Examining the National Galleries of Scotland’s Harryhausen Digital Exhibit

In October 2020, the National Galleries Scotland (NGS), Ray Harryhausen | Titan of Cinema (October 2020 – February 2022) exhibition was meant to open and celebrate what would have been Harryhausen’s centenary year. Due to COVID the physical exhibit was forced to close prematurely, but it inspired NGS to pivot to an online, digital exhibition (March 2021). What resulted is a masterclass in digital storytelling, utilizing a multi-pathway structure and a variety of storytelling performance types.

The following video serves as a “movie trailer” to the exhibition:

I have previously covered this exhibit. To read more, please see:

• Ray Harryhausen | Titan of Cinema: Virtual Exhibition Experience
• Ray Harryhausen | Titan of Cinema: The Translation from Physical to Digital
• Ray Harryhausen | Titan of Cinema: How the Archives Enrich Virtual Exhibit Storytelling
• Ray Harryhausen | Titan of Cinema: Reminiscing with Fantastical Creatures from Childhood

Apply a Storytelling Infrastructure to a Digital Venue

This post will outline how the execution of the digital exhibit maximizes storytelling infrastructure in a digital setting to great effect. As one begins within a section of the digital exhibit there’s a video to set the tone. Clips of Harryhausen’s work, interviews with filmmakers, and other insights are provided in these short features. As you scroll down the webpage, you can “walk” through the section and pause to read the text or engage with the content.

Several carousels contain behind-the-scenes movie photos, drawings, models, movie posters, film footage, and other archival materials from the Harryhausen collection. As you click into each item, you can view basic information from the catalog—similar to how one would read the exhibit labels at a museum.

Storytelling infrastructure manifested in the following ways:

• Story Path: Multiple Pathways
• Storytelling Performance Types: Oral, Written, Visual
• Sensory Setting: Lighting (limited), Color, Sound, Texture

Multiple Pathways

To begin, the digital exhibit was divided into five main sections to choose from. Those five sections were:

• King Kong and the Early Years
• Bringing Imagination to Life
• Dynamation: Making Movie Miracles
• Creatures of Legend
• A Life in Objects

Once you clicked on the tile for that section, you were taken to a webpage that contained a variety of content for that exhibit section. You could visit each section in any order you would like, and you could determine how much of the content you wished to engage with. In this case, the exhibition suggested five pathways that could make one large story, or offer five stand-alone smaller stories (should you choose to only sample one).

Examples of the Storytelling Performance Types on Display

The exhibition did an excellent job using and blending all storytelling performance types: oral, written, and visual. What was notable about the exhibition was the variety of ways in which it delivered content. Below are examples of the performance types found within the digital exhibit.

• Five specially created films that explore different facets of Harryhausen’s career and feature interviews with Harryhausen’s daughter and Harryhausen Foundation Trustee Vanessa Harryhausen, and fellow filmmakers and artist: Martine Beswick, Mark Caballero, Randy Cook, Barry Purves, Vanessa Harryhausen, Marshall Julius, Mark Millar, Caroline Munro, John Walsh and Seamus Walsh
• Images and texts from the exhibition
• Archive films and objects from Harryhausen’s life and work
• 3D model videos created by Playdead of the Harpy, Hydra, and Skeletons. The scans used for the 3D rendering process were captured by students from the Glasgow School of Art

Immersive Sensory Setting

The overall sensory affect was to place the virtual visitor within a museum setting. The exhibit offered a virtual representation of the physical space, as well as recognizable elements of exhibit explanatory text and visuals. There were the obvious elements of color and sound as well as great attention drawn to the texture of the physical objects.

Even though visitors were viewing the items virtually, the texture of the artifacts was presented in great detail with written or oral descriptions for each. Visitors could also zoom in and rotate 3D renderings, which offered a way to interact and observe the texture without touching the physical object.

Additional Tips to Take Away

During my previous review of the exhibit, I offered a few lessons to take away from the exhibition.

• In a virtual space, there is more “room” to display and remix museum objects with archival items.
• Leverage digital surrogates and other already created assets that can easily be incorporated.
• Be thoughtful in how items are presented, take care to explain why the items were included, and make connections among items obvious.
• Use an engaging format like video to help introduce each section, highlight some of the exhibit content, and imbue meaning into the exhibit space.

These suggested lessons can lend additional depth to your digital storytelling and improve its efficacy.

A Thoughtful Approach Leads to Effective Digital Storytelling

The translation of storytelling from physical to digital museum exhibits is possible, and there are a number of free to low-cost tools to help execute elements of the storytelling infrastructure. However, it is important to take a thoughtful approach in order to execute digital storytelling effectively. Extra time should be spent thinking through and testing the translated elements to ensure the digital visitor can make it through the story successfully. The NGS Harryhausen exhibition is a great example to learn from and upon which we can model our storytelling experimentation.