CHArt CHArt Computers and the History of Art - 1997 Conference Paper Abstract
The Story of Silver in the V&A's Silver Gallery is an interactive multimedia program which aims to mirror the real experience the visitor has in the gallery. It presents a series of layered physical spaces, where you can wander and get lost, rather than be fixed in an ideal model of information with a hierarchy of menus and pathways. Each time you touch the screen, you get a response of some sort. The screen is image heavy, and text is minimal, with nothing to read except the shortest of captions. One of the more unusual things about the program is that there are no menus or even text buttons, simply hot spots on the images. We have taken away the map, and appealed to the user's curiosity, the what's inside that box' urge that seems innate to all primates.
On the front screen, the user can choose which of the nine time periods they can explore in a +virtual' London street scene - from Roman times to the present day. The story lines have themes that are consistent throughout the different periods, and this is reflected in their physical placing, so the user soon learns to navigate themselves. The street scenes were collaged together from photographs of surviving London buildings of the appropriate period and all objects represented are photographed from authentic ones - with the exception of the costumes, which were hired from the National Theatre. While trying to keep as much authenticity in the program, the figure animation has purposefully been kept crude so it resembles a silent movie/ cartoon era of virtual reality. While partly necessitated by budget considerations, this feature is also seen as an advantage, as it keeps the user from fascination solely with the technology of multimedia and enables them to be drawn in, however sideways, to the images, the stories, the tone and the colour.
Matthew Cock works for the Records and Collections Services in the Victoria and Albert Museum.