A mile in my shoes is a touring exhibition hosted in a temporary building created to look like a giant shoe box, invites its visitors to be fitted for a pair of shoes and take a walk outside while listening to a pre-recorded audio about the person the shoes belong to. Based in London, the Empathy Museum is billed as...

The pop band ABBA, released their first album in 40 years during 2021 and promoted their tour – ABBA Voyage. The tour is scheduled in the UK for spring 2022. Is an in-person experience and consists of a pre-recorded vocal performance delivered via holograms of each ABBA member, accompanied by a 10-piece live band. Performances are presented in a custom-built...

Absent Sitters was an online performance which ran over 5 evening during October 2020 and part of the York Medial international media arts festival. Described as a digitally abstracted online audio-visual experience, the live streamed 20 minuet performance art accessed via Zoom was limited to 100 participants and was sold out.

Airbnb is a leading On-line Travel Agency (OTA) widely recognised for its worldwide accommodation selection. During 2020, Airbnb pivoted from what had been a slow growing in-person experience offer, to a fast growing selection of online, remote experiences. Launched in April 2020, the digital based experiences offered range in price from £1 to £90 and cover a diverse topic choice,...

Launched in October 2020, Amazon opened an experiential digital experience platform (Amazon Explore) to its US customers only. Experiences can be accessed via a laptop or desktop computer only and include livestreamed interactive guided tours of destinations across Europe, North and south America, Australia and Israel. The platform allows participants on tours to also take photos, attend as a group...

Artful Journeys is a US based travel business offering worldwide travel centred around art, music, culture and food for single travellers and groups. In addition to physical tours, the business offers virtual experiences called ‘armchair journeys’ which were launched in 2020 as a result of covid restrictions. Users could take part in discussions on art and creativity topics (similar to...

Art of London Augmented Gallery was a free exhibition / trail, which virtually placed 20 pieces of art work on the streets of London. Viewers download an app to activate the artworks which were marked with QR codes and were able to experience the paintings from the National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts without visiting the...

Launched in 2016, Art UK is the online home for every public art collection in the UK. Curated and managed by a charity, the website hosts art housed in over 3,200 British institutions. The information and granularity of images vary between individual pieces but by registering an account (free of charge) users can access a greater degree of information. The...

Arundel Castle is medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex. In response to the UK Covid restrictions of 2020, the organisation created a number of virtual events running throughout June. The digital experiences were free of charge and utilised a mix of articles, photography and video to recreate past events, including a tour of the rose gardens, jousting and a tulip...

Founded in 2013, With Locals is a private tour and activity business operating worldwide. The business added online experiences to its offer in 2020 in a response to Covid travel and activity restrictions. Branded, at home, these digital experiences tended to be private, live video calls and range in content from interior design discussion with a designer in Barcelona to...

Luxury French fashion brand, Balenciaga, launched its couture autumn/winter 2021 collection as a VR experience, via a virtual runway show (presented through Oculus). Belenciaga issued 30 guests (largely from the Press) with a headset with which to attend the event. Over 300 worldwide viewers experienced a VR runway show of a collection which echoed themes of dystopia, escapism and existentialism....

ActiveBallet is a subscription based Ballet fitness and training service offered and created by the English National Ballet. Available via an App for mobile devices or via a PC / TV web access, this video-on-demand provision offers users a library of pre-recorded workouts and ballet and/or Yoga based training and strength exercises which can be undertaken in a smaller physical...

Created as a response to the Covid-19 restrictions, the Barbican on-demand cinema allowed users to stream independent, new release and exclusive one-off titles as well as curated film seasons. Users select the title they wish to view and make a one-off payment at the ‘checkout’. There is a reduced price for Barbican members and users have 48 hours to view...

Beamish Museum located in County Durham is an open air / living museum showing the history of the North-east at different periods of time. Like other Museums, Covid restrictions closed the attraction and in response, the museum created a dedicated page on its website called ‘ Discover Beamish Museum at Home! The page included a number of YouTube videos showcasing...

On October the 24th 2020, the singer Billie Eilish presented a immersive livestreamed concert. In addition to standard sale tickets, it appears that 500 ticketholders were invited to virtually interact with the artist during her performance. The concert was held at a studio in Los Angeles and used VR and AR technologies to create an immersive interactive set. Tickets were...

The Bizarre world of Frank Zappa, was the name given to a 2019 world tour of a holographic in-person concert of Frank Zappa and his former band mates. Frank Zappa died in 1993 and the in-person experience allows the audience to experience live music from the remaining members of the band with a holographic image of Frank Zappa (and linked...

Blenheim palace (a UNESCO world heritage site) is a stately home belonging to the 12th Duke of Marlborough and birthplace of Winston Churchill. In response to the UK Covid restrictions, Blenheim offered a digital experience for visitors during the summer of 2020 through a series of ticketed events for seminars and virtual house tours. Experiences varied in price from £5...

Blindness is an in-person show / sound installation which has toured UK and US Theatre’s. The performance consists of a socially distanced lighting and audio show, where no actors appear on a stage. Audience members are given headphones to experience the recorded audio performance of an adaptation of dystopian novel by José Saramago while changing atmospheric lighting accompanies the performance....

Beginning in February 2021, Breathing space was an on-line 6 week Dance programme offered by the Cornish based Arts charity, Dance Centred. Participants were invited to take part via Zoom or for some events, attend a socially distanced outdoor space in person.

Bristol from home was a marketing campaign & micro-website created during the UK Covid lockdown 2020 by the Destination Management Organisation, Visit West (Destination Bristol team). The micro-site is accessed via the Visit Bristol website. This dedicated area, offered users a collection of information, virtual tours of some of Bristol’s attractions (for example SS Great Britain and We the curious...

C-o-n-t-a-c-t is an immersive digital outdoor (socially distanced) theatre performance. The ticketed event, requires audience members to download and access an app which delivers a 3D sound design (via headphones) while they follow performers in the street across a city space for the 50 minute show. The performance has had sell-out shows in London and Paris and was also presented...

Camp at Home was the branding given to a range of on-line workshops and courses, at the Arts Residences business, Camp. Normally offering residential courses and experiences at its venue in the Pyrenees, the business pivoted during 2020 to provide on-line courses to respond to the covid restrictions. Customers were offered a free on-line course if they booked an in-person...

Carnaby Echoes is a free walking tour app, created to help visitors explore the rich music history associated with the area in London. The app offers users audio, photography and video content to reveal stories and history through interviews and music connected to the venues, clothes shops, nightclubs and magazine offices that helped create the various sub-cultures of diverse musical...

Carrickfergus Castle AR Heritage Views is an experimental app for mobile apple devices that uses augmented reality to enable the user to travel back in time at various points around the Norman castle. Located in the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, the historic site attracted fewer visitors than the honeypot locations close by. Commisioned by the DMO,...

This is an AR enhanced in-place / walking tour of Changdeokgung Palace, Seoul, South Korea. Visitors to the Palace are invited to download an app which offers an interactive map of the site, plots routes and uses a mythical creature character (called Haechi) to help visitors discover the site and 12 unique interactive activities, such as, archery with the Joseon...

Cheltenham International Film Festival – ‘year round’ is the branding for the on-line version of the festival. Launched in 2019, the in-person even screened over 40 films at a number of venues as well as offering master classes and workshops in cinematic arts. In 2020, the Festival became the first international film festival in the UK to stream its entire...

In October 2020, Snapchat launched its Local Lens AR feature (as part of its app)- making it available to London’s Carnaby Street. The feature allows users to virtually paint buildings in blue or red. Anyone with the app can see others ‘painting’ and users can battle to cover the shops and buildings in their colours first.

The Climate Museum describes itself as ‘a mobile and digital museum creatively stirring and collecting responses to the Climate and Ecological Emergency’. This Community Interest Company (CIC) works in partnership with local physical museums to tell the story of climate change and offers talks & training, pop-up days and installations, temporary environmental interpretation of museum collections, events and curated outdoor...

Launched in 2016, Cluedupp provides geo-gaming experiences across city’s and towns in central and southern England. Players need to purchase a ticket to one their in-person event days at their chosen location (dress up if they wish) and download the app to play. Players use the app to solve puzzles and find witnesses (actors located across the town or city)...

Crafting the Mine – recreates the Lady Victoria Colliery in Scotland within the game platform Minecraft. Users can experience a 1:1 scale, historically accurate digital recreation of the Scottish mine and mini adventures to demonstrate life as a miner. Available as a free download for Minecraft for the PC, the on-line project is aimed at school aged learners.

Creativity in Crisis was a series of 8 digital arts projects delivered over the summer of 2020 by Northern Heartlands (an Arts charity located at Barnard Castle). The activities aimed to support the local community during the UK lockdown and ranged from learning to create Stop Motion Animation via a Zoom workshop and photography competitions through to live singing instruction...

In December 2020 the Royal Opera House presented the world’s first opera in hyper reality: Current, Rising. The 15 minuet experience was presented in the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre and ran from 19 December to 17 January. Visitors were issued with a headset and backpack and entered the performance space to experience VR, Multisensory sets, projections and avatars overlayed...

David Kwong is a US puzzle setter and Magician (known for setting the New York Times cross-word). During the Covid restrictions of 2020, he launched an interactive on-line show which mixed theatre with puzzles and game play. The ticketed on-line event ran from September 2020 to July 2021 and sold out. Platformed on Zoom, viewers could select to watch the...

Delirious Departures is a VR in-person experience created by the Belgian tech business CREW for the Royal Museums of Fine Art of Belgium. The installation transformed a room in the Museum into the departure hall of a railway station with visitors experiencing the sights, sounds and feelings of a train station including the conversations, service announcements, closing doors and passengers...

 disCONNECT was the name of a dual in-person and immersive digital art exhibition located in London and Hong Kong. The exhibition ran in its original London Townhouse space between 24 July – 24 August 2020 as a ticketed event on line and in-person event. It featured work from 10 artists, which were often site specific works located around the property...

Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities have created a web experience that allows visitors to select different time periods and destinations (monuments and museums) in which to view objects, photographs, video, text and 3D tours relating to them.

Displays Decoded by Alex Hirtzel was an in-person Art exhabition presented at the University of Bristol Botentic Gardens between July and October 2021. Augmented reality was used as part of the multi-media botnetanical theamed pieces, adding an additional layer to the work in conveying some of the scientific principles of pollenating flowers. Visitors were invited to access the AR via...

Dream was the title of the 50 minuet , online immersive theatre show presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company between the 12 and 20th March 2021. Based around Shakespeare’s, A Midsummers Night Dream and originally devised as an in-person work – the concept was re-imagined as an R&D project for a digital audience only. The show blended live performance (real...

In response to the covid restrictions in 2020, Durham Cathedral began streaming its services so worshipers could still access organised prayer. The cathedral continues to livestream via Facebook and has expanded its digital resources to include an on-line online Book of Remembrance, a YouTube channel and pastoral support services.

During 2020, the Edinburgh international festival moved on-line in response to covid restrictions. The festival was able to present 26 specially staged opera, classical and ballet performances involving about 500 artists, musicians and technical staff. Past in-person Edinburgh festival’s had typically attracted around 420,000 people but the 2020 digital festival reached to over 50 different countries and productions were viewed...

ENB at home is the branding used by The English National Ballet to describe its video and streaming services. The offer includes pay-to-view performances, shorts and documentaries available via its custom website – called Ballet on demand. Users can access the on-demand Library titles for a one off payment per title, which provides them with 3 day access. The organisation...

The Destination Management / Marketing Organisation for the Tees Valley area, Enjoy Tees Valley, offers a number or virtual visits as part of its website promoting visitor attractions in the region. Launched in 2020 in response to the UK Covid restrictions, a dedicated area of the website called ‘enjoy at home’ was created. This section as well as other areas...

Escape hunt is an international chain of escape rooms. During the COVID-19 the business pivoted to offer at home and outdoor games at various UK city locations. For the outdoor games, players were issued with an iPad and action pack and then play to solve puzzles against the clock (typically resulting in a code to unlock a pack or safe)....

FitXR is a Virtual fitness Studio – it works with the Oculus Quest headset and Quest 2 which allows users to experience immersive Dance, HITT and Boxing workouts on demand. New workouts are released daily and the app works on a monthly subscription basis.

Based in London, the empathy museum is billed as a traveling experimental museum which offers visitors an opportunity to foster a feeling of empathy. The Museum’s exhibit ‘ From where I’m standing’ offered visitors on-line and in-person, audio and photography portrait’s of the lives of 34 people during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. The individuals profiled included healthcare and shop works...

GamED Academy is a US based, education business offering an online platform delivering a range of learning experiences for children ages 5-18 to support educational development. Sessions are delivered virtually within the game platform Minecraft, creating an immersive learning environment. They offer one-off payment short courses or monthly subscription assess to assignment and Minecraft play sessions covering a range of...

The University of the Arts London (UAL) created a digital platform to host the final collections of fine art, photography, design and fashion for the graduates of its colleges. The website / platform was created in response to covid-19 restrictions during 2020

Established in 2019, the Guilford games festival is largely an on-line festival but also includes in-person discussion panels and events. The festival includes awards which are presented at an in-person event hosted at the Boiler room in Guildford, Surrey and livestreamed via Twitter, Twitch, Steam and Discord. In response to the covid restrictions of 2020, the festival was a fully...

Launched June 2019 by Niantic (makers of Pokémon Go), this AR (Augmented Reality) game allows users to experience and interact with characters, magical artefacts and creatures via their smartphone or tablet, as they visit physical locations. The game works in a very similar way to Pokemon Go and also integrates into health app’ss to record step count.

As a response to the 2020 restrictions to in-person experiences created by the Covid-19 restrictions, Hastings Contemporary launched virtual tours of its gallery to allow visitors to continue to experience its exhibitions. The bookable tours used a telepresence robot, known as the ‘Art droid’ or ‘the double’. The videoconferencing robot had been developed by the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the...

HeART of the Matter was the name given to a programme of speaker and discussion events for Artists and policy makers, hosted by Northern Heartlands (arts) charity. The original programme (which is an annual fixture in the organisation’s event calendar), had been planned as an in-person live event during April 2020. However, like many other events during that time period,...

In 2018 a collective of eight internet artists added their own AR art to the Jackson Pollock room in the New York City Museum of Modern Art. The Artists, branding themself MoMar, placed their own AR pieces over 7 Pollock originals without the museum’s permission. They pieces are available to view by anyone that has downloaded their MoMAR app, using...

Hidden Florence 3D is the name given to a free app developed by the National Gallery London with the University of Exeter, University of Cambridge and technology providers Calvium. Funded by the Getty Foundation and the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, the project used AR to bring to life the San Pier Maggiore church, which once stood in Florence,...

During April 2020 in response to the UK Covid restrictions and venue closure, Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) launched its programme of virtual events and content – Home from Home. Content was made available on the organisations microsite (part of its main website), Facebook and Instagram pages and through its Twitter account. Many performances were platformed on Vimeo, including a performance...

launched as a response to the UK Covid restrictions, Dundee Science Centre created a dedicated area on its website to offer a Digital learning programme aimed at students, schools and groups with exploring STEM topics. The programme offers a different topic each week which is presented as a series of videos presented by members of the Dundee team, PDF Worksheets...

Somerset House is a working arts centre in London and home to a number of creative enterprises from the British fashion council to magazine publication and public cultural and arts events. During the Covid restrictions of 2020/21 the organisation increased its online events offer, branding it ‘I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now’. The online cultural programme was launched...

Immersive TV was the name given to a broadcast studio set up in Glasgow during the Covid restrictions in 2020. The studio was created by the owners of an established Glasgow in-person venue with the aim of offering Musicians, comedians and entertainers the opportunity to perform in front of a live, virtual audience. The studio featured a greenscreen backdrop and...

In Gravesham footsteps is a app assisted family walking trail in Gravesend, Kent. QR codes have been made available at 14 locations across the town centre which visitors can access using their mobile phone or tablet camera. The app uses atmospheric sounds, maps and audio stories to tell the story of place and augmented reality to reveal the secrets of...

Lakia is a short animated VR film which premiered at the BFI London Film festival in October 2021. The Audience were able to access the film at in in-person London venue and via The Expanse – the virtual exhibition space created to house the London Film Festival’s ‘Expanded’ XR and immersive art program.

Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield closed during the UK Covid lockdown and in response created a digital space to continue to bring productions to audiences. The micro-site was branded LBTV. Among the productions on offer, would-be theatre goers had the opportunity to purchase a £10 ticket per household for Nigel Slater’s TOAST which had been re-imagined as part radio play...

Branded as LFF Expanded, BFI London film festival have created a dedicated film strand for virtual reality, extended reality, augmented and mixed realities, immersive and 360° experiences. The London film festival is an annual event, offering visitors the opportunity to see premiers at screenings around London and at selected nationwide venues. During 2020, the festival moved on-line with many films...

Lovecraft Country is US horror drama television series. As part of its promotion, a series of three short virtual reality events were created by the Mill. Accessed via social VR platform VRChat and livestreamed on YouTube during September and October 2020 – Audience members were able to talk and interact with each other within the environment.

Manchester International Festival is an 18-day multi Arts & Culture event, staged every two years. The 2021 event embraced an on-line element as well as an offer of in-person experiences across the city. Branded as MIF ONLINE, the Festival website presents a wide range of digital experiences to visitors, many free of charge. The digital offer includes on-demand video, Zoom...

Launched in February 2021, the National Geographic’s Instagram account offered its audience a AR experience of the NASA Perseverance rover. By moving their phone, users of the AR app are able to experience a 360 view of Mars (from the perspective of the rover) and by using the selfie view, see a shoulder to shoulder picture with the rover –...

The electronic dance musician Marshmello, performed a live concert in February of 2019 in the popular on-line game space, Fortnite. More than 10 million players viewed the performance within the game space itself and more viewing via Twitch or watching recordings on YouTube. The performance took place on a virtual stage and with changing 360 immersive view visuals and lighting...

Mercury Online was the branding given to Mercury theatre (Colchester) programme of digital activity during the venue’s 2020 closure. In August 2020, The Mercury launched a Digital Theatre and Performance Festival which included a competition for song writing (promoted by Tim Minchin), the opportunity for local creatives to contribute artistic content (Dance, Music, Poetry/Spoken Word, Animation & film, Cabaret, Virtual...

Mine, was the tile of a theatre show which has run both in Canada and the UK since 2018. Aimed at a wide ranging audience from 11 years upwards, the show uses Minecraft as a backdrop / set and medium to tell the story of different mother-son narratives with actors delivering a live (largely verbal) performance in front of the...

Miranda is a live, VR performance where audience members were able to join via their own PC, Oculus Rift or HTC Vive headsets or watch livestreamed version via YouTube. The performance was ticketed and delivered in real time by actors wearing motion sensors capture devices. Performed in US during September 2020, some media coverage suggests that the production was first...

The Mirror Home Gym system is a digitally enabled full length mirror. The mirror is overlayed with live streaming or video library content for users to engage in various exercise routines remotely. The subscription based experience includes Yoga, HIT and Latin & Ballet based workouts and allows users to ensure they are effectively repeating and following the movements presented to...

Monster Hero Safari 2020 is an app created by a CIC (Community Interest Company) which aimed to drive footfall to UK highstreets following the UK covid lockdown and to raise finance for the NHS, Charities Together. The organisation offered free access to the walking tour packs for the first 110 locations which signed up. A ‘safari pack’ could be purchased...

The Movie Magic Tour is an audio (walking) tour curated by Film London and produced by Geotourist (a technology business offering a walking tour app). The free tour can be accessed via Geotourist app or from the movie magic website. It offers users audio for 12 locations across London used for filming and provides stories about various movies they have...

The Moving Layers project was an R&D based project to explore the use of layered-reality with dance. The project concluded with a performance where audience members watched live performers while wearing a HoloLens headset, allowing them to see the actual dancing overlaid with the created imagery being played back in the headset. A video describing the project and performance is...

Musement is part of the TUI group and is an On-line Travel Agency for attraction tickets, tour bookings and guided audio tours. In response to the Covid restrictions in 2020, the booking platform pivoted to offer virtual tours and remote experiences to consumers. The product offer varies from immersive (pre-recorded) video walking tours, livestreamed private walking tours through to live...

A dedicated micro-site, branded ‘Museums at Home’ hosts the digital offer from the York Museum Trust. Like many museums during the closures of 2020, a dedicated web space was created but is not readily accessible from the main website landing page (a search is required to locate it). The microsite included links to other pages offering visitors 360 views from...

In July 2020 as a response to the black lives matter movement in the UK (and covid restrictions), The Royal Court – a theatre venue in London – presented its on-line festival, My white friend (and other letters left unsaid). Running over a week, a daily livestreamed performance included a pre-recorded reading of a letter by Rachel De-Lahay alongside two...

The Virtual Classroom is the branding given to a number of live workshops delivered by Liverpool Museums. They are aimed at Primary and Secondary age students (key stages 1-3) led by the Museum and hosted via Teams. Each workshop / learning experience is supported by resources and activities that can be used before and after the session, including art and crafts templates and fact sheets about...

In April 2020 a PR and content campaign branded ‘National Theatre at Home’ was launched. It offered the public (and would-be patrons) a series of live filmed past performances from the National Theatre (London), available on its dedicated YouTube channel and a micro-site from its existing website. The performances were available free of charge but for a limited time only....

Launched in May 2020, the Natural History Museum (NHM) opened its micro-site called Virtual Museum – 13 ways you can explore from home. Users could access a range of media from slideshows, video and text to 360 tours of different areas of the Museum. The website also enabled visitors to browse a digital library, undertake quiz’s and take part in...

Northern Heartlands is an Arts centre in Barnard Castle, Co Durham. As a response to Covid restrictions a dedicated area of its website was curated to showcase a number of its projects, including a community Opera and various workshops, speaker events and interactions with its supporters.

The Notting Hill Carnival moved on line during the 2020 Covid-19 restrictions. Branded as ‘access all areas’, the 3 day long, on-line event offered visitors pre-recorded live sets from musicians, an online version of the parade, guides for people to create Caribbean food at home and interviews with mads groups (Mads group is the term used to describe the how...

On Zoom was launched (in beta) during 2020 as a platform and marketplace for a range of on-line experiences and events. Available to the US market only, it mirrors other on-line ticket and tourism business by offering visitors experiences from Yoga and guided meditation through to Pizza making but unlike similar platforms, there are also regular community based events such...

Otherworld is an immersive entertainment venue in London which offer visitors a VR experience on a free roam VR island. As well as a VR headset, visitors enter into a private Immersion Pod space which use heat, wind and rumble / vibration to heighten the realism & immersive nature of the experience. Visitors and can enjoy experiences as a group...

Over Lunan was an in-person open air, experience which ran from 9 – 19 September 2021. located in dunes of Lunan Bay in Angus, Scotland – the evening outdoor production mixed theatre, sound and light installations and live music to convey the history and mythology associated with Lunan Bay and described by its creators as sound and visual promenade performance....

To celebrate 25 years of Pokémon, the Pokémon company ran a virtual concert event, accessed via YouTube, the Pokémon website, Pokémon go app and twitch. The concert took place on February 27th 2021 and was headlined by Post Malone, an American singer/ musician who appeared as a virtual version of himself, delivering performances in a variety of Pokémon inspired environments....

This AR (Augmented Reality) game allows users to view and interact with cartoon-based charters via a smartphone or tablet, as they visit physical locations. The Game manufacturer (Niantic) offers sponsorship or ‘partner’ opportunities to organisations who want to increase visits to particular locations. In 2019, this sponsorship opportunity was extended to small business.

Portal AR is an Augmented Reality app which allows users to explore Scotland. The app is a result of the partnership between a number of organisations promoting Scotland, including Visit Scotland, Talent Scotland and Scotland.org. The app allows users to experience 360 videos and images for a range of locations in Scotland. The app was launched in 2018.

This Google-Arts / web based project offers video, visual stills, text and a 3D model to ‘visitors’. The project allows users to explore locations in former war zones and rebel held territory which are historically significant including the UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus, guerrilla held areas of the Colombian jungle and French villages abandoned during World War One (WWI).

ReadThrough was launched in 2020 in response to the closure of theatres and Covid restrictions. The service offered live online workshops to provide professional readings of plays and prose adaptations of exam-body texts for students (principally aimed at GCSE and A-level). The service appeared to be open to discussion regarding pricing and invited schools to get in touch. The service...

The Redemption Room was an on-line immersive thriller/horror/ theatre experience which ran between February and March 2021. It was created by the Secret Theatre Project (an immersive theatre business). The audience for the show were able to access the event via Zoom and decide the fate of six contestants as they compete and seek redemption for their societal crime by...

Rushtix is a US based virtual comedy club. Developed during the restrictions of covid in 2020, this on-line streaming platform allows for a degree of audience interaction and for performers to hear some audience audio feedback (from select audience members who can join by conferencing software). Performances are specifically designed for an on-line audience and each show is ticketed at...

The Salisbury trails app is a free location-aware app which assists users to explore the catherdral city of Salisbury. Commisioned by Wiltshire council, the app offers a number of theamed trails, for example ‘Medieval Meanderings’ and ‘Witchcraft, Riots and Treason’ which offer users written and pictorial information as well as audio and video content to help visitors discover the city...

Sandbox is a VR experience business with venues in several US city’s, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. VR experiences are aimed at groups of up to 6 people where you can see and physically interact with others. Visitors are given headset, backpack and 3d body trackers and can choose from a selection of worlds to explore.

In response to the Covid restrictions of 2020, the Scottish Ballet invested in the creation of a 1 hour film created for an on-line audience as its Christmas performance. Branded as ‘The Secret Theatre: A Christmas Special’, tickets were available from 21 December 2020 (the premier) for just 3 days and with a link emailed to viewers ahead of the...

Secret city trails are a Portuguese based self-guided walking tour & experience business. Users can choose from ‘Discovery Walks’ and ‘Wonder Walks’ accessed via an app on a range of pay for options. Discovery walks are self-guided, in-person, location specific city walking tours. They are available for around 65 different European city locations and offer users a gamification element to...

Secret Country is the title of a theatre production by Re-live. rehearsed during the UK Covid restrictions via Zoom, the production was performance by 9 older people, sharing their experiences of Covid-19 and life in lockdown. It was performed live via Zoom between 16th and 18th of December 2020 and is available as an on-demand video from the Re-live website.

Clio Muse are an on-line travel business. Established in 2014, they offer self-guided audio tours (some including interactive maps and text) and advance e-ticket purchase in a number of European destinations. During the Covid pandemic the platform pivoted to accelerate its offer of virtual / remote tours, converting 23 of their most popular audio walking tours to work as a...

Originally an in-person immersive activity, this escape room / theatre event was pivoted to become a 80-minute on-line experience in order to continue during the covid restrictions. The live on-line experience ran for 3 weeks from the 27th of January 2021 and used Zoom as its delivery platform. Audience members were able to interact with live actors and digitally explore...

Song of Our Heartland’ is an opera, created and performed by the Northern Heartlands Community Opera. At its inception it was intended to be performed in front of a in-person audience, but Covid restrictions required the project to be reworked to become a filmed, online version. Rehearsals for the project took place virtually throughout the summer 2020 and the finished...

This 360 degree tour of the historical stone circle allows users to view the monument laptop and choose to click on particular areas (or hotspots) that take them to video information about the feature. Visitors can also click to get a live-streamed view of the sky above the stones.

Story of the Forest is an immersive, AR installation at the National Museum of Singapore. The installation presents 69 images from the William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings. Visitors to the in-person exhibition are invited to download an app for their use their phone or tablet to explore the paintings and hunt and collect plants and animals from around...

Planned for 2022, Story Trails is an AR / VR experience taking place in 15 UK towns and cities to tell the story of place. Users will download a free App, beginning their experience in the local library at the Story Trails Portal and then exploring (on foot) the local streets. The app will guide users with imagery and audio,...

Launched in September 2020, Steam Theatre is an on-line platform for streaming pre-recorded and live UK and Broadway theatre productions. Described as a virtual stage, some productions are specifically for a digital audience. The customised website allows visitors to purchase tickets for on-demand-viewing.

Street Art is a Google hosted digital project offering visitors to the website audio and 360 view tours of street art from around the world. The website also hosts ‘exhibitions’ of street art – which consist largely a collection of photographs with little accompanying interpretation.

StreetMuseum was launched in 2010 and is an AR app that allows the viewer to see London of the past at a number of locations in London. The app offers users a map and GPS functionality to find the locations and the “3D View” button will then overlay a historical photograph over the live video feed of the real world....

Studio 2054 was the name for a livestreamed concert performed by the English singer Dua Lipa. The show took place in November 2020 and featured several well known artists including Kylie Minogue and Elton John. In response to the twice cancelled tour dates, the performance was crafted and broadcast during the UK covid restrictions. The show used a number of...

Supernatural VR is a VR fitness app (available to US and Canadian customers) offering subscribers on demand and livestreamed fitness workouts. Accessed via the Oculus quest headset – the app is available in the App store and Google Play

Templecraft was a digital arts project Commissioned by Artichoke and The Space (Arts charities). It recreated a version of one of American Artist, David Best’s Temples in Minecraft. David Best is known for creating large timber temple structures (which are set on fire and burnt) at the Burning Man festival and in 2015 was commissioned to produce a work in...

The blob opera is a web area on the Google Arts & Culture platform that allows users to create their own opera sounds by dragging each of the four ‘blob’ characters up or down on the screen to change the pitch of their voice. It requires no musical skill by the user and is actually the result of a machine...

In response to the Covid pandemic, the Edinburgh Book Festival created a fully digital event in August 2020. The on-line festival offered 147 live and pre-recorded events which included, book readings, real-time chatrooms, live author Q&As, virtual book signings & on-line selfies. Audience members able to ‘que’ in a virtual waiting room. Online forums allowed authors to interact with their...

The England Originals is a free to use, travel app offering users an 3D model (called Tabletop Tours) of 16 historic UK destinations, a directory of hospitality businesses & attractions and when in-destination, offers access to AR content. The tabletop tours element is aimed at audience’s who are planning their visit of the relevant destinations and allows users to place...

The Fabric of Reality was a fully immersive fashion show, hosted by the virtual Museum of Other Realities (MOR). The 2020 event showcased the work of three designers and audiences could attend the launch event both in VR and online formats. The Fashion Innovation Agency (part of London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London) provides a case study...

The Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is a virtual, immersive Art exhibition curated and based on the Music by the UK band, Radiohead. The virtual exhibition has been published by Epic Games and listed as a ‘game’ on the PlayStation Store but is not in anyway a game. Having been originally conceived as an in-person experience to celebrate 21 years since the release...

The London Stone Trilogy, is a three part conspiracy thriller developed as 3 separate online theatre / gaming experiences (called, Plymouth Point, The Mermaids Tongue & The Kindling Hour). Designed as an at-home experience for a team of 2-6 people who are not physically together, the experience knits together pre-recorded video with live video conferencing. Visitors take part in a...

In January 2020, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and Verizonan(A US Tech business) launched an immersive virtual art and gaming experience. The exhibition featured 12 digitally rendered galleries and around 50 works of art from across The Met’s collection. Some of the on-line games unlocked augmented reality (AR) versions of the art on show. The show is no-longer...

This Google Culture hosted (WebGL (Web Graphics Library) technology) web experience allows visitors to move around (via a mouse) and select periods in history to view selected objects from the British Museums collection. The website offers users Audio files, Photographs and text .

This virtual tour of the National Gallery in London, launched in 2016, allows users to access the museum virtually using Google Streetveiw style navigation. It also offers users to access ‘stories / further information associated with particular exhibits. For 15 exhibits, users can use their mouse to scroll informative text and zoom-in on specific elements of the paintings.

In response to the covid closures, Arts centre, The Old Courts pivoted some of its productions and activities to an on line forum. Part of its website and YouTube channel, branded ‘The Old Courts Live’ the centre broadcast live performances, workshops, tutorials, seminars and V-logs. Beyond Covid restrictions, the arts centre has continued to stream some events & productions.

Like many other theatres during the 2020 UK Covid restrictions, The Old Vic moved to digital content provision. Visitors were offered ticketed live streamed performances from its stage (to an empty auditorium). Tickets were priced at £10, £20, £30 and £40 with limited availability of each category and a link to access the performance was emailed to ticketholders. Alongside the...

The Panic Room is one of many examples of how popular physical escape room businesses have pivoted and expanded to an online format as a result of Covid. The Panic Room offers visitors a range of escape games that can be played on-line with family or friends via video calling platforms such as Zoom and Teams. Games are offered as...

In response to the UK Covid restrictions in 2020, The Royal Opera House (ROH) created 3 events which were live streamed specifically for a virtual audience. The first performance, live from Covent garden (on the 13th of June 2020) was available to view free of charge and consisted of 45 minute of musical performances and ballet. Subsequent performance’s (which ran...

The Soho Theatre in London responded to the UK restrictions with the creation of a micro-site offering pay-to-view comedy and theatre performances. The majority of performances were priced at £4 during the lockdown period and included some high profile performers such as Nish Kumar and Shappie Khorsandi. Pay-to-view recorded performances continued into 2021, with prices ranging from £4 to £7....

The Under Presents: Tempest is a live, VR re-imaged performance inspired by Shakespeare’s, The tempest. Accessed via Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest headsets the 40 minuet ticketed experience was performed throughout July 2020 and March 2021. Each performance features a live performance by a professionally-trained stage actor (wearing motion sensor capture technology, as they guide the virtual audience through a...

In August 2020 the Canadian R&B pop musician, The Weekend, staged an virtual livestreamed concert via TikTok. The artist appeared as a avatar with a number of guests as part of the musical line up. At some points during the concert fans were able to influence the performance when they were able to vote via the comments in order to...

Tomorrowland – around the world is a digital version of the annual Electronic Dance Music festival (normally held in Boom, Belgium and the winter event in the French Alps) . Pivoting to a digital format during 2020 an 2021, the virtual festival offered various stages that featured different styles of Dance music, mirroring the in-person experience. The event offered audience...

Travel Curious is a UK based tour operator providing private city tours internationally. During the 2020 Covid lockdown, the business created a microsite to accommodate its free of charge and donation based virtual walking tours – these are live events users can join remotely, asking questions if they wish and are able to watch a recording of later (which is...

In April 2020, the US rapper Travis Scott performed a live concert in the popular on-line game space, Battle Royal (part of the Fortnite game). More than 12 million players attended or viewed the performance which took place on a virtual stage with changing 360 immersive view visuals. In February 2019, electronic dance music artist Marshmello also performed to Fortnite...

The Unfolding Shrines exhibition was launched in 2021 and presents the work of 4 artists in augmented reality. Available via smartphone app, views can experience the different pieces and galleries by either physically moving around or via a set of transportation buttons dotted around within the virtual gallery.

Unreal City at Home is an exhibition of augmented reality (AR) art work in London, which ran from 12 January 2021 to 9 February 2021. The public exhibition consisted of 36 sculptures arranged as a walking tour along the River Thames, South Bank. Sculptures were placed above lifebuoys on the riverside railings between the National Theatre at Waterloo Bridge and...

The Victoria & Albert Museum, Dundee increased its digital content as a response to the closures caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. The museum used Instagram to livestream discussion as part of its series called Design in the Diaspora: Digital Content Creation. This 2020 project considered the multidimensionality of people, their stories and career journeys from diasporic communities across Scotland....

The Van Gough immersive experience is an in-person exhibition that offers visitors floor-to-ceiling projections and 369 degree view of the artist’s works. The attraction also provides a Virtual Reality experience opportunity. Visitors are given a headset and experience a 10 minute virtual journey through “A day in the life of the Artist” to discover the inspiration behind eight of Van...

The Van Gogh alive exhibition is an in-person experience running in a number of locations across the UK, Europe and US. It offers visitors an immersive in-person experience using projected Van Gogh works, moving images, music and fragrance through a series of galleries including a mirrored room that contains hundreds of sunflowers.

Virgin Experience days is a well established in-person ticket activity provider. Online experiences were already part of the business’s offer, but the impact of Covid19 accelerated the expansion of this element. During 2020 there was a particular increase in virtual tours and destination audio tours. Initially many of these did not include live experiences but more typically a course based...

The Burning Man festival is well established in-person multi-arts festival held annually in the United States. The festival pivoted to an on-line event in response to Covid and ran during August 30th to September 6th, 2020. The part free & part pay-for access allowed visitors to experience the Burning Man festival online and in virtual spaces of eight ‘Recognized Universes’....

Virtual Collaborators was founded in 2020, supported by the Arts Council funding and partnering with a number to creative groups – the organisation bought together over 50 actors, writers and directors during the UK lockdown period. Creating online, the group formed teams of 1 actor, 1 director and 1 writer to create new theatre. The project resulted in a series...

Virtual Helsinki is billed as the digital twin of the Finish city. Launched in December 2021, it offers users the opportunity to take a virtual tour of Helsinki and visit some of its attractions. Using the app, users can also tour the city as it was in the early 20th century, enter a virtual store and purchase Finish design products...

In response to Covid 19 pandemic and the 2020 restrictions, Edinburgh’s New Year Celebrations were moved online as a virtual Hogmanay. The event offered viewers 3 films involving choreographed LED drones and were streamed on 29th, 30th and 31st of December.

In response to the restrictions bought about by the Covid pandemic, The City of Helsinki teamed up with a tech/VR businesses – Zoan, to create a virtual concert to celebrate the 2020 May Day. The concert was inspired by past events hosted by the Gaming space Fortnite with the concept of participants being able to choose an avatar and experience...

The Destination Management Organisation, Visit Finland has a dedicated area on its website for tourists to virtually visit the country via links to various 360 photography, audio files, maps video and VR for numerous landmarks, attractions and destinations in the country.

Viator is an international travel business offering bookable activities and experiences. In addition to its in-person experiences ticket service, the business also offers ‘virtual’ experiences which visitors can undertake from home. Live online experiences use video conferencing software and offer an extensive range of activities and tours from hundreds of worldwide locations. Everything from Cookery classes and stitching traditional Catalan...

As local attractions closed during the Covid restrictions of 2020/21 – Visit Belfast created a dedicated web page to home a collection of virtual tours for a number of the City’s attractions. In addition to the 360 and google map tours offered by Ulster Museum, Belfast castle and City hall, the page also promoted the weekly livestreamed ‘History of the...

The website for Visit Orlando offers users a selection of virtual visits via a 360 aerial map of the area and a live holiday chat channel (available on every page). Promotional videos for each attraction are embedded into a map of the region, together with a selection of 360 virtual visits, audio, VR and video experiences of specific areas or...

The Destination Management Organisation (DMO), Visit Faroe Islands, offered virtual tours of the islands during the 2020 Covid restrictions. During 2020 the Islands were closed to tourists and between April 15th and June 17th, Twenty-two virtual tours were offered. Those lucky enough to have booked a virtual tour were able to visit the Islands via a livestream tour provided by...

We dance as one was a set of 3 livestreamed events (Oct 30, Nov 27 and 31st December) available on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. The events were presented by a Dance & House label, Defected Records and featured DJs streaming sets live from their home studios or from local clubs.

Starting at midnight on the 31st of December 2020, the French Electronic Music artist, Jean-Michel Jarre performed a free VR concert called Welcome to the other side. The concert was performed in a virtual Notre Dame Cathedral and available to access via the VRChat and Oculus Venues platforms, where users were able to interact with each other in the virtual...

Wildeverse is a AR app which allows users to track real wild animals and carry out conservation challenges. Supported by a number of Zoos and conservation charities, it provides players with information about different animal species and offers over 70 missions to complete. The aim of the free app is to encourage individuals to become aware and invested in protecting...