What is it?
Visions of Nature is a new mixed reality experience at the Natural History Museum – which basically translates into meaning that you wander around the NHM’s Spirit Collection wearing a headset with a clear visor which superimposes computer generated images on what’s physically there, with an accompanying commentary that plays out via headphones.
How much does it cost?
It’s £9.95 for a little under 20 minutes, which is certainly pretty pricey as a destination in and of itself, though given it’s part of a gigantic spectacular museum that is largely free, I think we can be reasonably tolerant on this score. Certainly if you’re making your third trip of the year to the Nastural History Museum, it’s a good pepper upper. It also adds a bit of pizzazz to the Spirit Gallery, aka one of those far flung bits of the museum’s Orange Zone, that few visitors ordinarily make it to.
What happens?
The presentation is a curious mix of the chipper and the despairing, seeking to offer us a realistic vision of global biodiversity in 100 years’ time, but in a weirdly comforting way. Our enthusiastic narrator is named Hope, which is an apt description of her general vibe, although she does kick off by telling us that come 2125, global warming has very much happened and about 10 percent of species on the planet have died out.
It’s a curious mix of the chipper and the despairing
We’re shown cool little visual vignettes of what might be left: beginning with a Scottish Highlands where lynx have been reintroduced, we take a little trip around a world turned upside down. Yes, in the Caribbean the coral reefs are all dead – but not in the colder Atlantic, where humans of the future are even helping them breed. It’s a big shame that the Arctic ice is no more – but at least this gives beluga whales and narwhals more opportunities to breed with each other, which is apparently a thing (a ‘narluga’). And yes, animals are kind of screwed generally, but at least conservation efforts have by and large stabilised smaller populations.
Is it any good?
To be honest it’s quite a lot for what’s really a very short film, and there’s an odd tension between the soothing tone, the matter of fact account of what climate change will probably look like (no keeping 1.5 alive here), and the jaunty enthusiasm for the mixed reality technology that means we’re constantly being asked to stretch out our hands so a virtual frog or firefly or whatever can jump on it. Visions of Nature is an intriguing curio that brings together several good ideas that would have been better served by being given a lot more room to breathe. But if you’ve got a sense of curiosity about our terrifying future and a tenner burning a hole in your pocket, it’s well worth the hike into the depths of the Orange Zone.
