Digital Gallery Experiences and Augmented, Virtual Exhibits
Virtual reality is revolutionizing the cultural and artistic landscape, offering novel experiences for both visits and creations. The integration of virtual reality is challenging traditional museum approaches and leading to their reinvention. Suzanne Beer, an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Digital Arts at the University of Paris-Est Marne-La-Vallée, discusses the virtual reality phenomenon by presenting her work and proposing a classification of virtual museums in a new book titled "Virtual Museums & Museum Realities."
Exploring the Identity of Virtual Museums
Presenting her book at an international virtual reality exhibition, specifically Recto VRso, Professor Beer focuses on the XR and 3D aspect of her study. The book explores the theoretical identity of virtual museums, a topic important due to their ever-evolving definition since their early 90s origins. The debate challenges the claim that virtual museums can only be documents and not genuine museums, providing valuable complements, but never substitutes.
Real/Virtual Axis: Complementarity and Substitution
The relationship between virtuality and reality remains central in the conferences of Recto VRso. The reflection on virtual museums in 3D and VR becomes a part of the XR discourse, addressing questions of denaturation and the reproductive, representational aspect of virtual museums. The identification of simulation-created worlds distinct from the real world enriches the debate surrounding virtual museums.
Virtual museums participate in two primary relationships with real museums (IRL). They may exist in a complementary relationship, serving as a digital addition to a real museum, either in the form of virtual tours or enhancing the meaning of museum objects through voice and life. They may also be in a relationship of substitution, replacing a museum exhibition in place of the real museum and intending to be real, instituted museums.
Real/Virtual Axis: Complementarity – The Virtual Museum as an Addition to the Real Museum
Virtual Tours of Existing Museum Sites
Major museums such as the Hermitage Museum, the Louvre, and the Smithsonian Institute offer 360-degree tours, allowing visitors VR access to the spatiality and materiality of real museums.
Complementarity by Developing the Meaning of the Museum Object
Real museums need digital media to develop an understanding of their objects. Virtual sections of real museums bring life and voice to real and imaginary objects, as seen in the Spaceflight Museum in Second Life.
Complementarity by Developing the Meaning of the Imaginary Museum Object
Virtual museums are vital for museums of literature, an art form characterized by the narrative unfolding in the mind. VR and 3D in persistent worlds, such as Second Life, provide immersion in worlds, making them inhabitable.
Complementarity by Exploring the Imaginary World of a Painting
Though painting offers an immediately perceptible image of the imaginary world, the pleasure it provides extends beyond visual sensations, delving into narrative worlds and horizons of meaning. VR and 360-degree productions allow exploration of the artist's digital world.
Complementarity by Bringing Existence to the Heterotopic and the Heterochronic
XR modes provide essential opportunities for real museums, such as in archaeological sites or innovative experiences that connect real and virtual museum visitors.
Real/Virtual Axis: Substitution – The Real Museum Replaced by a Virtual One
In a substitution relationship, virtual museums take the place of a real museum in a mode of empowerment. Two primary forms of this relationship exist – specific substitution and general substitution.
Specific Substitution in the Form of a Replica of an Existing Museum
Virtual museums can replace real museums as a virtual replica of existing museums, serving as a substitute for a real museum in a temporary or punctual manner, or as a replacement for any real museum.
General Substitution: Autonomous 3D/VR Virtual Museums
Some virtual museums aim for autonomous existence exclusively in virtual worlds. These museums, such as Jean Vergès' UMA and Yann Minh's Noomuseum, present temporary exhibitions on artistic themes and break-ins to real spaces and temporalities.
Overall, virtual museums challenge and enrich the role and identity of conventional museums by offering accessible, immersive experiences and providing opportunities for cultural enrichment even in the absence of physical museums.
The book "Virtual Museums & Museum Realities" by Suzanne Beer discusses the relationship between virtual museums and traditional museums, suggesting that virtual museums can serve as digital additions to real museums, offering complementary experiences through virtual tours, enhancing the meaning of museum objects, and immersing visitors in worlds previously only imaginable.
Professor Beer's work also proposes that a claim that virtual museums can only be documents and not genuine museums is disputable, as virtual museums can exist autonomously in virtual worlds, offering interactive, immersive experiences and replacing real museums in a temporary or permanent manner. This substitution can provide opportunities for accessibility and cultural enrichment even in the absence of physical museums.
