StoryFutures China: UK-China Transnational Strategic Partnership for Immersive Storytelling in Museums and Cultural Institutions

“故事未来中国”联合了两家世界领先的文化机构——英国国家美术馆和中国上海科技馆，共同研究、设计和开发沉浸式的故事体验，既能增强现场观众的体验，又能让画廊和博物馆将体验带给世界各地的观众。这一开创性的合作将创造两个面向观众的沉浸式原型，每个地点一个，专门为当地观众设计，并前往英国或中国的对应机构。通过这样做，故事未来中国将促进两国之间的文化交流达到一个新的水平，通过推广一种既考虑到国际游客也考虑到中国公民的游客体验方式。此次合作以“科学中的艺术”和“艺术中的科学”为主题，将利用沉浸式技术，通过揭示各国一些国宝背后的故事，为游客提供更多的信息深度和情感参与，为艺术品和历史文物进行改进和翻译。该项目通过研究如何利用沉浸式技术的颠覆性能力来创造新的受众体验、商业模式和文化价值，从而推动两国的经济增长，解决了中英两国创意和文化产业面临的主要挑战。它借鉴了成功的“故事未来”项目的独特优势和地位，该项目由英国工业战略挑战基金资助，包括与国家美术馆建立的良好合作模式，以促进开放式创新方法，开发沉浸式故事原型，以回应明确确定的观众行为和需求。通过利用StoryFutures的开放式创新框架，该项目将为大型组织的供应链引入新奇事物，开发新的商业模式，并创建可由数千名游客体验和测试的沉浸式原型，以促进各国之间更好的理解和文化交流。此外，这些原型将成为中英两国未来合作的“用例”，并在两国内部为文化和商业机构中不断增长的游客体验经济提供可扩展的机会。通过这样做，该项目强调了文化机构在促进更广泛的创意经济增长和创新方面的作用。通过关注“科学中的艺术”和“艺术中的科学”的主题，故事未来中国在博物馆和美术馆中发展了一个主要关注的领域，促成了一种合作而不是竞争的关系。通过将各个领域的文化机构聚集在一起，该项目将促进最佳实践和知识交流，探讨如何最好地利用AR、MR和VR等颠覆性技术来提升游客体验，以及如何吸引远离每个机构实体位置的观众。该项目借鉴了布鲁内尔大学世界一流的设计研究、皇家霍洛威学院的叙事和观众洞察力，以及上海博思集团在沉浸式技术方面的长期专业知识。特别是，它建立在StoryFutures和国家美术馆开发的虚拟维罗内塞原型的成功基础上：从这个项目中得出的见解表明，虽然使用AR可以为现场的游客提供独特的物理和数字体验，但VR的潜力是将画廊带到观众面前，无论他们身在何处。

StoryFutures China brings together two of the world's leading cultural institutions - The National Gallery in the UK and Shanghai Science and Technology Museum in China - to research, prototype and develop immersive storytelling experiences that both enhance visitor experiences on-site as well as allow for the Gallery and the Museum to take experiences to the audience, wherever they are in the world. This groundbreaking collaboration will create two audience-facing immersive prototypes, one at each location, that are specifically designed to speak to local audiences as well as travel to their counterpart institution in the UK or China. In so doing, StoryFutures China will facilitate a new level of cultural exchange between the two countries by promoting an approach to visitor experiences that has the international visitor in mind as much as the nation's citizenry. Themed around a concern with "art in science" and "science in art and", this collaboration will enhance and translate artworks and historical artefacts for visitors by using immersive technologies to provide additional layers of informational depth and emotional engagement by revealing the stories behind some of each countries' national treasures. This project addresses major challenges for both the UK's and China's creative and cultural industries by examining how the disruptive capabilities of immersive technologies can be harnessed to produce new audience experiences, business models and cultural value that can drive economic growth in both countries. It draws on the unique strength and position of the successful StoryFutures project, funded by the UK's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, including a well-established collaborative model with The National Gallery, to promote an open innovation approach to developing immersive storytelling prototypes that respond to clearly identified audience behaviours and needs. By utilising StoryFutures' open innovation framework, this project will introduce novelty into large organisations' supply chains, develop new business models and create immersive prototypes that can be experienced and tested by thousands of visitors to promote better understandings and cultural exchange between countries. Moreover, the prototypes will stand as "use cases" for future collaborations between the UK and China and, within each country, represent scalable opportunities for the growing visitor experience economy at cultural and commercial institutions. In so doing, the project underscores the role of cultural institutions in promoting growth and innovation in the wider creative economy. By focusing on the themes of "art in science" and "science in art", StoryFutures China develops an area of major concern in both museums and art galleries, brokering a relationship that is collaborative rather than competitive. By bringing together cultural institutions from across sectors, the project will promote best practice and knowledge exchange in how best to harness the disruptive technologies of AR, MR and VR for visitor experiences and how to reach audiences away from the physical location of each institution. The project draws on the world-class research in design at Brunel, storytelling and audience insight at Royal Holloway and the long-standing expertise in the immersive tech by Shanghai Foremost Group. In particular, it builds on the success of the Virtual Veronese prototype developed by StoryFutures and The National Gallery: the insights from this project revealed that whilst an experience could uniquely blend the physical and the digital for visitors on site in the use of AR, the potential for VR was to take the Gallery to the audience wherever they may be.