MWX: What is digital, what is “real” in the (immersive) museum?

Saturday, April 06, 2019: 11:00am - 12:30pm
Back Bay AB

Chair: Damon Krukowski

Actually Submersive (Not Totally Immersive)
- Vince Dziekan, Monash University, Australia
Alejandro Iñárritu's "Carne y Arena" exemplifies the visual and narrative potential of virtual reality. However, the challenge of presenting VR artworks as in-gallery immersive experiences remains relatively uncharted territory. Inspired by my first-hand viewing encounter with its exhibition at Fondazione Prada, Milan, this paper explores what this work tells us about the respective ways that VR and museums function as "extra-dimensional" spaces in which cultural experiences are embedded, putting forward a proposition that it is, actually, the successful calibration of the viewing experience associated with VR cinema and curatorial design that underpins the realization of Iñárritu's creative vision and resulting "subversive" experience.

The Materiality of the Immaterial: Collecting Digital Objects at the Victoria and Albert Museum
- Juhee Park, Victoria and Albert Museum, UK, Anouska Samms, Victoria and Albert Museum, UK
Museum practices were predominantly designed around physical objects. Through the exploration of digital objects, this paper will argue for additional notions of materiality to be further embedded within the V&A. Through the application of digital materiality, as utilised within media theory, the V&A’s acquisition of the iPhone 6 will be used to demonstrate that the V&A could collect the “seemingly immaterial” material affordances of digital objects. This paper will not only contribute to the museum’s collecting strategies but also have wider ramifications on documentation practices, conservation, and strategies around display.

Escaping the Traditional Learning Environment: Wigwam Escape
- Lauren Bennett, Institute for American Indian Studies, USA
How do we transform a night out with friends into an immersive and historical learning experience? Educational escape rooms reach new audiences and push the boundaries of the museum experience. This session offers insight into the creation, design and implementation of the Institute for American Indian Studies’ immersive teaching tool: Wigwam Escape.

Five Hours Later: Taking It Slow In A Hyperconnected World
- Greg Povey, Site Gallery, UK
A discussion about the work Five Hours Later by Susan Collins, commissioned by City of Ideas/Site Gallery (Sheffield) and MWX.