NHM launches futuristic mixed reality exhibition

The Natural History Museum (NHM) in London will open a ticketed immersive experience this October that allows visitors to experience how the world looks in 2125 and see how human actions have shaped our planet.

Through Microsoft Microsoft HoloLens 2 mixed-reality headsets, Visions of Nature features interactive holographic animations of species such as cuttlefish, Darwin’s frog and coconut crab, as well as natural wonders like the Scottish Highlands and the Great Green Wall in Africa’s Sahel region.

Tickets for the exhibition will cost £9.95, with a 20% discount available for NHM members. It has been developed with Microsoft and Saola Studio, which has produced immersive augmented reality experiences for other cultural venues such as the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

The exhibition is part of the NHM’s Fixing Our Broken Planet initiative, which encourages visitors to reflect on their impact on the environment and feel empowered to take action. A built-in scientific copilot called Hope is a key part of the experience, describing each story along the way.

One scene shows how the loss of ice sheets in the Arctic has led to increased crossbreeding between narwhal and beluga whales. In 2125, there are thriving populations of  ‘narlugas’, whose movements scientists can track with AI technology to help safeguard the new families. Visitors can watch as a family bonds by playing with floating kelp.

“Visions of Nature is an incredibly exciting, immersive experience – and the first offering of its kind for the museum,” said Alex Burch, the NHM’s director of public programmes.

“While visually beautiful, it also delivers a powerful message that the actions we take now can have a positive impact on the future.

“It presses fast-forward so visitors can see how nature has responded, for better and for worse, to the aftermath of centuries of human industrial activity as well as to the interventions we have introduced to remedy our unsustainable activity.

“We hope that visitors to Visions of Nature leave with a greater confidence to discuss the type of future they’d like to build and are driven to be part of the response to the planetary emergency."

Jeremy Frey, co-founder and director at Saola Studio, said: “This is not just a time travel; it is an immersive experience in which the visitor is challenged to become a part of a better world where balanced human-animal cohabitation is possible.

“We have a long way to go. Though we are not yet prepared to meet the challenge, we hope Visions of Nature helps us to take the right turn starting today.”

The experience opens on Thursday 24 October.