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VR and the Evolving Role of Curators and Museum Professionals

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By: Evangelia Bournousouzi

VIRTUAL REALITY IN MUSEUMS

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an engaging tool for museums, offering visitors immersive and interactive experiences that go beyond traditional exhibits. Museums around the world have eagerly adopted VR technology to enhance their collections, providing audiences with unprecedented opportunities to explore historical eras, ancient civilizations, or imaginative realms. Enhanced engagement, diverse audience attraction, access to otherwise inaccessible or fragile artifacts, and visitor personalization are a few of many compelling reasons why VR holds significant importance in museums.  

However, while VR promises enriched engagement, museum professionals still face multifaceted challenges. So far, most of the research conducted has focused on how museums utilize VR to attract more visitors and, as a result, raise their revenue. But VR is not only about that. Museum professionals and curators face multiple challenges that include integrating technology, curating content, and maintaining the authenticity and educational value of exhibits while meeting the demands of modern-day audiences. 

EXAMPLES OF VR IN MUSEUM AND EXHIBITION SPACES

Museums have been utilizing VR technology to provide interactive experiences and engage visitors in playful activities. For example, in 2021, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London launched the “Curious Alice” exhibition, which explores Lewis Carroll’s timeless classic. In addition to the traditional galleries, visitors were invited to participate in a playful VR experience that immersed them in Alice’s magical world. Similarly, in October 2019, the Louvre Museum launched “Mona Lisa beyond the glass,” a VR exhibition aimed at allowing the audience to enter the universe of the famous painting.

Video: Curious Alice Virtual Reality Experience, Victoria And Albert Museum

Video Source: YouTube

Image: Still from 'Curious Alice', a VR experience created by the V&A and HTC Vive Arts. Featuring original artwork by Kristjana S Williams, 2020

Image Source: Victoria And Albert Museum

Museums are increasingly using virtual reality to recreate historical events or periods. For instance, the Anne Frank House  in Amsterdam has incorporated VR to recreate the Secret Annex where Anne Frank and her family hid during World War II. Visitors can experience the cramped quarters and gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by those in hiding. VR is also used by world famous artists such as Marina Abramovic to address important issues such as climate change. Viewers wearing an immersive headset can enter an intimate virtual space, where they come face-to-face with the artist, who beckons from within a glass tank that is slowly filling with water. Abramovic forces viewers to reconsider their impact on the world around them, asking them to choose whether or not to save her from drowning by pledging to support the environment, which lowers the water level in the tank.

Video: Marina Abramovic discusses her first virtual reality project, Rising

Video Source: YouTube

Another great example is the Onassis ONX in Midtown Manhattan, NY: a production and exhibition space with a global community of members who create interactive and immersive XR works. ONX supports innovation and disruption across disciplines and has hosted multiple VR exhibitions, such as the “Atmospheric Experiences” by Rasa Smite & Raitis Smits, back in 2023. This VR artwork visualizes the complex relations between a forest, climate change, and the atmosphere.

Image: Atmospheric Forest Installation
Image Source: https://smitesmits.com/

Video: Atmospheric Forest. Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits

Video Source: Vimeo

The use of VR experiences in museum exhibitions has become notable in recent years. However, it is important to recognize the crucial role of curators and museum professionals in navigating this technological wave. While the initial focus may have been on the novelty and technological prowess of VR, it is now imperative to shift attention to the expertise and guidance of these professionals. Curators play a fundamental role in shaping the narrative, ensuring authenticity, and preserving the educational essence of VR exhibitions. Museum professionals are tasked not only with seamlessly integrating VR into the museum’s offerings but also with curating content that maximizes the potential of this technology while upholding the institution’s mission and standards. As VR continues to transform the museum experience, the thoughtful curation and strategic direction provided by these experts become increasingly critical in leveraging this technology to its fullest and ensuring a meaningful and enriching experience for visitors.

MANAGING VR EXPERIENCES: THE ROLE OF CURATORS AND MUSEUM PROFESSIONALS

A significant amount of literature has been written about the advantages and disadvantages of using VR in the museum industry. However, little attention has been given to the impact of VR experiences on museum professionals and their roles in the industry. This is a crucial question as museum professionals are responsible for preparing exhibitions and engaging audiences. Understanding their experiences with VR technology can help us better comprehend the role of technology in the museum industry.

Shehade Maria and Theopisti-Stylianou Lambert, have written a research paper titled “Virtual Reality in Museums: Exploring the Experiences of Museum Professionals” providing a detailed analysis of interviews conducted with museum professionals from various countries around the world. The interviews were focused on VR projects that the professionals had worked on in their respective institutions. The data analysis revealed that despite the interviewees agreeing on the main benefits of VR, immersive installations are still not commonly found in museums. When they are found, they are usually included on a temporary basis. According to the interviewees, the biggest challenge that VR developers need to overcome is the inability of VR to provide engaging social experiences. This highlights the need for further research in the direction of interactive and social VR applications.

Image: Figure 1. Reported challenges/limitations of VR as perceived by the interviewees.

Image Source: Shehade, Maria, and Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert. “Virtual Reality in Museums: Exploring the Experiences of Museum Professionals.” Applied Sciences 10, no. 11 (June 11, 2020): 4031.

Preparing a VR exhibition poses various challenges for curators, both technical and fundamental. One of the primary challenges is the need for technical expertise to select the right equipment, hardware, and software. Finding the right balance between authenticity and immersion within the museum space is also a challenge. The immersive nature of VR exhibitions could impact the integrity of the museum’s collection, which requires careful consideration when adapting museum artifacts into VR format. 

Furthermore, museum professionals must ensure that these VR experiences are accessible to a diverse audience, including people with disabilities. Factors such as motion sickness, visual impairments, or the need for alternative interaction methods should be considered to create an inclusive experience. Budget constraints are also a significant consideration for curators. They need to navigate these limitations since VR exhibitions require substantial financial resources.

Another main issue is the lack of specific departments responsible for VR exhibitions so far. Multiple departments often work together to bring a VR exhibition to life, but recently, separate departments like Digital Innovation and Interpretation and Design have emerged. In any case, curators need to collaborate with UX/UI designers and technologists to ensure that navigation, information delivery, and interactivity are user-friendly and enhance the exhibition’s objectives. 

Collaboration among curators, technology experts, designers, and educators is essential to overcoming the challenges involved in creating immersive VR experiences that captivate and educate museum visitors while maintaining the integrity of the institution’s mission and collections. However, achieving this goal is not an easy task and requires careful coordination among professionals with diverse skill sets.

HOW IS VR DISRUPTING THE MUSEUM INDUSTRY?

Virtual reality exhibitions have revolutionized the museum industry by transforming the way people engage with cultural artifacts and historical narratives. This technology provides a new way of designing exhibitions that challenge traditional approaches used by museum professionals and curators. Unlike traditional displays, VR exhibitions are dynamic and interactive, transporting visitors to different locations, eras, and realms. The level of immersion and engagement VR offers is unparalleled, and this has led museum professionals to rethink their storytelling methods, exhibit designs, and educational strategies. They are now adapting to more technologically driven and experiential approaches to create a more engaging and interactive experience for visitors.

The integration of virtual reality technology into museum exhibitions requires a significant reconsideration of the curator’s role in content curation and contextualization. This shift in the museum landscape requires professionals to evolve and acquire new skills, incorporating technological literacy and innovative thinking into their traditional roles of preservation, interpretation, and storytelling. Although we cannot predict exactly what the future holds, the evolving role of museum professionals in curating VR experiences indicates a future where innovation, education, and ethical curation come together, redefining the museum experience into an immersive journey of discovery and learning.

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