University of Glasgow research shows audiences' demand for virtual reality

Image: courtesy of the University of Glasgow

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Professor Murray Pittock will be joining our 'Cultural Cities' discussion this March. He has been leading a global survey which has uncovered strong public interest for using virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) technologies to access museum collections, according to the Museum of Glasgow.

The £5.6m Museums in the Metaverse (MiM) project at the University of Glasgow surveyed more than 2,000 people worldwide, and found 79% of respondents expressed interest in using digital technology to explore collections currently unavailable to the public.

Funded by UK Research and Innovation, MiM is developing an XR platform to showcase cultural heritage collections. With an estimated 90% of collections held in storage globally, digitising archives is seen as a way to broaden public engagement and increase accessibility. 

The University of Glasgow commented:

'The survey also revealed high levels of awareness regarding VR technology, with 96% of respondents being familiar with it and 55% have engaged with it in some form. VR provides a fully immersive digital experience, often accessed through headsets, while XR is an umbrella term that encompasses all immersive technologies.'

Murray Pittock, pro-vice principal of special projects at the University of Glasgow and co-author of the report, said:

“Our research reveals a clear appetite for immersive digital experiences, with people eager to interact with cultural artefacts in new and exciting ways. This shift in public expectations is already visible in the growing popularity of virtual reality cultural spaces globally, and our findings at Glasgow are helping chart a course for how museums can embrace this digital future.”

Under the MiM project, the University of Glasgow unveiled a VR exhibition celebrating the pioneering scientist Lord Kelvin. The exhibition features objects not normally on public display, presented within a digitally recreated, historically accurate 19th-century laboratory.

It states:

'The study also highlighted the potential of XR technology to attract younger audiences, with previous virtual projects having engaged large numbers of 25 to 34-year-olds.'

In 2023, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris launched its immersive VR experience, Tonight with the Impressionists, Paris 1874, to record success, drawing 18,000 visitors in just five months. Using VR headsets, audiences engaged with artists and their famous works, including Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. 

Fergus Bruce, report co-author and research associate in digital culture and heritage economy for MiM, said:

“Our research here – conducted over several months and drawn from a diverse audience sample of thousands of cultural heritage enthusiasts – demonstrates a clear appetite for virtual access and engagement with collections. These are important findings for any collections or custodians looking to increase the reach, impact, and sustainability of the cultural materials they hold.”

MiM is due to be completed in March 2025, and will launch an innovative two-sided XR platform. One side will allow visitors to explore cultural assets through immersive experiences, while the other will enable curators – both experts and novices – to craft new narratives by combining objects and virtual environments in ways not possible in the physical world. 

Murray Pittock (MA D.Litt. Glasgow; D.Phil Oxford) is Bradley Professor and Pro Vice-Principal. He has worked at the universities of Manchester (where he was the first professor of Scottish literature at an English university), Edinburgh, Oxford, Aberdeen and Strathclyde, and has held visiting appointments at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (2002), New York University (Visiting Professor of English, 2015); Charles University, Prague (Ministry of Education Visiting Professor in Languages, 2010), Trinity College, Dublin (Visiting Professor in English and History, 2008), Auburn (History and Equality and Diversity, 2006), Notre Dame (NEH seminar visiting scholar in Irish Studies, 2014), USC (Roy Lecturer in Scottish Studies, 2015) and Yale (Senior Warnock Fellow, 1998 and 2000-1).

Murray is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the English Association, the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Arts and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland among other bodies, and an honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. Murray's books are set on courses in English, History, Irish Studies, theology and politics in around twenty-five countries, and he has been awarded or shortlisted/nominated for a number of literary and historical prizes and prize lectureships. He is one of the few UK academics to be a prize lecturer of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British Academy, and has acted as an external assessor for chairs and grants from the Ivy League to the Middle East. Murray is Scottish History Adviser to the National Trust for Scotland, has acted as adviser to the National Galleries and has held grants in English, History, Museology, Tourism and the creative economy. In 2014, he became the founding convenor of the International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures, and remains chair of its Trustees.

His most recent books include Enlightenment in a Smart City: Edinburgh’s Civic Development 1660-1750 (supported by AHRC and Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2018); The Scots Musical Museum (supported by AHRC, 2 vols, 2018); Culloden (History Today top 10 titles of the year, House of Commons reading list and Herald book choice, 2016, reprinted 2017); The Reception of Robert Burns in Europe (supported by AHRC, 2014); The Road to Independence? Scotland in the Balance (2014, 1st edition nominated for Orwell Prize, Daily Telegraph referendum reading choice); Material Culture and Sedition (Saltire Research Book of the Year shortlist, 2014); Scottish and Irish Romanticism (supported by AHRC, paperback, 2011); The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Romanticism (2011); Robert Burns and Global Culture (supported by AHRC, 2011).

Murray has won almost 20 grants to work on cultural and public memory, Jacobitism and the redefining of national Romanticisms.

Murray has appeared in the UK and overseas media in over 50 countries on some 1500 occasions to comment on history, literature and current affairs, including scripting and presenting radio series ( The Roots of Scottish Nationalism -Radio 4, 6.25M aggregate audience, 81% UK wide approval rating) and has co-curated a number of exhibitions. He regularly acts as a consultant to national institutions. Murray supervises PhDs in the areas of Burns, Cultural History, Irish Studies, Jacobitism, Romanticism, Scott, Scottish Studies and other fields.