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.

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

7. Object enquiry

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