Getting big projects off the ground is always a complex process, never more so than when those projects involve experimenting with cutting edge technology.  One of the things we love at Preloaded is that we get to partner with clients on developing some truly groundbreaking work so we’ve built up a fair amount of experience, anticipating and managing key implementation challenges.  

At the Museums and the Web 18 conference in Vancouver, I chaired a panel discussion with Hilary Knight (Head of Digital Content, Tate), Becky Menlove (Associate Director for Visitor Experience, Natural History Museum of Utah) and Dave Patten (Head of New Media, Science Museum Group) to look at three big digital implementations launched in the past year: Modigliani VR (Tate), Space Descent VR (Science Museum) and Utah Climate Challenge (NHMU).  

Pulling off these projects involved taking a risks with a potential impact right the way across each organisation. So why did each organisation take the risk?

The session took the form of a discussion between the three panellists. Here are our top five insights:

Insight 1. Seize the day!

Making the most of an opportunity that presented itself was crucial to each project’s success  For Dave Patten at the Science Museum, that opportunity was the acquisition by the Museum of the Soyuz TMA 19 capsule. VR was an obvious solution to showing visitors the story behind this capsule’s earth re-entry.  

Hilary Knight at Tate was approached by the curator of the then-upcoming Modigliani exhibition, who wanted to do something digital for the exhibition. With funding from HTC being discussed by the Development team, just as at the Science Museum, VR seemed a great way of telling the stories behind the artist’s final days in Paris.  

For Becky Menlove, a new gallery, Utah Futures, was being built at the Natural History Museum of Utah, so this was the opportunity to think innovatively about interpretation in the gallery. And so her concept for a game to bring people together around the subject of climate change was born.

Insight 2. Secure buy-in

The panelists each talked about how they went about getting the green light – consensus – within their organisation to embark on such an innovative project.

At the Science Museum, Dave explains: “The most senior level of the institution realised the fantastic opportunity we had in acquiring TMA19 and being able to develop an experience which gave our visitors a unique insight into travelling back from the International Space Station to Earth. We ensured the development was led by a team of stakeholders who covered everything from the technical quality to the commercial viability and the curatorial integrity of the piece.”

“We knew that the project would impact on multiple departments so we consulted with them from the outset to identify concerns and try to find ways to mitigate them’, explains Hilary at Tate. “This project carried multiple risks, including brand risk. We worked continually with concerned stakeholders to help them find ways of mitigating those risks to their departments, including queuing strategies for Visitor Experience, PR strategies for press and marketing and more.”

Insight 3. Time to rethink ‘never lead with technology’?

There is a view that museums should never lead with technology, for fear of it being given more importance than the audience need or overall concept. In some cases, though, could leading with technology (AR, VR, gaming) actually push the boundaries, and challenge an institution to do something different?

Hilary, Dave and Becky all agree that technology per se can never be the only reason to create a digital experience. As Hilary says: “Technology gives us tools to connect with audiences in ways which might entertain or inspire them, but only if the stories we tell are compelling enough, and the tech we use is appropriate to the story we want to tell.”

But she also observes that having new tech to play with “expands our ideas of how we can tell stories”, as well as how people might consume and receive them, and therefore expands our repertoire in how we might connect with audiences. “Having tools to play with also helps us maintain an exploratory attitude and spirit of innovation across the organisation,” she says.

Insight 4. Establish project principles

In early 2017, curators of the then-upcoming Modigliani exhibition at Tate Modern approached Hilary’s team at Tate with a desire to fully integrate digital into the show. Tate could do this because (rather uniquely) Modigliani has no estate, which allowed the team more creative freedom than usual.

Hilary ran a creative brainstorm with curatorial, interpretation and digital staff to explore innovative ideas. From this and further conversations, the starting principles were agreed: a bold idea, not done before, integrated into the exhibition; and a new way of delivering interpretation that needed to uphold the exhibition’s rigour and authenticity. Hilary found that these starting principles ensured the project stayed on track, even if sticking to them proved challenging. “Starting principles sometimes made things difficult,” she says. “We couldn’t cut corners and new information had to be included, such as painting out windows. But they meant that the final product is high quality, stands up to expert scrutiny, and its place in the exhibition is thoroughly earned.”

Insight 5. Consider new models

Cost is one of the barriers to innovative projects. The interesting thing about each of these three is that they were funded in different ways, using different models. The Science Museum’s commercial model depended on an investment that was paid back through visitor revenue. The development of the Space Descent VR experience was funded by the museum’s commercial arm. The museum also partnered with Samsung, who provided GearVR headsets, Galaxy S series phones and headphones.

Before the approach from the exhibition curator to Hilary, Tate’s corporate development partners had already been in discussions with HTC about sponsoring an exhibition, and Modigliani VR, which was the gallery’s first VR installation, was also the first for Vive Arts.

Becky at Tate went so far as to bake in funding for her vision of a multiplayer game into the capital costs for the new museum building. “Within the overall budget for the new building and its exhibitions, we included a research and remediation budget that provided resources for the evaluation and visitor research we carried out on the first game,” she says. “This also provided funding for the new game production.”

So how was each project received?

All of the projects launched very successfully. “The project has been reviewed very positively,” Hilary says of Modigliani VR. “It’s notable that almost all reviews of the exhibition included the VR, indicated that those critics understood it as part of the whole experience. Audience feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with many saying how the VR experience moved them and gave them a new appreciation of the artist.”

For Becky, the most exciting outcome for Utah Futures is the level of collaboration, which has gone beyond what she envisaged. ‘Families, friends, and strangers are working together, and the average stay time is nine minutes – a good long time in the midst of a busy museum visit. Our recent visitor study indicates that visitors aged 17 and up are clearly understanding the climate change and sustainability messages.”

Space Descent VR hit the headlines when it launched, benefiting not only from the worldwide appeal of Tim Peake but also from being the first VR installation within a museum. “So far, it has been used by over 50,000 visitors around the four different sites that make up Science Museum Group and four other national museums and institutions,” Dave says. At the launch, Tim Peake called the display “breathtaking”.