Virtual Worlds: Corals at the Grant Museum
Explore the Grant Museum of Zoology like never before in this virtual reality experience, in which you will be submerged into a 'flooded' museum transformed into a coral reef. Dive amongst healthy, degraded and restored coral in an installation built from audio recordings and underwater photography captured in the Pacific Ocean.
Virtual Worlds: Corals at the Grant Museum
03 Sep 2024 - 04 Jan 2025
Please note
- Free, no booking required.
- Open during Museum hours: Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm, Saturday 11am-5pm.
- Audience: Recommended minimum age of 6+ but open to all. Younger children may need assistance from an adult.
Based on fieldwork by UCL marine biologists Ben Williams and Jason Lynch, and made in collaboration with Datascape Realities, Virtual Worlds: Corals at the Grant Museum reconstructs real-world coral habitats virtually in a location-specific experience. The VR activity is presented alongside the Grant Museum’s own collection of coral specimens, augmented reality digital models and 3D prints, and is supported by a public events programme.
Coral reefs sustain 30% of all ocean species, and their degradation represents a stark reminder of the climate crisis. The study and preservation of coral reef habitats are vitally important to planetary health, and humanity in general. The data gathered from corals today is complex and multi-sensory, but corals are often still presented in conventional ways, including in museum settings. Coral specimens in museums can sometimes reinforce the misconception of corals as static and colonised objects, rather than as animals that form the foundation of marine ecosystems.
Virtual Worlds transforms climate data into a mixed reality experience for everyone, where the vital work of coral restoration is visceral and emotive. Experience it for yourself and join us in re-imagining the museum as a space for climate action.
Audience
Recommended minimum age of 6+ but open to all. Younger children may need assistance from an adult.
Access
Access to the museum, and all public areas within it, is step-free. Find out more about access.
Finding us
The Museum is located in Bloomsbury, in the heart of central London. The nearest tube stations are Euston Square (Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City), Goodge Street (Northern Line), Warren Street (Victoria Line), and buses 18, 30, 73, 134 and 205 stop 3-5 minutes away on Euston Road.
Here’s the location on Google to help you find your preferred route.
More about coral research at UCL
Events programme
Accompanying events and activities will include:
- Poetry film from Francesca Beard / Hot Poets
- Site-specific audio experience from Alice Boyd
- Evening of talks and performances exploring art and research
- Family creative workshops
- Interactive museum trail
- Poetry workshop (UCL students only)
Event dates and booking information will be released in autumn 2024.
About Datascape Realities
Datascape Realities is a collective of metaverse designers, architects, and scientists. We design exhibitions, events, educational tools and research platforms to visualise critical real-world data across a range of immersive mixed realities. Our creative practice seeks to open up conversations around the representation and rhetorics of climate data, and how museums can be transformed into spaces for climate action. https://www.datascaperealities.com/
