Renwick Gallery WONDER 360

Name: Renwick Gallery WONDER 360
Author: Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

EVALUATED

Assessed for usability and quality

For:General Public & Enthusiasts

Free

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App Summary

Renwick Gallery WONDER 360 is a virtual reality application designed to provide the general public with an immersive, aesthetic experience of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's WONDER exhibition. The app was created as a case study within a larger research initiative to evaluate how different VR technologies could fulfill a museum's mission of delivering educational content to remote audiences. The authors conclude that this type of virtual visit represents a key opportunity for museums to extend their educational and aesthetic reach beyond their physical walls.

App Screenshots

Renwick Gallery WONDER 360 screenshot 1 of 2

Renwick Gallery WONDER 360 screenshot 2 of 2

Detailed Description

Functionality & Mechanism

The Renwick Gallery WONDER 360 application, developed by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, provides a virtual reality experience of the WONDER exhibition. It leverages 360-degree photography to present site-specific installations from nine contemporary artists. The interface facilitates navigation through the virtual gallery space, allowing exploration of each artwork. Designed for mobile devices, the system replicates the aesthetic and immersive qualities of the physical museum visit for a remote audience, offering a digital archival representation of the temporary installation.

Evidence & Research Context

The application's development was documented as a case study in a general research article exploring virtual reality production by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The primary research objective was to evaluate mobile-based VR as a vehicle for delivering aesthetic and educational experiences to a remote audience.
The associated publication analyzes the costs, benefits, and logistical lessons learned from this in-house production to inform future digital projects.
This project served as a foundational experiment to establish institutional criteria for evaluating virtual visitation technologies within cultural heritage contexts.

Intended Use & Scope

This application is designed for the general public, educators, and art enthusiasts as a tool for remote virtual visitation. Its primary utility is to provide an immersive, aesthetic experience and a digital record of a temporary exhibition. The system is not a substitute for a physical museum visit and does not provide comprehensive curatorial interpretation beyond the visual presentation.

Studies & Publications

1 publication

Peer-reviewed research associated with this app.

Evaluation Study

Possibilities and constraints for virtual visits: Experimental approaches to VR at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Snyder et al. (2018) · MW 2018 Conference

Researchers successfully identified strengths and weaknesses of different VR approaches for museum virtual visits.

Starting in 2016, the Smithsonian American Art Museum undertook a series of experiments in producing Virtual Reality (VR) applications, in order to gain hands-on experience with the technologies involved, and to increase the museum staff's firsthand knowledge of the medium. The objective of the projects was to evaluate different types of VR—from relatively lightweight mobile apps to robust, room-scale experiences—in order to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each as a vehicle for delivering educational and aesthetic experiences to a remote audience, in keeping with an art museum's mission. This paper presents and analyzes two primary case studies from among these experiments. The first case study is SAAM's in-house production of "Renwick Gallery WONDER 360," a VR app for mobile devices, created as a compliment to the 2015 WONDER exhibition at its Renwick Gallery. The second case study, "Beyond the Walls," is a more ambitious, room-scale VR experience for the HTC Vive system, and was developed with support from our commercial partner, Intel. Each of these case studies centers around an application meant to offer a virtual visit to a section of the art museum galleries, and together they give a glimpse into the possibilities for virtual museum visitation in the future. The paper analyzes the costs, benefits, and lessons learned in each project, and suggests an approach and set of criteria for evaluating future developments in the VR space that could be utilized by museums both large and small.

In the Media

Smithsonian American Art Museum releases "Renwick Gallery WONDER 360" virtual reality app

The Smithsonian American Art Museum launched Renwick Gallery WONDER 360 to provide immersive access to its blockbuster exhibition using 360-degree virtual reality technology for mobile devices. "The app captures the 'WONDER' exhibition as a moment in time and lets you carry the beauty of that experience around in your pocket, anywhere in the world," said Sara Snyder, chief of the museum's media and technology office. The app recreates the museum's most popular exhibition to date, which attracted more than 730,000 visitors and featured nine contemporary artists' gallery-sized installations.

SiRead article

Smithsonian American Art Museum releases "Renwick Gallery WONDER 360" virtual reality app

The Smithsonian American Art Museum developed "Renwick Gallery WONDER 360" to provide immersive 360-degree virtual reality access to its 2015 blockbuster exhibition featuring nine contemporary artists' installations, marking the Smithsonian's first published VR mobile app. Sara Snyder, chief of the museum's media and technology office, explained, "The app captures the 'WONDER' exhibition as a moment in time and lets you carry the beauty of that experience around in your pocket, anywhere in the world." The app is available for free download via iTunes for iOS devices and Google Play for Android.

SiRead article