Will virtual reality compete with museums or help them?

It'll do both.

On the one hand, there'll certainly be some people who like the convenience VR brings. The possibility of visiting a virtual museum without leaving the home or (in many places) having to pay any entrance fees or what not. Some uses of VR (as the article referenced in the link says) will act as alternative ways to learn about the past. Like by experiencing historical artifacts and structures as they were thousands of years ago.

But at the same time, a lot of people go to museums because they want to see the 'real thing'. They don't want to see a 3D picture or hologram of a vase from a few thousand years ago, but the actual vase from said time. Or the actual sarcophagus/mummy of a long dead Egyptian pharaoh.

And at the end of the day, to these people, VR is 'fake'. Like TV, movies, literature or video games are. In fact, it's best not to compare VR and museums with the internet and libraries, but with museums and recreations of historical sites.

Because the latter exists. There are lots of places where you can say, experience life in a small village from Biblical times. Yet these don't replace museums, because they're closer to a theatrical performance than a history lesson.

It won't replace museums, it'll act as another way for people to learn, and (as people say) might be integrated into the museums and even original historical sites as a way to experience things from a news perspective.

I'm really excited about the prospect of learning new skills through VR.

someone is working on a sailing trainer in vr. Think about it. It can put you on a realistic boat and you can actually learn how to sail. Imagine stepping on a sailboat for the first time in your life and already knowing what to do from vr.

I know it wouldn't teach you everything but learning the concepts from actually doing it in vr seems so amazing to me.

I worked for a company that specialized in design/build of interactive science exhibits globally and while I wasn't directly involved with creative being in proximity to the day-to-day process gave the opportunity to think deeply about where the museum experience's relevance is moving in society (especially in the context of "digital native" generations). I think there is a huge opportunity for a software platform to offer "relevance as a service" to museums. Not at all to imply that "relevance can simply be purchased, plug-n-play" but that a well-designed software platform could present the opportunity for museums to build relevance into the lives of its eventual visitors by connecting with them and providing meaningful experience's in various digital realms far before their actual brick-and-mortar visit. In my mind the company that builds this platform looks less like a communications company and more like Disney/Pixar. It would build, as some of its primary assets, characters (not unlike a Disney character) that have their own personalities. These personalities would have child-friendly conversational AI. This company would work with educators in the communities to craft supplementary education experience's using these characters. These experiences would be accessible free to the students via any mobile device or VR/AR. Eventually the company will have created narratives and personalities that are contextualizing topics which are usually somewhat abstract, like history or science. Then this company would work with museums to integrate this ongoing narrative into the museums exhibits. Perhaps the virtual characters would extend their presence into the museum with ready-made, indivualized tours for each student based on their shown interests. Ultimately the company will have built a platform which could offer up freemium and premium services and content to both museums and parents wanting to supplement their child's education (think Leapfrog).

I know there is resistance to the idea of "edutainment" sometimes but I think the idea isn't "to stay relevant we must entertain" but instead "to stay relevant we must verse ourselves in today's prevailing medium". With digital natives, it is more true than ever, that the medium is the message. If the museums message is so antiquated as to ask the visitor to bend to its form in order to derive relevance it will loose out to more accommodative formats.

Haven't explored this subject before, but I'd guess there's likely some sort of social, psychological and biological basis for why museums exist and are popular in the first place. Likely the activity involved in "discovering" objects and then inspecting them as if you found them for the first time, simulates "seeking" behavior and solidifies the memory in the context of finding the information on your own instead of being shown it.

If the reason for why museums assist in learning, and are driven by the rewards of "discovering" something and experiential aspect of inspecting something in a 3D environment, then there are certainly some fascinating opportunities to create not only augmented museum experiences or virtual museums, but take the behavior to new places. There are maybe new types of museums that wouldn't be possible in the physical world. Pretty exciting

I think they'll get along just fine. "Would you like to see an invisible sculpture?" http://elevr.com/would-you-like-to-see-an-invisible-sculptur... How to Bootleg http://elevr.com/all-about-the-context/ I'll warn you up front, the videos on the page are not... exciting. But the ideas in the article, about how we can experience physical spaces augmented by AR/VR, are really cool.

What an absurd question? Popular magazines didn't kill museums. Documentaries didn't kill museums. If anything they increase interest, and allow you to "visit" the museum more.

People who want to see the actual artifacts will still go to museums, I presume in the same volume. Some small number may even become excited to go because they'd like to see something they learned about in VR (that they hadn't already become excited by via a documentary).

If there's someone who can't be bothered going to a museum they are unlikely to be affected either way by VR.

VR museums are my personal killer app.

An idea: Make a VR museum that is constantly growing as HD 3D scans of artifacts are added regularly. Charge a small subscription to fund ongoing updates and scanning etc.

> Will virtual reality compete with museums or help them?

I'm going to go with "neither."