Virtual reality is a technology that transports users into an artificial environment where they navigate and interact. More and more museums are using it to attract visitors or enhance the on-site experience. The global virtual tourism market took off during the Covid-19 pandemic. By 2023, it will be worth almost 8 billion US dollars. By 2032, this turnover is expected to increase elevenfold.
Today, cultural institutions are more interested than ever in immersive technology. This is due to a number of factors, including a desire to make visitor experiences more memorable, and a desire to democratise access to heritage. Why has the museum sector been a pioneer in the use of this technology? What are the benefits for users? What are the challenges and prospects for the future? We take a look at virtual reality in museums.
Let's start by defining this technology. Strictly speaking, virtual reality is only accessible via specialised equipment, such as a headset or a CAVE (a space in which the walls, floor and ceiling act as giant projection surfaces to create a highly immersive virtual environment).
Museums often equip themselves with headsets, as the Musée d'Orsay did with ‘An evening with the Impressionists at the Musée d'Orsay’, but these headsets are also marketed to the general public for private use. In addition, 360-degree (or panoramic) videos, accessible on a simple computer screen or smartphone, can also be considered as immersive virtual environments. This approach is more democratic, as it does not require specialised equipment, which is still often quite expensive.
Initially, museums used virtual reality to maintain access to art during the pandemic. The Musée du Louvre was one of the forerunners of this movement, with the introduction in 2020 of ‘En tête à tête avec la Joconde’, a virtual experience enabling visitors to examine Leonardo da Vinci's work in detail, directly on their smartphone during periods of confinement, and then via a virtual reality headset in the museum.
Virtual reality has therefore made it possible not only to maintain accessibility to the sites, but also to see this iconic work in good conditions, rather than in the middle of a crowd. This is particularly true for world-famous heritage sites such as the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican Museum.
Outstanding visitor experiences
One of the great strengths of virtual reality is that it allows users to interact with the environment in real time, whatever their profile: virtual reality is highly customisable according to age, education levels or motor skills. A relatively passive visit therefore becomes an active experience, stimulating engagement and curiosity and enabling information to be memorised more dynamically.
In a recent study carried out with a natural science museum in Belgium, the strong potential of virtual reality to generate lasting memories was highlighted. The installation immersed visitors in interactions with marine creatures, telling their stories while allowing them to interact with them (e.g. catching crabs on the beach, feeding porpoises in the open sea). This project demonstrated that virtual reality tourism experiences form strong memories, whether episodic (linked to autobiographical events, the personal experience and its sequence) or semantic (linked to the content of the information presented).
A visit incorporating a virtual reality experience also creates more precise memories than a traditional visit. As time passed (the researchers waited 4 weeks), visitors who had seen virtual reality were also more certain of their episodic memories. This study demonstrates the value of virtual reality in the direct context of the visit, but also beyond, thanks to the formation of lasting memories.
Heritage preservation and public access
Virtual reality also makes it possible to create digital archives that will be accessible to future generations and keep our cultural heritage intact. By digitising spaces at risk of deterioration or disappearance, objects that are difficult to transport, or simply by recreating ancient sites from bygone eras, virtual reality gives access to a little-known world in a more immersive, personal and emotional way.
For example, following the fire that ravaged Notre-Dame de Paris in 2019, the Éternelle Notre Dame experience was created, enabling visitors to visit Notre-Dame from both a historical perspective, as users are plunged into the past, and a modern one. Éternelle Notre-Dame made this French heritage landmark ‘accessible’ during the reconstruction work.
Virtual reality also makes it possible to reach audiences who would be unable to visit the site in person, whether for reasons of mobility, health or travel constraints. In this respect, Eternelle Notre Dame can be experienced both on the forecourt of Notre-Dame in a venue dedicated to the VR experience, and via a personal VR headset at home.
Another example is the Smithsonian American Art Museum in the United States, which has created a virtual tour of the Burning Man festival. Visitors can discover Burning Man, a very popular contemporary art festival in the United States, and immerse themselves in its world.
The limits of virtual reality
While virtual reality has many virtues for the cultural sector, it also has a few limitations. Firstly, VR is more immersive with a specialised headset (such as the Meta Quest or Apple Vision Pro). However, museums and individuals cannot easily equip themselves with them, because of their still high price.
Virtual reality can also seem complex to use for beginners. Helmets are not always intuitive to use or set up, and often require the help of a third party when first used.
In some cases, virtual tours can be carried out without complex equipment, on a computer or smartphone. These forms of virtual reality are particularly well suited to small not-for-profit organisations, such as the virtual tour of the Wanlockhead Lead Mining Museum in Scotland. Google Museum Views is another example. These 360-degree virtual tours are less immersive and interactive, but still allow you to project yourself into a real visit.
A horizon of promising innovations
While virtual reality has already enabled many museums to position themselves as avant-garde and accessible in a world undergoing rapid digital change, the opportunities offered by virtual reality are still numerous.
Museums can capitalise on these experiences to better understand consumer behaviour, gather data and adapt their exhibitions to user preferences. Immersive environments can be exchanged between museums around the world. Finally, museums can also collaborate with schools and universities to offer these environments to students as part of their art, history or innovation courses, as is already the case in some institutions. The potential of virtual reality remains rich and promising for the culture and tourism sector.
This article by Laurence Dessart, Professor of Marketing, University of Liège; Alena Kostyk, Associate Professor of Marketing, EDHEC Business School; Kirsten Cowan, Senior Lecturer in marketing, University of Edinburgh and Michaël Schyns, Professor of Digital Business, University of Liège has been republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.
