The State of the UK Immersive Arts & Culture Sector 2018

The arrival of immersive technologies in
the consumer market over the past few
years has brought video-games to life like
never before, but it is also true that virtual
and augmented realities are about much
more than gaming.
Photo courtesy of The Old Market

Cultural arts and institutions across the
globe are also starting to experiment in
this new space, with major film festivals
like Tribeca, Sundance and Venice
hosting experiences created by talents
like Alejandro González Iñárritu and
organisations like the Smithsonian
embracing VR exhibitions.
These technologies arrive at an interesting
time for the sector, which is facing certain
challenges.
The following survey on The State of the UK
Immersive Arts and Culture Sector has been
conducted by Immersive Specialist Emily
Savage, Immersive Filmmaker and Creative
Director, Rafa Pavon and Technology
Marketing Strategist, Anoushka Gangji, in
order to take a benchmark as to how
progressed this sector is when it comes to
experimenting with immersive technology.
A lot of the most adventurous immersive
technology innovations are being led by the
arts, culture and heritage industries -
especially when it comes to creating new
audience experiences. However, as of yet,
much of this goes undocumented and the
collective feedback, learnings and expertise
remain fragmented between the
institutions and organisations.
This report has been produced to help
draw focus on the work of these
institutions and to encourage the
continued progressive relationship
between the arts and immersive.
Well over 50% of the surveyed industry
members agreed that some of their biggest
issues arising right now include keeping
their attractions unique, whilst many also
expressed difficulties with finding funding
via corporate sponsorship or otherwise.
The results of this study suggests that
opportunities in VR and AR may help
institutions overcome these issues.
Foreword

In order to gauge the state of the immersive
arts scene, members of major institutions
across the UK were surveyed.
Responses were enthusiastic with a 38%
opt-in rate including representatives of:
● Cultural staples like the BFI and
Somerset House
● Historic collections such as
English Heritage
● Live performance and musical
venues such as The Royal
Shakespeare Company and
Abbey Road Studios
● Museums like organisations like
the National Museum of Scotland
and Historic Royal Palaces
● Prominent gallery spaces such as
The Royal Academy or Arts and
The Serpentine
Nearly 60% of the respondents were in
experiential and innovation roles which
hunt for new ways to engage audiences,
whilst there were also people from
marketing, curation and CEO positions.
Crucially, nearly all of those surveyed had
commissioned or developed immersive
technology projects before, over 70% of
which had done so at least three times.
These feature a wide range of experiences
including virtual tourism apps like Visit
Scotland's Scotland VR, historical
recreations such as Historic Royal Palaces'
The Lost Palace, immersive musical
experiences like a recording of
Beethoven's Fifth filmed in VR by the
Philharmonia Orchestra and cultural
pieces featured at festivals like Sheffield
Doc/Fest and the Raindance Film Festival.
This report details the key findings from
these people’s answers.
Methodology
See ‘thanks page’ for details on survey
contributors.

75% of immersive users said that the
tech has had a big impact on their given
institution and nearly all of those
surveyed said that they were either
satisfied or very satisfied with the
experience produced, even though
technologies like VR and AR still have
plenty of room to improve.
As this report shows, that impact has
been measured by strong audience
reception and increased opportunities
in funding.
Immersive tech is
making a big impact
on the institutions
that use it
Photo courtesy of Somerset House

“We now have a 6,000 strong audience,
willing to pay to cultural VR
experiences,” James Turnball of
Brighton’s The Old Market explained.
“Our largest event, HABITATS, ran in the
summer 2017 and attracted 3,500 paying
customers.
The work curated three of Marshmallow
Laser Feast's immersive works alongside
independent pieces on the same theme -
enabling you to see nature through
digital eyes.”
Verity McIntosh of The Watershed in
Bristol said that the Limina VR Weekender
had seen “Comprehensive and broadly
positive audience feedback
demonstrating a strong appetite for the
medium with existing audiences, and
suggesting routes to new audiences.”
That said, over half of participants did
suggest there was at least some internal
conflict to the use of immersive
technologies.
“A major problem is not having any
money/resource to test out ideas and do
R&D,” said Ben Vickers of Serpentine
Galleries. “So the stakes for anything
produced to be good are very high as
everything invested in must be publicly
shown. Which means that with emergent,
high risk technologies it is highly difficult
to get past usual internal politics and
notion of ‘excellence’.”
Photo courtesy of The Watershed

Multiple participants noted
that audiences had
expressed “overwhelming”
positivity, excitement and
emotion from sampling
immersive technologies.
Tellingly, nearly 50% of those surveyed
said that attracting visitors to new tech
experiences wasn’t a problem and
another 25% said it was only moderately
challenging.
Photo courtesy of Somerset House
And audiences
are reacting
positively too...

Elsewhere, participants suggest that
these technologies have the power to
draw people into their attractions and
make a lasting impact.
● Over 60% say immersive tech
makes the most impact on the
audience when they visit the
given installation
● Over 25% also say it gets people
out of their homes and into
attractions
● Nearly 20% said they saw the
biggest impact from customers
once they had returned home.
● Over 40% of participants said
their visitors are often unsure of
immersive tech but willing to try
it.
● An additional 27% of those
surveyed think their visitors have
come to expect it as part of the
experience.

“From the projects we've
commissioned it's clear the
public really want to see more
immersive experiences across
arts and cultures, they're
interested, intrigued and open
to new technologies and
creative content for these
platforms.
There is a desire to see more
creative, artistic and culture
content across immersive. The
arts sector are keen to explore
immersive technologies and the
audiences are open to new
experiences.”
Sarah Toplis of The Space.

Allocated budgets for these projects are
surprisingly large. Whilst a slim majority of
participants with knowledge of budgets said
that their projects cost between £10,000 -
£75,000, just under a third also said that
their budgets were at the £75,000 mark or
beyond.
Given that many cultural institutions don’t
look to turn a large profit on their exhibits,
seeking outside funding to develop these
projects can be an essential step in getting
them made.
Nearly half of those surveyed had found
success getting other organisations to
sponsor their projects.
Of those, 60% came from technology
companies such as Facebook, HTC Vive and
Google whilst over 30% came from
foundations and philanthropists that have
goals parallel to those of the content they
sponsor.
Sponsorships from tech companies
specifically can be hugely beneficial to both
sides. It gives the sponsors a chance to
showcase their own products and
platforms, whilst providing institutions with
the resources needed to effectively
showcase them and support a content
development ecosystem.
You’ll often find VR showcases sponsored
by Facebook to be sporting Oculus Rift
headsets, for example.
Most budgets are
below £75K, but
there’s appetite for
corporate
sponsorship

"Lots of tech companies are interested in
museums and cultural spaces trailing their
new tech and to bring it to large captive
audiences," said Robert Cawston of the
National Museum of Scotland.
But the call for
more sponsorship
across the country
is strong
Despite some success in gaining sponsorship,
50% of participants said that finding funding
for these experiences was prohibitively
problematic.
Some participants from smaller institutions
not based in London, for example, expressed
frustration with finding funding.
At the same time, many organisations have
set up divisions specifically dedicated to
funding innovative arts projects, including
those using immersive technologies.
HTC’s Vive Arts initiative, for example, aims to
distribute experiential VR works across
institutions and homes, whilst Google’s Arts
and Culture sector often utilises VR and AR in
pursuing new ways of engaging audiences.
These platforms will often partner with
insitutitions like those surveyed here in order
to nurture the development of these types of
experiences.
There was also significant interest from
financial and consultancy companies that will
enjoy increased brand awareness from any
such partnership.
Where applicable, participants largely said
that sponsors were very satisfied with the end
result, much like the institutions that create
them and audiences that consume them.
“We need to bring funders to more events
and exhibitions,” said Dan Tucker, curator of
Sheffield Doc/Fest’s Alternate Realities
segment, “especially outside London.”
It’s important, then, for institutions to know
where to look for sponsorship.
The survey suggests that a small museum in
rural England might struggle to get funding
from, say, a construction or energy company,
but might have more success reaching out to
a platform holder such as Facebook or Google.
At the same time, it’s just as crucial for
potential sponsorship partners to look beyond
the handful major metropolitan hubs,
especially considering that many of the UK’s
culturally significant sites are located in rural
areas.
More work must be done to emphasise the
importance of this.

Rather than hiring internal
development staff, which can
be costly, organisations will
often partner with experienced
external companies to build
their immersive experiences,
though well over 50%of
participants also noted that
creating high quality pieces
with partner studios is a big
concern right now.
Based upon comments, institutions are
looking to partner with studios that are both
capable of producing high-quality work and
have a proven track record in the field. They
should also demonstrate an understanding
of the financial logistics surrounding
content creation.
These high-level demands, coupled with the
number of participants struggling to find
partners, suggests there may be a dearth of
studios out there either capable of or willing
to take these projects on with the allocated
budgets in mind.
“I'd like to see more support for arts,
cultural and creative teams to think about
how to engage and reach audiences when
they start to plan immersive content and
experience production, especially around
initial development stages. ” said Sarah
Toplis from The Space. “Thinking about
engagement as part of development is a
really smart way to consider further funding
and potentially install and tour immersive
experiences nationally and globally.”
The National Museum of Scotland’s Robert
Cawston suggests that the main difficulties
faced in bridging the gap between
organisations and tech are:
● Resourcing the creation of unique
story-led content based on our
collections
● Promoting and marketing the
experience to audiences as well as
facilitating the running of the
experience in the museum
(onboarding for VR/AR for example
require additional staff resource to
promote, hand-out or guide
through),”
Finding a partner with the relevant skills is
just one piece of the puzzle, though, as
procurement of equipment itself can also
be a complicated process. Aside from
previously-mentioned sponsorships,
companies like Oculus and HTC also run
special programmes for businesses that
include both equipment and licenses to
showcase their technology in public.
Demand for
experienced
development
partners is high

“Shared vision and
collaborative working”
Royal Shakespeare Company
“Commercial acumen
and audience focus.”
Royal Armouries
“Collaborative
approach, partnering to
find funding!!”
BFI
“A full service model
including creative
production and an
understanding of the
restrictions cultural
institutions face”
National Museums Scotland
“Ability to ensure
reliability”
Historic Royal Palaces
What do you look
for in immersive
companies wanting
to work with Arts
and Culture
institutions?

“Track record. Working
at cutting edge. Scale.”
Serpentine Gallery
“Technical know-how
and finance”
Somerset House
“Quality and willingness
to share risk”
Philharmonia Orchestra
“Passion for the
medium, and interest in
location based
experience through
curated exhibition and
an openness to
partnerships whether
financial, editorial or
strategic.”
Sheffield Doc Fest
What do you look
for in immersive
companies wanting
to work with Arts
and Culture
institutions?

Despite being largely satisfied
with the experiences produced,
many participants also cited
issues with the current state of
immersive technologies, a
common complaint in the wider
VR and AR industries.
Current high-end VR headsets, for
example, start at around $400 and require
a high-powered PC to run. This in turn has
limited the size of the commercial VR
audience in its early days.
“It needs to be more established as a
medium and costs need to reduce,” said
Jonathan Reekie of Somerset House.
With prices like this, investing in
immersive experiences can be an
expensive proposition, although there are
signs of improvement. Facebook, for
example, recently introduced standalone
headsets including the $199 Oculus Go and
$399 Oculus Quest. Both contain all you
need to jump into VR, though neither
offers the full tracking capabilities or the
processing power needed to run the
PC-based Oculus Rift.
It’s also worth noting that other location
based immersive experiences such as
arcades have been able to circumvent the
limitations of consumer VR with custom
hardware.
The Void, for example, utilises wireless
technology to provide an untethered VR
experience that allows users to walk
around large areas and draws in visitors
to attractions like Disneyland in the US
and Westfield Shopping Centres in
London.
Pursuing avenues like this could be of
huge benefit to the immersive arts sector.
Sheffield Doc/Fest’s Dan Tucker,
meanwhile, noted that he wanted to see
“6DOF all-in-one headsets that can be
linked” for a more social immersive
experience. Companies like Google and
Lenovo already offer such products in the
$399 Mirage Solo and Facebook’s Oculus
Quest will arrive in spring 2019 for the
same price.
Immersive tech
itself needs to
improve

However, Ben Vickers from The
Serpentine Gallery also pointed to
impending advances in AR as a way to
reinvent the cultural experience, saying:
“AR layers in reality will provide an
alternative cultural experience, reducing
the usual operational overheads of
running a gallery or museum.”
These technologies won’t just help
enhance cultural experiences but can also
preserve them too. Photogrammetry, a
process that involves using real-world
images to digitally recreate architecture
and objects, is being used to bring at-risk
or long-lost culture into VR and AR.
The Arc/k Project, for example, is using
the tech to preserve historically
important sites ruined in the ongoing
conflict in Syria, whilst Google is doing the
same with its Bagan project that also
incorporates virtual tourism.
Anni Mantyiemi, Policy Advisor at Icon
(The Institute of Conservation) who
represent the UK’s huge network of
professional conservators and
conservation scientists, commented that,
“Immersive technologies can offer
unprecedented access to cultural
heritage: access is no longer restricted to
physical location with digital collections
and experiences reaching global
audiences, while objects that may be too
fragile to display due to their condition or
sensitive material can be exhibited,
possibly for the first time. There is
considerable potential to drive greater
audience engagement and interaction.”
Immersive tech
can enhance,
expand, localise
and preserve
cultural
experiences
Photo courtesy of The Serpentine Gallery

Some institutions have taken this to
the next level and are going entirely
virtual with their collections.
The Kremer Collection, for example, is
a VR app that digitizes a collection of
paintings in a virtual space for users
to view without having to travel the
world.
Art Plunge, meanwhile, expands on
famous paintings like the Mona Lisa,
bringing them to life inside VR.
Photo courtesy of The Serpentine Gallery

These challenges apparently aren’t
detering institutions from using
immersive technologies again in the
future.
Nearly 40% of those surveyed plan to
implement immersive again in the next 3
months and almost 90% of all
participants aim to implement it again
going forward.
It is also worth noting that, for the most
part, the people driving innovation in the
institutions aren’t facing internal
resistance, indicating that the sector is
ready to embrace immersive technologies.
Nearly 60% of participants described their
organisation’s attitude to the tech as
‘adventurous’ or close to it.
This speaks to the staying power of these
platforms, which aren’t likely to be
dismissed as gimmicks anytime soon.
Indeed, as the technology continues to
improve their viability for application within
the arts and culture sector is only set to
grow, as is the number of organisations
looking to get involved.
Most institutions
that have used
immersive once
plan to use it
again soon

When asked what upcoming
innovations in immersive
technology participants saw
having a big impact on their
institutions, answers largelly
pointed to three main areas:
augmented reality, artificial
intelligence and 5G.
The Old Market's James Turnbull
predicted "big wins" from AR if the
sector can harness it properly. AR is
currently finding a way into the consumer
market via the latest Android and iOS
smartphones, which support Google's
ARCore and Apple's ARKit respectively.
More high-end headsets like Microsoft's
HoloLens and Magic Leap's
newly-released Creator Edition,
meanwhile, are still high in cost and
experimental in design, though show
much promise about the future.
“AR experiences seem like an obvious fit
for the museum space, although can
come with costly production budgets,” said
National Museum of Scotland’s Robert
Cawston. An AR app featured within a
museum might, for example, allow a user
to interact with 3D models of fragile
artifacts, or recreate historical events on
a table right in front of you.
AI and 5G, meanwhile, are technologies to
set integrate with VR and AR platforms to
provide more immersive, dynamic and
convincing experiences than those
currently available.
An AI revolution is set to bring about
more elaborated virtual interfaces that
can react to our very words and actions,
whilst 5G will improve the functionality
for a much more powerful tether-free
experience.
Other answers also pointed towards
higher resolution capture technologies for
360 degree experiences and a rise in
location-based installations like Pop-Up
Cinemas.
The Future is
about AI, AR
and 5G

Many of the challenges participants
pointed to suggest that there’s an
opportunity for creative studios to fill a
gap catering to cultural institutions
struggling to find suitable partners to
develop their projects.
Sponsorship is also a question at the
forefront of the sector. Responses
indicate that there’s a lot of potential for
funding from technology companies and
platform holders like Facebook that may
get to demonstrate some of their own
products in return, though the industry is
also eager for sponsors to start looking
beyond major metropolitan areas like
London.
Other challenges, meanwhile, are
reflective of the wider immersive
industry, and should be solved in the
years to come by platform holders.
VR headsets, for example, need to come
down in price and offer much more
immersive and comfortable experiences
in order to become a truly viable platform
for the future.
Meanwhile, the imminent arrival of new
innovations like AI and 5G promise to
further enhance the possibilities of
these platforms and create even richer
experiences.
Current
challenges pave
the way for new
opportunities

With hurdles such as these gradually
being overcome in the next two to five
years, the Arts and Culture sector has an
opportunity to reinvigorate the
exhibitions and installations they are
currently struggling to keep fresh with
highly engaging immersive content, that
customers are eager to get their hands
on.
Five years from now we could be seeing a
wealth of powerful new exhibitions and
showcases that engage audiences like
never before.
The future of
immersive arts
looks bright

Overall, the results of the survey suggest
a hugely positive outlook and genuinely
new opportunities for immersive
technology in the Arts and Culture sector
in the coming years, that could help it
overcome some of its current wider
challenges.
Response to the use of immersive
technologies even in their early iterations
appears to be widely positive from both
the creators and customers and, though
there is room for both to improve, the
hardware innovations set to arrive within
the next few years will only enhance those
responses.
Immersive
technology can
play a big part in
reinvigorating
the arts sector

Many thanks for
contributions
from:

Anoushka Gangji
Technology Marketing Strategist
LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/anoushka-gangj
i-1920334/
Emily Savage
Immersive Industry Specialist
LinkedIn: ejsavage
Twitter: @EMILYJSAVAGE
Rafael Pavon
Creative Director for Immersive Media
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rafapavon/
Twitter: @watergunner
‘State of the UK
Immersive Arts
and Culture
Sector’ report
produced by:

The State of the UK Immersive Arts & Culture Sector 2018

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