Louvre Abu Dhabi's new VR experience will transport you from Baghdad to Rome and Mughal India

What's On

a day ago

Louvre Abu Dhabi is pushing the boundaries of immersive art with a brand new VR experience, The Quantum Dome Project, that will transport users into eras bygone with fantastical reality. The history that we only read about in books and watch in documentaries – this is your chance to live it as it happened over a 25-minute experience.
The Quantum Dome Project presents three digitally reconstructed environments from three completely different, historic corners of the globe and completely different time periods – ancient Rome, medieval Baghdad and Mughal-era India. You can experience them all through the medium of virtual reality. How does it work?
Essentially, each person is fitted with a wireless headset that tracks their full-body movements in real time. Developed with French production company Small Creative Studio, the technology requires no joysticks or other hand-held devices to control the setting.
Up to 10 people can enter the VR chamber at one time, and participants can move freely in between the action of the three eras – from the colonnades of a Roman forum to sifting through the books of the ancient House of Wisdom, and standing in the midst of battle on the lakes near the Jal Mahal.
But it's not all a VR experience. The defining points of each setting are real objects from the museum's collection itself. Each setting is tied to this specific object; in Rome, a marble sculpture of Emperor Augustus, in Baghdad, a manuscript page from De Materia Medica, and in India, suit of armour dubbed Four Mirrors. These pieces are your entry points, connecting the physical world of the museum to the virtual journey unfolding inside the headset.
Even the start of the narrative follows a sci-fi theme – the VR experience begins in Louvre Abu Dhabi itself, in an underground laboratory at the museum, where scientists attempt to extract the 'memory' of objects using experimental quantum technology. Things go south and visitors are flung across time and space, landing in an imperial Roman forum to begin with.
Why these three eras?
While history is rich and giving with many time periods to explore, these three eras are perhaps some of the most significant. The first Roman emperor, Augustus, is at the centre of the Roman setting. He was the founder of the Roman Empire and reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14, after the fall of the Roman Republic led by none other than Julius Caesar.
Over in Baghdad, the House of Wisdom was once believed to be the largest library in the world and established Baghdad as a global centre of knowledge during the eighth and ninth centuries. It was said to hold tens of thousands of books and manuscripts, works on astronomy, medicine, philosophy and more. All of this was lost in the 13th century when the library was destroyed by the Mongol siege of Baghdad, and legend has it that so many books were thrown into the Tigris, that the river ran black with ink.
The Mughal era is also an important cornerstone of the history of the Indian subcontinent, imparting the region with architecture, culture, food, music, art and history it reveres to this day.
The individual price for the experience is Dhs120, including access to the museum, while booking in groups of four will cost Dhs95 per person.
@louvreabudhabi
Images: Louvre Abu Dhabi
> Sign up for FREE to get exclusive updates that you are interested in