The Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle was one of the first cultural venues to open a permanent exhibition space dedicated to virtual reality. Stéphanie Targui was the driving force behind the museum’s decision to integrate VR into its programming, and she tells us about their great adventure: LIFE CHRONICLES, the first co-production between a museum and Emissive – Excurio (HORIZON OF KHUFU, ETERNAL NOTRE-DAME, TONIGHT WITH THE IMPRESSIONISTS). Since October 2023, more than just one room, an entire gallery at the Muséum has been hosting this “large scale” format, and other spaces in other cities in France and abroad will soon follow.
Read our previous interview with Fabien Baratti (Emissive – Excurio)
The role of digital technology at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle
Stéphanie Targui – I’ve already had a career spanning more than 20 years at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, where I started out as editorial webmaster for the mnhn.fr website after studying cultural mediation and new technologies. Museums and culture have always attracted me. I “grew up” in the institution and gradually added new skills to my position, which led me to create a team to develop the Museum’s online digital ecosystem. Between 2004 and 2020, we built up a media platform of around a hundred websites and social networks, and managed their editorial content. In parallel, I developed the Museum’s first VR project in 2017 as a “side project”. Since 2021, I’ve been fully dedicated to digital and audiovisual innovation and transmedia projects. I now also work in situ : in our museums, gardens, zoos, or outside the walls – on projects that are innovative editorially, technologically, experientially, or economically. The aim of this mission remains the same: to share the story of nature with as many people as possible, and to raise awareness and engage our audiences in its preservation.
S. T. – For over 3 centuries, the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle has been a research center of excellence, studying the Earth and living things from the most remote periods of the past to the present day, and questioning our future, with over 500 researchers on site. Like other museums around the world, we share our knowledge while working to conserve biodiversity and our natural and cultural heritage. Some 2,500 employees, researchers, caretakers, librarians, taxidermists, collection managers, engineers, veterinarians, museologists… work tirelessly within our walls and in the field. The Muséum is the museum of hyper-reality, of the reality in which we live: our scientists describe and analyze the living, the real. Our scientists describe and analyze the living, the real. Their work is a benchmark in many scientific fields. What’s more, the Muséum also has exhibition sites in Paris (Jardin des Plantes link, Musée de l’Homme link, Parc zoologique de Paris link) and 10 other sites in France link. And these venues evolve with the latest trends and innovations to meet their audiences, and build events that show visitors the full richness of the natural world.
Virtual reality in the service of life
S. T. – I’ve always sought to create new forms of digital and audiovisual devices by associating the Museum with creative, editorial and technological partners and talents. For example, with FranceTV Nouvelles Ecritures, in 2014, and Voyelle Acker at the time, around the reopening of the Parc zoologique de Paris and an editorial collection around Adeline the giraffe: her app on tablet (link), her Twitter / X(link). Or Darjeeling Prod and Femme fatale studio for the production of websites inviting web users to ask our scientists their questions. And Orange in particular, who helped us in 2015 to develop a mobile application for the Musée de l’Homme aimed at young audiences (link), then a MOOC on the origins of Man (link). These devices enriched the Museum’s mediation offering, and the public embraced them. As digital technology evolved, I naturally became interested in virtual reality in 2016. Orange Labs was working on the subject at the time, and it seemed appropriate to explore the idea of developing a first VR cultural mediation device with them.
S. T. – This project was VOYAGE AU CŒUR DE L’ÉVOLUTION (link): an immersive representation of the Tree of Life. A spherical tree, whose branches represent time. At the center is LUCA (for “Last Universal Common Ancestor”), and at the end of the branches are examples of contemporary species, including Homo sapiens. Visitors can go back in time and understand which species is closer to which – and thus understand the uniqueness of all living things. It’s an emblematic project, as the theory of evolution is at the heart of both our research and social debates. At the time, the project was led by Jean Leborgne at the Muséum, with Armelle Pasco and Abla Benmiloud Faucher at Orange, Manzalab in charge of production.
S. T. – The production of this first project led us to think of a room dedicated to VR, as the installation of this “single user” experience on the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution route would not have been optimal in terms of visitor flow. In December 2017, with my colleagues Cyril Roguet, then Director of the Jardin des Plantes Galleries, and Marie Wacrenier, Head of the Museographic and Technical Management Department, who led the museographic development project (with the Maskarade agency as Project Manager), we inaugurated the CABINET DE RÉALITÉ VIRTUELLE. Thereafter, I pursued the production, co-production or rights acquisition of new VR content for the Virtual Reality Cabinet: GÉANTS DISPARUS with Chuck Productions and French Connection Films (link), LADY SAPIENS co-produced by Little Big Story, Ubisoft and France TV (link), THE STARRY SAND BEACH – our first VR co-production with Lucid Realities (link). Every project we’ve worked on has been a learning experience.
S. T. – REVIVRE co-produced with SAOLA (in augmented reality – link) and L’ODYSSÉE SENSORIELLE co-produced with Sensory Odissey (link) are two other ambitious projects to be launched at the Museum in 2021. They have been steered by my colleagues in other departments: REVIVRE, by Marie Wacrenier, and L’ODYSSEE SENSORIELLE, by Flora Ploquin, Itinérance Project Manager in the Public Services Department. This demonstrates a strong interest in innovation throughout the Museum, particularly at the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution, which has become a veritable laboratory in this field, and the desire of the Museum’s governance to move the lines, test new forms of mediation, and create other forms of encounters with the public.
At the start of LIFE CHRONICLES
S. T. – I met Fabien Barati from Emissive at the New Images Festival in 2018 (link). He was presenting SCAN PYRAMIDS, the Beta version of HORIZON OF KHUFU. The format and its potential appealed to me, as did Emissive’s vision of reaching out to large visitor flows. There was a desire to collaborate very quickly, and to find a subject that would meet the challenges. It took us several years to come to fruition. Fabien and I welcomed many of the Museum’s decision-makers in the VR helmets of their device at the Cité de l’Architecture, then in their showroom at the Immersive Learning Lab. A true acculturation process. Each demo gave rise to a debrief, which often turned into a brainstorm: from the Presidency to the Direction déléguée aux musées, jardins, zoos, the Direction générale, the DAF, the Service juridique, the Directions des publics, du développement, de la communication, numerous Muséum decision-makers came to test this new format. Little by little, the idea for the project took shape. The Museum’s Programming Committee formally approved it in October 2021. This was before the release of HORIZON OF KHUFU and ETERNAL NOTRE-DAME. I mention this because it shows the visionary approach of the Museum’s governance at the time when it validated the project.
S. T. – The scientific committee was appointed: Bruno David (he was then President of the Muséum and wished to get personally involved), Guillaume Lecointre (his scientific advisor), Gaël Clément (Director of the Man and Evolution scientific department), Sylvain Charbonnier (Deputy Director of the Paleontology laboratory). And 4 project managers: Cyril Roguet, cross-functional project manager (content production and use in the gallery), Sylvain Charbonnier, scientific coordinator who orchestrated the scientific work of some 30 scientists (paleontologists, a scientific illustrator specializing in movement and a bioacoustician), Delphine Nahon and myself (as content project managers). We reported to the Museum’s cross-functional departments, who were also heavily involved. It’s clearly a big team effort on both the Museum and Emissive sides.
S. T. – We had to go through a tendering phase between late 2021 and early 2022. Emissive won the contract. They were the only bidder. The specifications included a discriminating criterion: being able to accommodate 80 to 100 people at the same time in VR. Production began in March 2022. During production, my role was to coordinate all functions on the Museum side. I had to take time off due to a bicycle accident, and my N+1 Delphine Nahon was responsible for coordination during the first 6 months of production. At Emissive, our day-to-day contact was Tarek El Khamssa, Project Director, who oversaw the entire production, both in its scope and down to the smallest detail. Also Guillaume Martini, Creative Director and author, as well as Ludovic Marguerie and Francis Nief, the other two authors of the experience.
S. T. – After 18 months of production, we inaugurated LIFE CHRONICLES in October 2023, in the Geology and Mineralogy Gallery of the Jardin des Plantes. The project benefited from an ambitious communications plan, on a par with the com plans produced by the Communications Department (Fanny Decobert, Cécile Brissaud and their team) for the Museum’s major annual temporary exhibitions.
A heritage project with an innovative narrative
S. T. – During our first creative brainstorm, we quickly agreed that we wanted to bring a cinematic dimension to this story of Life. More than a collective virtual tour, we were aiming for a story in which you are the hero, a scripted adventure. The creative team and I shared a number of pop culture references from the 80s and 90s: BACK TO THE FUTURE, INDIANA JONES and, of course, JURASSIC PARK! Here, we wanted to break away from the academic mediation format to develop a pop object, using their immersive expedition format to serve a new style of storytelling. My experience of new writing, as well as that of the CNC’s XN commission devoted to new digital experiences (chaired at the time by Alexandre Michelin and Deborah Papiernik from Ubisoft), helped me a great deal in this respect. Narrative designers Guillaume Martini and Ludovic Marguerie did a great deal of research and creative work, and set up the universe: character bible, personas, background stories, etc. They also initiated a collaboration with an artist. And they initiated a collaboration with an external scriptwriter-dialoguist from the world of TV and cinema: Francis Nief. The Museum’s scientific committee and project management have embraced this new form of storytelling, put into words, images and scenes by Emissive, based on information provided by the scientists.
S. T. – Close collaboration between scientists and creative minds has always existed at the Muséum. From the earliest scientific illustrations to represent plant, animal and mineral species, to scientific photography, films and animations… In our field, there’s a deep-rooted tradition of scientific-creative-technological exchange and collaboration, to reproduce the subjects we study as faithfully as possible. And we have always incorporated the latest techniques and technologies in museography and mediation to present our subjects. So today, there’s a real coherence and continuity in calling on new media and technologies such as XR to carry out our museum practices.
Promoting natural history in France and abroad
S. T. – The co-production with Emissive – Excurio is also strategic, as it enables us to reach the greatest possible number of people. Indeed, the immersive expedition format offers the opportunity to spread LIFE CHRONICLES far and wide. Traditionally, our temporary exhibitions travel from town to town. Here, with the immersive expedition format, we’re multiplying the experience. While we’ve been running it for 6 months at the Muséum in Paris, until mid-June 2024, Emissive is simultaneously installing it in other cities in France and internationally. Their partner ECLIPSO has just opened it in Lyon, during the spring vacations (link). And Emissive – Excurio is preparing to open it in two other international cities in the coming weeks. By the end of May, LIFE CHRONICLES will be available in 4 cities in France and abroad, and even more by the end of 2024.
Official Museum website: mnhn.fr
The Museum’s museums, gardens and zoos: https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/nos-lieux-de-visite
LIFE CHRONICLES: Press Reviews (in French)
Prolonger l‘expérience MONDES DISPARUS en ligne
Recréer une espèce disparue grâce à la 3D ? Un vrai défi technique qui exige rigueur scientifique !
La technologie virtuelle au service du vivant (France Culture)
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