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Virtual reality partnership launches with mantis vision experience
The Museum is forming an ambitious five-year partnership with Atlantic Productions to create bespoke virtual reality experiences.
Update on 9 January 2018
This experience is now closed. Find out more about the latest virtual reality experiences being made by the Museum.
It will be a collaboration with Atlantic's virtual reality content studio, Alchemy VR, creating experiences for museums around the world.
Focussing on the natural world, the projects seek to transform public engagement with museum exhibits.
The first takes inspiration from the Museum's Colour and Vision exhibition, which explores how the entwined history of colour and vision has shaped the beauty of our natural world.
The VR experience will provide visitors with an immersive view of what the world might look like through the eyes of a mantis shrimp.
The exhibition opens on 15 July and the mantis shrimp vision VR experience will be available outside the Museum’s Attenborough Studio soon afterwards.
Bringing collections to life
As well as developing high-end virtual reality technology, the collaboration will explore the potential for augmented and mixed reality tools to transform visitor experiences.
Sir Michael Dixon, Director of the Natural History Museum says, 'We are delighted to be working with Atlantic Productions to bring our world-class collection to life and make it accessible on an international scale.
'Virtual reality has an incredible power for storytelling. It transports us to extraordinary and otherwise unreachable environments, challenging the way we think about the natural world and inspiring the next generation to better understand it.'
Emily Smith, Head of Audience Development, receives the Museums and Heritage Innovation award © Simon Callaghan Photography
The Museum and Atlantic Productions have worked together for several years, and one project recently won the Museums and Heritage Innovation award - David Attenborough's First Life.
It had its world premiere at the Museum in June 2015, and was followed in December 2015 by David Attenborough's Great Barrier Reef Dive.
Previously the pair collaborated on a number of other projects, including the BAFTA-winning NHM Alive 3D.
Alchemy VR is one of the world’s leading virtual reality companies. It grew out of Atlantic Productions and its innovative special effects company Zoo.
Anthony Geffen, CEO of Atlantic Productions and Alchemy VR, adds, 'We are thrilled to announce this collaboration and look forward to producing many more high-end, immersive and cutting-edge projects with the museum over the coming five years.
'We have first-hand experience of how VR engages museum visitors of all generations from around the world. To be pioneering new and innovative experiences alongside one of the most highly respected institutions is very exciting for us.'