VR —hype, hope or just hard?

Tea Uglow, Creative Director Google Creative Lab Nils Pokel, Digital Experience Manager Auckland War Memorial Museum Sarah Tutton, Senior Curator ACMI VR has been going through yet another cyclical revival driven largely by improvements in hardware resulting in a new surge of public interest. With content relatively scarce, there has been a huge investment from many different sectors in content creation. Several museums have jumped on the bandwagon with VR exhibits, 360 degree video presentations, and even rumors of loaning Hololens to visitors much as they have done historically with audio guides. How is this moment different from the 1990s and 2000s? Where are the truly exciting opportunities for museums? And how do we get beyond just having to manage visitor expectations and the resultant problems with ‘more tech’?