Maintaining the physical exhibition experience online
The last few years have seen a shift in how people consume content from museums and art galleries and how they access related knowledge and collections. With forced closures over a significant period of time, brands have had to explore different ways of showcasing collections which has led to a significant and speedy innovation in digital techniques.
As an agency, we have an enormous amount of experience working in the arts sector and, although supporting our clients has been a challenge over the pandemic, it’s also been a great opportunity that has led to increased levels of creativity and exploration. Our work with Gunnersbury Park and Museum during lockdown, is one example of how we’ve helped to develop digital tools to target a fully online audience and then appropriately showcase their offering when the park could reopen.
Generally, we have seen some fantastic, innovative work across the sector over the past couple of years and we wanted to highlight some of the best in class that we have drawn inspiration from. Crucially, these examples illustrate the power of making the online experience have as much of the excitement that visitors experience when entering the physical space.?
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim in Bilbao is a stunning titanium and steel building designed by Frank Gehry to represent Bilbao’s long naval and industrial heritage. It’s an incredible space to be in, so how would it be possible to convey the same experience in the digital realm?
Their website (https://artsandculture.google.com/project/guggenheim-bilbao) hosted by Google Arts & Culture allows you to explore the collections.
The first video is created by a free runner, Johan Tonnoir, and urban photographer, Trashhand, and shows them exploring the building. The video showcases the uniqueness of the building, and what an incredible space it is. The treatment makes it feel far more engaging than a set of images. The page even has videos that explore the making of the film and provides details about the photographer and freerunner. 360 street view tours of the building add to the illusion of a physical experience.?
In terms of the collections, Google Arts and Culture allow you to explore a piece down to very granular details with zoom functionality. They also have an app which allows you to see the piece in AR at actual size.
?Natural History Museum, London
The Natural History Museum in London also uses Google Arts & Culture for their digital offering. To visit the virtual tour you install the Google Arts & Culture app. https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/natural-history-museum
?The virtual 360 tour is challenging to use at times. From the screenshots here you can see that, sometimes, the clusters of arrows are confusing and you can often end up heading down a corridor you didn’t want to go. It also is difficult to see some of the items and get up close to something in particular which is something you would be able to easily do in the physical space!
On the other hand, though, there are exhibition specific virtual tours that are much easier to use, like the exhibition for ‘The Wonder of Nature’ which is simpler to navigate as it naturally takes you from room to room on scroll with the options to explore the room in more detail if you were interested.?
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The ‘Adaption in the Natural World’ is a VR tour where you can use Google Cardboard, or other VR headsets, to see a virtual tour. The directions are simple to use (for example, to go ‘back’ you simply look down). Each section is narrated and you can use the ‘information’ icons to find out more; you just have to look at them and more details will appear on tap. Google Cardboard is a relatively inexpensive way to view VR too, making it much more accessible and a great alternative to being in the physical space!
British Museum, London
For a really innovative way of showing a collection, we have seen nothing quite as unique and user friendly as the collections display for the British Museum.
?You can filter by categories as well as explore region specific items and, once you click on an item, it provides further detail including audio and related options to continue the journey seamlessly.
You can also easily use the arrows on the left to go forwards and backwards in time. The website uses SFX subtly to make it clear that something is clickable, but, if you find this incredibly annoying, you can easily switch it off using the microphone button at the top right corner.
RESONANCE Gallery
Resonance gallery is, again, a really innovative take on an interactive experience where you can explore a gallery of digital art. It was created by a Swedish designer, Lydia Jenewein, in WebGL and uses 3D shapes and interaction design to make a truly engaging site. When you first visit the site you see 5 round shapes floating in a space and you can click and drag to interact with the objects. https://resonance.lydiajenewein.com/index.html
The website uses music and sound heavily as part of the experience. The music is based on naturalistic soundscapes?and was created by the designer as a way for people to relax and destress during a turbulent time in lockdown. It does work better on desktop and chrome so is an experimental piece but it’s truly exciting to see what can be developed with new web technologies.
Interested in exploring ideas with us? We have a fantastic team of designers, animators, 3D designers and developers so in short, anything is possible! And, for a limited time, we’re offering a free strategy session with the team at LEWIS. Just contact Gill or Kirsty ([email protected] or [email protected]) if it sounds like something that could be useful for you.