Virtual Reality (VR) is a digital tool that enables museums to create immersive experiences, engaging diverse visitors in unprecedented ways, and improving inclusivity and accessibility. While Augmented Reality (AR) overlays digital elements onto the physical world, VR creates entirely virtual environments, transporting visitors into simulated spaces where they can explore and interact.
Key Difference: AR enhances the physical world, while VR immerses users in a fully virtual space. VR can be used in museums for narration or as an interactive medium, allowing visitors to manipulate virtual artefacts, exhibits, or historical reconstructions.
You can find in the resource section below some impressive examples of how VR has been used in museums.
Using VR as an onsite mediation tool can present many advantages, especially when it comes to increasing inclusivity and accessibility for visitors with diverse needs.
Indeed VR can serve as an assistive technology, making physical environments more tangible and reachable with the added virtual elements. For instance, virtual museum tours make galleries and collections accessible to all with unprecedented ease, especially when the digital content is available online across multiple VR platforms.
The dynamic aspect of VR will engage visitors of all ages as younger audiences in particular, as VR with its interactive and innovative nature is very appealing.
On the other hand, museums can use VR to guide visitors through complex spaces, ensuring everyone—regardless of physical or cognitive abilities—can engage with exhibits intuitively and comfortably.
Limitations with VR in Museums do exist.
Just like AR, developing VR content and acquiring equipment for it like headsets can be expensive.
Technological limitations can also arise. Indeed, VR requires high-performance hardware and stable systems. Not all visitors are comfortable with headsets, and some may experience motion sickness or discomfort. Moreover, the use of head-mounted displays can make the experience feel isolating, as it removes users from their surroundings. This can reduce social engagement and the communal aspect of museum visits, and put a screen always between the visitor and the artifacts in the museum.
There are also scalability concerns that need to be taken into consideration. Since VR often caters to one user at a time, scaling it for larger groups can be challenging without supplementary tools like projectors, and safety considerations will definitely need to be prioritized.
While VR comes with challenges, here are some practical steps that museums can take to address these challenges:
- Start small: Use affordable tools like Google Expeditions or 360° video tours to pilot VR experiences.
- Provide alternatives: Offer shared VR experiences by projecting virtual content onto large screens, ensuring inclusivity for groups and visitors unable to use headsets.
- Focus on accessibility: Incorporate features like subtitles, multilingual options, and visual or auditory guides to make VR experiences usable for all.
- Plan for visitor flow: Design VR stations with visitor traffic in mind, using appointment-based systems or multiple setups to accommodate demand efficiently.
Useful ressources:
Example of VR used in a museum “Eye of the Owl – The Hieronymus Bosch VR experience” by Pieter van Huystee is dedicated to “The Garden of Earthly Delights.”
Trailer of the “Eye of the Owl – The Hieronymus Bosch VR experience”.
Watch a short video about “Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass”. It was part of the Louvre’s landmark Leonardo da Vinci exhibition in 2019–2020, was a collaboration with Vive Arts. The museum’s first-ever VR project was primarily intended to solve a long-time problem associated with the iconic picture.
Article “How Is Virtual Reality Used In Museum Experiences?”
Article “Transforming Museum Experiences with Virtual Reality”
Article “Current and Potential Uses of AR/VR for Equity and Inclusion”