Lake District attraction to provide visitors with tablets revealing interactive digital sculptures.
Launching this week, Colliding Forces: Augmenting Windermere Jetty Museum brings the hidden relationship between technology and nature to life. The Augmented Reality (AR) experience utilises 3D animation and weather driven data to create two immersive digital sculptures, constantly shifting and revealing aspects of the museum never seen or imagined before.
Internationally recognised digital artists Daria Jelonek and Perry-James Sugden, from London-based Studio Above&Below, bring a new ground-breaking piece of work to the shores of Windermere. Colliding Forces is part of the ongoing artist commission programme by Lakeland Arts. “What augmented reality enables us to do curatorially, is to offer another layer of meaning,” comments Helen Stalker Senior Producer at Lakeland Arts. She goes on to say, “working with Studio Above&Below has invited a completely new and surprising way of looking at the things we have in our collection. Before this project we would never have imagined being able to see swirling water droplets or pieces of a disintegrating boat tumble through the air around us.”
A growing number of museums are embracing apps, augmented and virtual reality and other interactive technologies to enhance the experience for visitors. Kit Abramson Project Manager at Lakeland Arts says, “as an arts, culture and heritage organisation we wanted to commission an exciting new digital experience that enriches how people discover and use the museum. This app is completely unique to Windermere Jetty Museum. It is all about the building, the collection and the forces of nature that are subtly shaping the materials around us all the time.”
Lakeland Arts Members were invited to Windermere Jetty Museum for a special test event of the Colliding Forces app. One member said, “[it’s] completely new, not seen anything like it.” Another member commented, “I thought it was captivating. I didn’t want to stop!” Kendal College Students studying game design were also invited to test the experience. One student commented that “this was my first AR experience and I found it really cool. It’s interesting how you interact with the real world.” Another student described it as “innovative, futuristic and fun!” Several of the students enjoyed how the experience encouraged them to move around and felt it changed their perception of how people can behave in a museum space.
Form this week visitors can borrow a tablet from the reception desk when they arrive at the museum, and will soon also be able to download the app from the App store or Googleplay to their phone.
Windermere Jetty Museum is part of Lakeland Arts, a culture and heritage charity that is the custodian of an internationally significant collection in the Lake District. The commission was supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation through the Weston Culture Fund and encourages artists to find a new way to tell the story of the conservation of the museum collection.
