What are the most popular tourist attractions in London? Easy. Great museums. They dominated visitor numbers forever. If you check the latest statistics from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) you’ll see that the Natural History Museum leads the way with 4,654,000 visitors in 2022, followed by the British Museum, Tate Modern and the National Gallery. These great cultural leaders battle it out at the top of the table every year.
But there is a mischievous challenge to this traditional hegemony. Although not a member of ALVA, a new startup called Outernet may have taken the crown, claiming annual visitor numbers have surpassed six million.
I’ve never heard of? I’m not surprised. Although it is quite possible that you visited it without even realizing what happened. Opened about a year ago, the Outernet is an arcade at the base of the new Now building on the corner of Tottenham Court and Charing Cross roads. It’s open to the street, right across from the subway station exit, and lined with giant LED screens showing what it calls “immersive arts and culture programming.”
There was 3D when I visited trompe-l’oeil The video, titled “Butterfly Trail,” depicts “magical” butterflies fluttering around a giant Victorian glass house. And around the corner, in another passage leading to Denmark Street, there was a more abstract psychedelic exhibition called “Tessellations”; this show aims to help you “transcend the discord of the everyday and reach the beauty of the present.” (It just gave me a headache.)
Can these installations be considered an attraction comparable to our greatest museums and galleries? Not in my book. How many of those six million people actually looked at the view and planned a visit? So how many of them have gotten carried away for a few minutes while leaving the tube station or exploring Oxford Street? Outernet wouldn’t tell me the average “length of stay” of its visitors, but from what I’ve witnessed, it can’t be too long. And they probably don’t want that to happen. Floor space is quite limited and what is most valuable here is the numbers, not the duration of the visit.
In its own words, Outernet wants to “use cutting-edge technology to deliver audience engagement and demographic data, providing unique performance metrics for brands and advertisers.” In other words, it creates an audience for advertisements by distracting the attention of the crowd passing by.
There’s nothing wrong with that. As Outernet claims, there may be some interesting things going on among its ever-changing setups. He’s clearly a fan of Sadiq Khan, who uses screens to deliver campaign messages. “I am proud of our work with Outernet, showcasing innovative content to Londoners and visitors on world-class displays,” he said.
But for me Outernet is a sideshow; It’s a clever way to attract attention for the owners of the site, which also includes a hotel and concert hall.
But that’s not to belittle the growing interest in immersive art. It’s becoming a serious thing that attracts the attention of big artists. David Hockney, who has always embraced technological change quickly, achieved great success last year. Greater and Nearer (not smaller and farther)Projected at Lightroom in King’s Cross. The current show at the four-story venue is Tom Hanks’ Moonwalkers.
They all couldn’t stand it. London version BBC World ExperienceOperated at Earls Court under license from BBC Studios, it closed on 1 February. Narrated by David Attenborough, the film dramatized “an unforgettable journey through the natural world”.
But Chris Michaels, former director of digital communications at the National Gallery in London, believes it is only a matter of time before major museums buy into the possibilities and appeal of immersive experiences and technologies.
In a recently published article for Art Newspaper It celebrates some of the high-profile installations and immersive experiences that have wowed visitors from around the world, from the 365ft-tall Sphere in Las Vegas to the Atelier des Lumières in Paris. And he’s talking about new venues opening this year in Abu Dhabi, Hamburg and Shanghai.
Even the most refined and researched centers of cultural excellence are embracing the possibilities. Trinity College Dublin has just opened Kells Experience Book, a new exhibition that transforms the famous ninth-century illuminated manuscript and the university’s magnificent Old Library into an immersive 360-degree journey. Bright images meant to bring a story to life? The artist-monks of the ninth century would certainly have approved of this.