Walking through the Bronze Age: The Value of Virtual Reality Environments for Museums: Lizzie Edwards (Samsung Digital Discovery Centre, The British Museum)
A growing number of case studies are demonstrating the value of virtual reality environments to cultural heritage sites, as they allow visitors to experience lost landscapes and past events. There are far fewer examples of virtual reality being used in Museums. This paper will draw on the findings from the Samsung Digital Discovery Centre’s ‘Virtual Reality Weekend’, an early iteration of using VR at a museum, to demonstrate the value of VR for deepening engagement with a museum collection for children and young people, schools and families. The Samsung Digital Discovery Centre provides free activities for schools, families and teenagers at the British Museum, using digital technology to engage these audiences with the Museum’s collection. We are always seeking to explore how new technologies can contribute to this aim, and were excited by the potential presented by Samsung Gear VR headsets and virtual reality environments. But without significant examples of this technology being used with our audiences in other museum contexts, we created our own virtual reality experience to enable action research on its potential and possibilities. The results have been rewarding. Our virtual reality experience presents 3D scans of three Bronze Age objects - a Sussex Loop, a ceremonial dirk from Beaune, and one item of Treasure – in the context of a Bronze Age round house. The three objects are themselves mysterious, and the VR experience invites visitors to explore multiple interpretations about each object’s function and purpose. Our decision to create a virtual environment of the distant past provided particular insight on the contribution of adding a context to the interpretation of our objects, as this is a period that we know is difficult for schools, families and young people to understand. Our virtual reality experience was originally tested with the public over a Virtual Reality Weekend on 8th-9th August. To fully test the impact of the virtual reality environment we created, we presented the experience across three platforms: Samsung Gear VR headsets, Samsung Galaxy 10.1” tablets, and in an immersive fulldome. This allowed for differentiated feedback which will be presented in this paper. This paper will conclude by situating virtual reality within the context of other digital engagement methods used in museums. arguing that virtual reality brings unique value and engagement opportunities to learning programmes in Museums.
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Walking through the Bronze Age: The Value of Virtual Reality Environments for Museums: Lizzie Edwards (Samsung Digital Discovery Centre, The British Museum)
- 1. Walking through the Bronze Age: The value of virtual reality environments for museums Lizzie Edwards. Education Manager: Samsung Digital Learning Programme @lizzie_E100 #SamsungCentre Digital Pasts, February 2016
- 2. Talk structure: - Why - How - Practicalities. Walking through the Bronze Age
- 4. Approaches: - Object/historic enquiry - Creative Response
- 10. Virtual Reality at the British Museum
- 11. Virtual Reality at the British Museum Research area: What value does a virtual reality environment add to understanding Museum collection objects, for the audiences of the SDDC learning programme?
- 12. Talk structure: - Why - How - Practicalities. Walking through the Bronze Age
- 13. - Make the most of it - Consider audience limitations Challenges and opportunities
- 14. + Audience value Why the Bronze Age?
- 25. Talk structure: - Why - How - Practicalities. Walking through the Bronze Age
- 27. - 1-1 facilitation model - Finding out a visitors name - ‘Hot-swaps’ facilitator - Non-linear user journey Practicalities
- 28. Evaluation “The technology allowed me to see things that I wouldn’t have been able to see before, especially the Wollaston bracelet” “It made me feel as if I was actually there and gave me a sense of how things actually were in the Bronze Age” “Fantastic, interactive way to learn, wanted to spend more time. It really helps visualize the height and depth of a Bronze Age village”
- 29. Virtual Reality at the British Museum Research area: What value does a virtual reality environment add to understanding Museum collection objects, for the audiences of the SDDC learning programme?
- 30. What’s next?
- 31. “Our reason to be, as a museum, is to try and reach the widest possible audience and we see virtual reality as a new way of reaching audiences who perhaps previously haven’t found the museum as inspiring or as accessible as they might” Neil Wilkin Curator, Bronze Age Collection, The British Museum
- 32. Lizzie Edwards @Lizzie_E100 ledwards@britishmuseum.org Juno Rae @junorae jrae@britishmuseum.org Find out more at: www.britishmuseum.org/Samsungcentre #SamsungCentre Photos: Benedict Johnson, unless otherwise stated Contact details
Editor's Notes
- *include street view
- *add credit
- Process similar to traditional creative project delivery Central model grows with added info Assessed Refined In constant dialogue with client/BM ============================= The process itself is similar to a traditional creative project delivery. In this case the various data types are incorporated into the central model which grows and develops, is assessed, refined and perfected with each stage of additional information. The process is also a collaborative one with regular review process. After all the team at Soluis are experts in content creation and app development and programming. The team at the British Museum are experts in the Bronze Age as well as delivery of the educational elements of the project.