to bring the mathematics behind the plane to life. It is also linked to the design of the gallery, which is based on the way air would have flowed around the craft.
“The Science Museum asked us to explain why the plane is important, and also to contextualise the design concept of the gallery,” Stuart says.
As well as providing an immersive experience, virtual reality allowed Preloaded to show visually how forces acted on the plane.
Motion sickness can be a problem for some users of virtual reality, because the slight latency of the video means that the brain receives conflicting signals. Preloaded sought to eliminate this risk by avoiding rapid movements and managing people’s expectations.
“We’re aware that we may be giving this to people who potentially have not experienced virtual reality before or use digital content much,” Stuart says. “We felt a huge responsibility to create an experience that was high quality but didn’t put people off”.
Fad or future?
The potential health and safety issues of virtual reality multiply with more advanced equipment that allows users to control the experience through their movements.
But despite these challenges, the technology looks set to grow in popularity. One related area that has generated excitement is augmented reality, which layers virtual content on top of the real world.
Google Arts and Culture has used augmented reality on projects with a number of institutions, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, where visitors can move their phones over a mummy case to reveal an X-ray of the skeleton inside.
Such projects are at an experimental stage. But Khan at Google expects virtual reality to become a bigger part of museums’ work in future.
“It is early days in terms of how museums and the arts in general are engaging with virtual reality, but it is something that’s obviously growing in scope,” she says. “We certainly see it as one part of the spectrum of media that can showcase arts and culture, and also be a part of arts and culture as a medium.
“I don’t see it going away any time soon, and it will probably become more and more prevalent across the board.”
Suhair Khan will be speaking at Museum Tech 2017: A Digital Festival for Museums on 29 June at the Museum of London
Links
Museum Tech 2017: A Digital Festival for Museums