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The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how a museum could potentially include a virtual reality experience inside of an exhibit.
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how a museum could potentially include a virtual reality experience inside of an exhibit.
My project uses the ancient Roman city of Pompeii to demonstrate this concept. In it, a museum patron can put on a virtual reality headset and walk through ancient Pompeii's Macellum, its market.
I researched about the market itself, its layout, and the location of where various goods were sold around the market. The information I used to place produce and arcitecture in the proper areas of my recreation of the Macellum are cited at the bottom of this page.
A. Main Entrance
B. North Entrance
C. South Entrance
D. Central Rotunda
E. Shrine - dedicated to the Imperial Family
F. Market Room with Counters - for the sale of meat and fish
G. Banquet Room with Altar
H. Animal Pen for Sacrifices
What would it look like inside of a museum exhibit?
What would it look like inside of a museum exhibit?
Before adding any kind of virtual reality experience, the museum would have to decide how important it is for virtual reality to be part of the overall museum exhibit.
If the museum wants to have virtual reality as a supplement to the information it's trying to portray, then the museum can dedicate some out-of-the-way area to the experience. Several rooms can be built and set up with virtual reality equipment. Staff can monitor and time how long patrons have been in the virtual reality exhibit in order to keep the queue. While patrons are waiting, staff can catch the attention of the next several people in line and inform them of how to use the equipment, how to avoid hitting walls, and what they can do in the virtual environment.
If the museum wants virtual reality to be the focus of the exhibit, then the museum should treat the exhibit much like an amusement park ride. A small group of patrons, perhaps 8-12 people, will be led into a large room. The room should be large enough for the group of patrons to comfortably walk around. Cameras will keep track of the patron's positions and the virtual reality exhibit will place avatars in the virtual environment to represent real people they should be walking around and dodging in real life.
In this 15 minute tour, a staff member will help patrons put on the virtual reality headsets and inform them of safety guidelines. The staff member will serve as your virtual tourguide and can guide the museum patrons around historical recreations of ancient sites in virtual reality. This gives the museum the potential to show off one historical site in detail or the tour can cycle through several historical sites within those 15 minutes.
If the museum wants to have this virtual reality focused museum exhibit, I imagine it would be very popular. To keep lines manageable, tickets would have to be bought alongside museum admission tickets for specific time slots, much like Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry does for the U-505 submarine tour. Many museums even have a waiting room for the next group in line that will play a documentary while the patrons wait for their turn. A waiting room like this can teach the museum patrons some history and provide supplemental information in preparation for the virtual reality experience.
What kinds of experiences will the museum patrons have in virtual reality?
What kinds of experiences will the museum patrons have in virtual reality?
The most important thing, first and foremost, is the ability for the patrons to be able to walk around and be inside a simulation that can accurately portay what a historical site looked like in the past. The environment itself has to be able to satiate the expectations the museum patrons have of the virtual reality exhibit. A disappointing environment will sour the experience for the patrons that had to pay and wait for the experience.
Second, I think it would be incredibly important for museum patrons to be able to compare and contrast the recreation of the historical site and what the site looks like in modern day. A tour could even begin with a real 360 panorama of what the historical site looks like today before jumping into the historical recreation.
In my project to show what the experience could look like, I tried to make my environment accurate. I carefully looked over maps of the layout of Pompeii's market. I also imported textures into my virtual reality project that I felt represented the materials that exist today in modern Pompeii such as red brick walls and orange clay tiles. I also added interactable signs that will show a modern photo of what the Pompeii market looks like from different angles. It gives the user the ability to see how much has changed in the many centuries after the destruction of Pompeii.
The Main Entrance, featuring a member of the Imperial family.
The Central Rotunda, where it appears that fish were scaled and gutted. Fish scales and other remains were found in this area which supports this hypothesis.
The Central Rotunda and the south wall of the Macellum. It appeared that the shops on the south side of the Macellum sold meat and fish. Fish and animal bones were found along the south wall.
The Central Rotunda and the Shrine in the background. The shrine held several statues of prominent members of the Imperial family.
A Banquet Room with an altar for sacrifices.
A Market Room with counters for weighing and selling meat and fish.
The meat and fish are interactable. You can pick them up using the trigger buttons on the HTC Vive controllers. These 3D models are credited in the Assets Used tab.
Citations
Citations
Clements, Peter and Michael. "Macellum." Destruction and Re-discovery. https://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/pompeii/public-buildings/macellum
Dobbins, John J. “Problems of Chronology, Decoration, and Urban Design in the Forum at Pompeii.” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 98, no. 4, 1994, pp. 629–694. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/506550
Macellum: Pompeii's Public Marketplace. Eruption of Mt Vesuvius. http://eruptionmtvesuvius.weebly.com/marketplace.html
Image Title: Macellumplan.jpg
From Wikipedia Commons
Link: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Macellumplan.jpg
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