Sorbonne University Communication Studies GRIPIC Laboratory PhD Student
소르본대학교 커뮤니케이션학과 GRIPIC연구실 박사과정
Pauline Brouard
paulinabrouard@gmail.com
Over the past decade, virtual reality (VR) has gained popularity worldwide, particularly within cultural institutions such as museums and historical sites. VR is a complex and multifaceted technological field that attracts both enthusiastic advocates and outspoken critics. As Philippe Fuchs noted 25 years ago, many definitions “unfortunately mix the purpose of virtual reality, its functions, its applications, and the techniques upon which it is based1”. As a medium, VR enables people to navigate digital environments, interact with virtual objects, and communicate with others in real-time, typically —but not exclusively— through Head-Mounted Displays (HMD), also commonly referred to as VR headsets.
One common way to define VR is to refer to the classification proposed by Milgram and Kishino in 19942, known as the “reality-virtuality continuum”, which remains widely cited by professionals and scholars. This classification presents a scale, related to the degree to which an environment is digital, ranging from reality (when a person is experiencing something in the real world) to virtuality (when a person is experiencing something in an immersive digital environment). Within this continuum, virtual reality describes a situation in which the environment is predominantly or fully digital. Based on Milgram and Kishino’s categorization, Gerard Kim suggested referring to this gradual scale as a “VR-ness spectrum3” —from the real environment to a computer-generated environment— according to the degree of integration of digitalized elements into the user’s visual sphere. The more a device supports the simulation of environmental elements, the more the experience can be described as virtual.
Examining the technological history of VR headsets, the first models available to the public were released quite recently, in the mid-nineties, particularly in the gaming and entertainment industry. Notable examples include Disney’s VR experience Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride, developed by Imagineering Lab and EPCOT in 1994, and Nintendo’s Virtual Boy console, released in 1995. However, a major shift occurred with the headsets developed by Oculus VR, founded by Palmer Luckey. The American company released the DK1, the first prototype of Oculus, in 2013. This was followed by the Gear VR, developed in collaboration with Samsung in 2015, and the Rift in 2016, after Oculus was acquired by the tech giant Facebook. These headsets, along with competitors such as HTC Vive (HTC Corporation in association with the game studio and distributor Valve) and Pico (owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance), are often considered the first VR devices accessible to mainstream consumers.
Overall, despite a relatively low household penetration rate worldwide, immersive experiences using headsets are gaining popularity, especially for their application in art and culture4. A major reason for the growing enthusiasm around VR is its ability to offer new creative possibilities in spatial storytelling, making the technology appealing for video games and other narrative contents. Additionally, the discomforts associated with early headsets —such as their heavy devices, motion sickness (cinetose), and limited graphics— have significantly improved over the past 30 years. Not only has the weight of headsets been reduced, but their functionality has also expanded with the emergence of free-roaming VR that allows users to move with minimal constraints within a given space. Standalone headsets —which do not require a computer— have become more autonomous and no longer require cables that hinder movement.
Based on qualitative ethnographic fieldwork about the cultural uses of VR headsets in public spaces5, this article explores the extent to which VR can enhance the accessibility of cultural heritage. First, we examine how VR headsets function as a medium that expands the possibilities of content creation through their specific storytelling grammar, thereby broadening the scope of cultural mediation. Second, we analyze how VR-based experiences in museums and cultural institutions enhance on-site engagement or create remote digital tours that can reach broader audiences. Third, we explore the delicate balance between fostering innovation and ensuring the economic sustainability of cultural and historical sites, while avoiding the pitfalls of predatory privatization of culture and heritage that may emerge from commercial applications of immersive technologies.
VR as a Versatile Medium for Cultural Heritage Mediation and Preservation
The discourses surrounding VR-driven initiatives often emphasize not only technological innovation but also cultural accessibility, aiming to expand possibilities for public engagement. For instance, various VR projects have been developed around Notre-Dame de Paris, particularly after the devastating fire that broke out on its roof, destroying the cathedral’s spire and severely damaging this iconic Parisian landmark. Some of the key examples are Rebuilding Notre-Dame (a 360-degree film made by the media production company Targo), Save Notre-Dame on Fire (an escape game developed by the game publisher Ubisoft that puts players in the perspective of the fire brigade during the rescue of the cathedral) and more recently Éternelle Notre-Dame (an ambitious free-roaming virtual tour produced by Excurio). These three examples illustrate the versatility of cultural content produced with VR headsets. Despite sharing similar subject matter and environmental settings, each experience was designed with distinct target audiences in mind. The first example represents a documentary format, the second manifests as an interactive video game, and the final example functions as a virtual tour, incorporating historical context and educational elements. This diversity demonstrates how the same technological medium can be adapted to serve different communicative and experiential purposes.
Co-financed by public and private entities, Éternelle Notre-Dame narrates the history of the cathedral’s construction and its evolution over time, making an interesting artistic choice by opting not for volumetric capture or hyper-realistic graphics but for a video game-inspired aesthetic. This VR experience incorporates a ludic approach by manipulating the cathedral’s architectural scale —from zoom-in on the stained-glass windows to the miniaturization of the whole building allowing visitors to walk around. Although its accurate explanations of medieval stonemasonry, detailed descriptions of the cathedral’s evolving ornamentation, and acknowledgment of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s role in the 19th-century restoration, Éternelle Notre-Dame does not appear to be just about history. Rather, it was designed as an entertaining activity, integrating digital and gaming elements while conveying a feeling of authenticity. The authenticity here refers to the ability to create a feeling of “being there”6 when using a VR headset thanks to “ongoing process of real-time action-based perception”7. It does not imply that the visitor’s experience is real, but that the feeling of authenticity emerges from the VR headset’s ability to continually update the virtual environment based on the user’s actions and perspectives. In 1999, Marie-Laure Ryan already argued that VR can be seen as a tool for “accessibility relations” thanks to its “mode of apprehension that engages not only the mind but also the body”8. Through the unique integration of artistic immersion into digital design, VR headsets introduce an unprecedented mode of accessibility, allowing users to experience digital simulation through direct bodily interaction.
Moreover, VR can be used to preserve artifacts and historical sites that are too fragile, damaged, or sensitive to be physically displayed to the public. One the one hand, museums and cultural institutions can use digital replication techniques to safeguard and analyze objects and places. To illustrate this claim, we can look at the use of VR technology for research purposes at the Roman Theater of Orange in France, built in the 1st century AD and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. A research team, from Sorbonne University, used digital models, based on high-resolution 3D scans, in order to replicate the original shape of the theater’s walls.9 Such virtual reproduction enables researchers and historians to study and document cultural heritage while preserving the integrity of the originals. On the other hand, VR allows visitors to experience historical events, interact with cultural artifacts, or navigate reproductions of inaccessible places such as outer space, the deep sea, or past heritage sites and extinct species. A significant example is the Lascaux Cave which is one of the most important Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe, renowned for its stunning parietal wall paintings. The original cave suffered irreversible damage due to excessive visitor numbers in the 50s and the 60s, which altered heat, humidity, and oxygen levels, introducing microorganisms that threatened the paintings. As a result, the cave was permanently closed to the public in 1963. To preserve and share this cultural heritage from the Old Stone Age, public authorities responsible for the cave’s conservation, in collaboration with the private company Dassault Systèmes, created a VR digital twin at a 1:1 scale. This high-resolution replica allows visitors to explore the cave, in great detail, without risking further physical degradation. The narrative potential of virtual reality, particularly in the context of headsets used in art, culture, and heritage, extends far beyond technological novelty. Digital technologies can serve as both a tool to protect fragile historical artifacts or sites, and a way to expand public engagement and accessibility through immersive storytelling.
On-Site and Remote Exhibitions: Enhancing Accessibility for Broader and Unreached Publics
Developers, designers, and content creators have cultivated a specialized set of skills based on game engines, 3D design, scripting interactions, interactive and spatial storytelling, and more. Besides, with the emergence of standalone VR headsets like Oculus Quest and HTC Vive, integrating VR content into exhibits has become easier since the cost of the devices decreased while their functionalities improved. However, creating VR content requires both creative and technical skills and few museums and cultural institutions have dedicated R&D laboratories to develop their own experiences. Most of the contents curated in exhibitions are the result of partnerships between private and public entities. For example, the National Museum of Natural History in Paris was one of the first European museums to design a space tailored for VR with the creation of the Cabinet of Virtual Reality —from the encyclopedic collection called “cabinet of curiosities”. Since 2017, the Museum took part in several coproduction with creative studios and production companies specialized in VR. For example, the Museum’s research teams worked with Lucid Realities10 on a “scientific fairy tale” entitled The Starry Sand Beach that mixes academic knowledge about foraminifera —which are microscopic single-celled organisms studied by researchers to understand the Earth’s climate variations, even before humans ever existed— and a tale about a mythical sea serpent from the East China Sea locality. This immersive piece merged scientific vulgarization, developed in collaboration with researchers from the Museum, with an aesthetic narrative crafted by the renowned artist Hsin-Chien Huang and the experienced documentary director Nina Barbier. More recently, the Museum coproduced a 43-minutes free-roaming VR experience, with the production company Excurio11, based on a selection of “several paleo-landscapes, from the Archean period (3.5 billion years ago) to the present day, including the rise of animal life in the Cambrian (520 million years ago), the great forests of the Carboniferous (300 million years ago), the great dinosaurs of the Cretaceous (67 million years ago) and the rise of humans (between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago)12”. The graphic bible, as well as the storyline and dialogues, were all meticulously supervised and reviewed multiple times by researchers at the Museum. Even the scale, shape, and color of the plants in the background underwent a rigorous approval process. Making scientific knowledge more accessible to a younger public or a neophyte audience is a key part of the Museum’s mission as a public institution dedicated to education and scientific mediation.
These two pioneering collaborations between the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and VR companies demonstrate how immersive technology can effectively bridge scientific rigor and public engagement. By combining meticulous academic oversight with compelling narratives, these VR experiences participate in the Museum’s educational mission by making complex scientific concepts comprehensible to broader audiences. Moreover, immersive technologies can enhance accessibility by improving the visitor experience for individuals with various impairments (hearing, visual, psychological, or motor). Designing adjustable settings allow users to calibrate the VR experience to their specific needs, for those with visual impairments (e.g., audio descriptions, haptic feedbacks, color blindness modes) or for those with hearing impairments (e.g., sign language, captions). In 2023, the startup InCahoots Production created a virtual tour of the Bourges Cathedral, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Rather than relying solely on VR headsets, the 360-degree virtual tour they developed was also accessible on tablets. A significant portion of this startup’s target audience was retirement homes and senior citizens, for whom on-site visiting can be impossible. Thus, VR and immersive contents help overcome physical barriers as well as obstacles related to cultural mediation methods, such as adapting colors, adding audio descriptions, and adjusting font size for subtitles. Implementation of VR-based content can either enhance the on-site experience or create remote digital tours wherein users may navigate curatorial spaces. Nevertheless, the development of immersive content requires a comprehensive theorization of ‘accessibility’. The construct of accessibility extends beyond physical entry parameters and relies on a conceptual framework toward accessibility that warrants critical examination within museological discourse13 and curatorial praxis.
Expanding Digital Tourism: The Monetization of Cultural Heritages and Arts?
Digitizing collections and developing immersive virtual tours allow museums, and cultural institutions to include a broader audience, overcoming geographical, economic, and physical barriers that might otherwise limit access. For instance, the Palace of Versailles developed a catalog of immersive experiences, including VR content such as the experience VersaillesVR: the Palace is Yours created in partnership with the platform Google Arts & Culture. Since 2018, the Palace of Versailles has focused on the international exportation of Virtually Versailles, a customizable exhibition that integrates various technologies beyond VR. This immersive experience has been showcased in cities such as Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, and Hangzhou. Developing a catalog of VR experiences enables institutions to reach individuals who are unable to visit in person. By investing in immersive experiences, that are significantly expensive, museums can foster cultural tourism and attract a wider, more diverse audience, including those unable to visit in person.
Beyond accessibility, VR appears to be a persuasive marketing tool for tourism14, offering a first immersive experience that strengthens an institution’s advertising strategy and broadens its reach to potential new visitors.15 Potential marketing advantage with the use of VR tour: proved by several studies that it’s an effective way to advertise a touristic destination.16 In a recent case study about how virtual tours can influence the perception of touristic destinations. Jihoon Kim concludes that:
(…) when planning a trip to a faraway destination, individuals who experience a highly immersive VR tour might perceive a more favorable destination image than those who experience a low-immersion 2D tour. (…) VR tours can mitigate the psychological distance associated with faraway destinations, thereby prompting individuals to perceive and process information about those destinations on a more concrete and contextual level.17
Applied to our fieldwork, we can assume that the integration of VR experiences can attract a wider audience, allowing museums and cultural institutions to generate new revenue streams by offering remote access to cultural content. These initial virtual experiences can subsequently stimulate physical attendance, as VR functions as a marketing tool that provides potential visitors with an immersive preview that sparks curiosity and encourages in-person visits. This approach expands the scope of advertising strategies, enabling cultural institutions to reach global audiences while positioning themselves at the forefront of digital innovation.
VR is not just a creative choice but also a strategic decision that reshapes how cultural institutions engage with their audiences and expand their business models. Beyond enhancing visitor experiences, immersive technologies serve as a powerful tool for expanding the business model of museums and heritage sites. However, based on our on-site observations, it is necessary to point out that this technology may not be widely available due to financial and technological barriers. Investing in VR headsets remains costly for museums and public institutions responsible of cultural heritage collections or historical sites. The expenses exceed the acquisition of headsets, which require frequent upgrades to keep pace with technological advancements, they also include the cost of employing specialized VR operators on-site. Additionally, ticket prices—sometimes reaching approximately $30 for a single adult entry—play a major role in limiting accessibility, potentially making these experiences unaffordable for many visitors. In consequences, the integration of VR into museums raises crucial questions about the commercialization of cultural heritage. The digital transformation of cultural contents opens up new avenues for revenue generation, such as selling virtual access to exhibits, licensing digital reproductions, or offering exclusive experiences for paying subscribers. While these strategies can provide financial sustainability to museums and cultural institutions, the increasing platformization of culture, fueled by the rising support of immersive technologies in cultural policies, raises concerns about the dominance of private industrial actors over public cultural institutions. Platformization refers here to the intensification of economic exploitation of ‘cultural content’ within the context of the progressive neoliberal transnationalization of global communication industries.18 This process is driven by political and economic shifts that rely on privatization and the increasing influence of digital platforms. As more museums and cultural institutions collaborate with tech giants to digitize their collections or create entertaining experiences, there is the risk that these inherently profit-driven platforms may dictate the terms of access to cultural content. The commercial exploitation of cultural heritage assets can create a paradox where institutions must balance public access with pressure to generate revenue, potentially shifting their focus from preservation and education toward market-driven objectives.
Conclusion
To sum up, VR can be used as a mediation tool for discussing sciences, cultural heritages or history through new narrative techniques. Using a VR headset that generates multi-sensory digital environments redefines the boundaries of traditional cultural visits, allowing the public to actively engage with what is displayed. In the context of experience-centered museology, VR headsets serve as a medium that enhances the sense of vividness and immersion. Through a semiotic construction that mimics how we naturally perceive the real world, VR-based projects rely on the seamless disappearance of technology from the user’s awareness. As a result, VR not only transforms how cultural narratives are conveyed but also challenges traditional modes of engagement, fostering new forms of interaction that can attract a broader audience and contribute to the growth of digital tourism.
While VR offers significant advantages for renewing cultural mediation and scientific vulgarization, important questions arise regarding the accessibility of these immersive experiences. Both financial barriers—such as the high cost of headsets and admission fees—and technological barriers—including physical discomfort and the required digital literacy—must be critically examined. The implementation of VR-based projects necessitates an adaptation of established curatorial practices, yet current experiments remain insufficient to fully assess VR’s impact on accessibility. Moreover, while VR presents a potential revenue source for museums and cultural institutions, it also raises methodological challenges for curators, highlighting a tension between the accessibility of cultural content and economic imperatives.
Users’ expectations of VR play a crucial role in the gradual establishment of cultural uses of VR, yet dissatisfaction remains common. In some cases, VR appears to be developed as an end in itself—serving as a superficial experiment, rather than addressing the concrete visitor needs. These initiatives are often justified in the name of the public and positioned as solutions to an assumed demand for innovation, despite a lack of empirical audience engagement data. At the same time, artists, creative companies, and cultural institutions face increasing pressure to develop inclusive cultural experiences that are both innovative and sustainable. In this context, they must navigate what can be seen as a dilemma, balancing seemingly contradictory requirements. At last, the environmental impact of VR—due to the energy consumption of servers and devices, as well as the production of digital content—must be addressed. Moving forward, the development of digital technologies in museums to redefine accessibility must integrate sustainable practices, ensuring meaningful contributions to cultural mediation and museology while aligning with the contemporary challenges of environmental limits.
Notes
1 Fuch, P. (et. al) (2000), Le traité de la réalité virtuelle, 3rd edition, Paris: Presses de l’École des mines.
2 Milgram, P. & Kishino F. (1994) “A Taxonomy Of Mixed Reality Visual Displays”, in IEICE Transactions on Information Systems, Vol. E77-D no.12.
3 Kim, G. (2005), Designing Virtual Reality Systems: The Structured Approach, London: Springer.
4 Who’s Really Using VR these days? Six Data-Driven insights into today’s VR User Demographic, https://medium.com/@annabell_37704/whos-really-using-vr-these-days-six-data-driven-insights-into-today-s-vr-user-demographic-422372a75c8c
5 Brouard, P. (2022),”Doing an ethnography of Virtual Reality Uses in France and South Korea: toward an “ethno-semiotic” approach”, Actes des Doctorales de la SFSIC, pp. 726-735.
6 Ijsselsteijn, W. A. & Riva, G. (2003), ”Being there: The experience of presence in mediated environments”, In: G. Riva, F. Davide, & W. A. Ijsselsteijn (Eds.), Being there: Concepts, effects and measurement of user presence in synthetic environments, Amsterdam: Ios Press, pp. 3-16.
7 ibid.
8 Ryan, M-L (1999), “Immersion us. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory”, SubStance, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, Vol. 28 (2), no. 89, pp. 110-137.
9 Bartette, T. & Rosso, E. (2019), “The contribution of digital imaging to the study of a complex architectural setting: the stage of the ancient theatre of Orange (Vaucluse)“, In Situ, Vol. 39. http://journals.openedition.org/insitu/21669
10 Lucid Realities is a creative studio producing XR and immersive contents, that has collaborated with renowned museums in France, such as the Louvre, the Orsay Museum, and the National Museum of Natural History.
11 Excurio is a production company that develops immersive expeditions using free-roaming VR technologies, offering experiences ranging from tours of Ancient Egypt to visits of 19th-century Paris.
12 Embark on an exceptional immersive expedition to discover history of Earth and life itself, https://www.excurio.com/en/life-chronicles/
13 For a critical perspective on public museums, see: Bishop, C. (2013), Radical Museology: Or What’s Contemporary in Museums of Contemporary Art?, Germany: Koenig Books.
14 Beck, J., Rainoldi, M. & Egger, R. (2019), “Virtual reality in tourism: A state-of-the-art review”, Tourism Review, Vol. 74 (3), pp. 586-612. https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-03-2017-0049
15 Kim, J., Shinaprayoon, T. & Ahn, S. J. (2022), ”Virtual tours encourage intentions to travel and willingness to pay via spatial presence, enjoyment, and destination image”, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Vol. 43 (1), pp. 90-105.
16 Kang, H. J., Shin, J. H. & Ponto, K. (2020), “How 3D virtual reality stores can shape consumer purchase decisions: The roles of informativeness and playfulness”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 49 (1), pp. 70-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2019.07.002
17 Kim, JJ. (2024), “Incorporating VR into Tourism Advertising: The Effects of Immersion and Spatial Distance on Destination Image”, Korean Journal of Communication, Vol. 1 (3), 2024, pp. 179-195. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/kjc.00002
18 Jin, D.Y. (2008), “Neoliberal restructuring of the global communication system: mergers and acquisitions”, Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 30 (3), pp. 357-373.
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