The show that I chose for this assignment was the British Museum's virtual tour. The specific tour that I selected was the one on Religion & Belief, as I thought this would be the most exciting subject material. Overall, I enjoyed the show greatly.
One of the features that I especially enjoyed was the timeline. The virtual tour was constructed along a timeline to cover all the areas of interest. This meant that I could choose a starting point and then go backward or forward in time to view the evolution of the topic in human history. Since I had chosen Religion & Belief, I was able to go to the modern day and move backward through history to see what the journey of our beliefs today started as.
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Another feature that I enjoyed was that there was a link between my tour of choice and other tours within the museum. For example, one of the artifacts I was viewing was a statue of Kozo, a double-headed dog (Smith, 2007). While this artifact technically fell under art history, it also tied into Religion & Belief because the history behind the statue was based on traditional religious beliefs that dogs could act as mediators between the living and the dead. In traditional Congo history, dogs would be kept as pets as well as assist in hunting. As they existed both within the sphere of human civilization as well as in the surrounding forests where the dead were buried, they were considered spiritual mediators, and this led to their depiction as such. These types of correlations and interesting facts spanning several different topics in the museum were highly engaging.
Accessibility was also addressed well in this virtual tour. Audio descriptions were offered for each exhibit, which went into detail not only on the appearance of the exhibit piece but also its history and cultural significance. I found this to be especially useful not only for people who may have difficulty reading but also for those who may want to listen rather than take a textual tour.
One feature that I disliked about the tour was that grasping the layout and the user interface of the virtual tour was not as simple as it seemed. It took a few minutes to understand how to navigate between tours, timelines, and exhibits. However, I feel that these issues with navigation were minor compared to the positive aspects of the whole tour. I would recommend that the tour begins with a more in-depth tutorial page, as the only instructions delivered were given in a dialog box at the start, which only gave directions but did not have demonstrations. Having a tour begin with a page with bright animations demonstrating how to select and move forward or backward in time, or video footage of the same would add value to the entire tour experience.
The user interface of the virtual tour is a grey, 3D space somewhat resembling space, with exhibits displayed as interconnecting constellations. This is the page from which the tour occurs, with each exhibit being available from here. This page sets the tone for the entire tour experience, and I found that it provided the right ambiance for it. The overall impression of the tour, through this page, is that there are countless pieces of information on humanity, history, and culture in the world, and this personally made the tour experience feel mysterious and exciting. The feeling that there are so many fun facts and important things to learn from the experience made me look forward to continue with the tour.
However, one criticism of this user interface is that its technical nature makes the process seem very computerized and does not have the flow or the continuity of a video-guided tour or an audio tour. Thus, it feels very much like clicking through an archive rather than one long, continuous tour. In terms of ambiance, this detracts the experience for people who favor seamless productions rather than technical ones. On the other hand, however, this can be seen as a positive trait by people that are more information-driven than production-driven. Audiences that are information-driven would prefer this kind of tour, as not only does it focus on the information in the exhibits, but it also allows users to choose what kind of elements to investigate, rather than be at the mercy of a pre-recorded audio or video guide.
Overall, this tour event hosted by the British Museum was quite enjoyable. I would recommend it for tour participants that are independent and curious enough to create their own type of tour rather than follow an already predetermined route. This is also a favorable tour for people who enjoy interconnected topics such as religion, conflict, and trade, both in ancient and more recent history. The tour is excellent at connecting these themes as one uses the site.
References
British Museum. (2020). Virtual Tour. Retrieved from https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
Smith, R. (2007). The Museum: behind the scenes at the British Museum . Random House.
