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Interview
How Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition is transporting visitors to Ancient Egypt
We chat to the show’s creator about how the exhibition is using VR and state of the art tech to bring visitors back in time
Following a sell-out 14 week run, Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition is moving on from London to its new home at SEC Glasgow. For anyone who had an intense Ancient Egypt phase as a child – or anyone who’s still in theirs – it’s a must-see, exploring the tomb of Tutankhamun, the work of Howard Carter, and how Egyptians prepared themselves for death both physically and spiritually. What sets it apart from your average history lesson are its high-tech elements – visitors are not only learning about the Egyptian afterlife, but putting on a VR headset and experiencing it for themselves. With lots of stunning interactive elements and enough surprises to wow even the most reluctant history fan, it’s no wonder that the show has been such a hit.
Ahead of the move to Glasgow, we caught up with CEO of Madrid Artes Digitales Jelle de Jong to talk about what makes this experience so special.
What can people expect from this exhibition when it lands in Glasgow?
What I think is special about our exhibition is that we’ve combined all the state of the art technology, which a lot of immersive exhibitions have, with a script and an idea that’s all meticulously created by a team of Egyptologist historians. We also have our very experienced theatrical team of producers, composers, script writers, narrators… We look at it as an exhibition that has to inform and educate and be able to to be attractive for children, teenagers, the elderly and everyone in between. I want them to be super entertained and joyfully challenged in all kinds of different rooms and areas.
At the same time, there’s all this information that we’ve poured in, even in the spectacular, immersive mapping room. For example, in the fifth chapter of that room, you are taken into the afterlife. The walls of the burial chamber come alive, and all those inscriptions on the wall become animations, and what is being showcased there is being told in a playful way. We’ve managed to create something that’s very attractive for lots of people, from the very educated to those who have never set foot in a museum or who had trouble paying attention in history class at school. That, combined with all these very high levels of quality of the content, makes it quite exceptional. I think that’s also the reason why it has been such a success all over the world. In every city we go to, it keeps people amazed.
When you’re looking at bringing history to life like this, how do you decide where to integrate the tech?
The idea starts with the whole story of everything that we want to tell in the exhibit, and then we do a breakdown with our tech team, and we see which part of the story can be translated best. For example, in our seated virtual reality area, where you have this digital world around you, everybody understood that was a part where we could use a little imagination and explore the fantasy. We’re using the story of the afterlife and what might happen after you die in ancient Egypt; how your heart is weighed to see if it’s pure; and how you enter this wonderful world after seeing the judges of Osiris. There’s quite a high fantasy level there. Then for the free roaming Metaverse in the other virtual reality moment, we thought it would be great if you could really walk in somewhere and touch stuff. We said, let’s use the base camp of Howard Carter just moments before you enter the tomb and discover it yourself. For London, and now for Glasgow, we wanted to add something more, something new, because people have seen a lot in the UK, so we have to impress them. So we developed this hologram about the mummification process, and then added that to the already existing show. It’s constantly under development.
Why did you decide to explore the Egyptians in this way?
It was the opening show of our venue in Madrid, and the day of the opening was the celebration of 100 years since the discovery of the tomb by Howard Carter. That was why the topic was chosen. But we would have made it at some point anyway, because we have a huge interest in ancient Egypt. We have a very strong relationship with the Grand Egyptian Museum [in Cairo]. We’re preparing our next show about Cleopatra.
Why do you think we are still so interested in the Ancient Egyptians?
I think it’s the mystery about how so many years back this civilization was so well educated and so well taught about engineering. And then the mystery of the graves… and the graves that are still missing. For example, from Cleopatra we have nothing, because the grave is still somewhere to be found. This touches everybody’s fascination with being an adventurer, being an explorer, the Indiana Jones movies, what secrets are still hidden… You also have the curses of the tombs. All of this mystery, combined with this beautiful nature and the Nile river and the palms and the beauty of the architecture and the temples is something that’s fascinating for everybody, and visually, it’s so extraordinary and unique. If you walk around in Madrid, or in Paris, or in London, you can say, “Wow, this is a beautiful city,” but it won’t stick to the eye of a visitor for the rest of their life. I mean, you can fall in love with London or Madrid, but in the end, that European architecture with big conglomerates and metropoles is quite similar. What Egypt presents us with is something unique, and you cannot compare.
What have you found the most fascinating about working on this show?
The big question is always, how did they do all this? The 5500 treasures that were found preserved in the tomb of Tutankhamun are now on display, because the Grand Egyptian Museum has finally opened the full collection. I’ve seen it already, and if you see all those things, and then understand that was all in this very small, low-ceilinged tomb – but it’s one golden coffin over the other with so many details and structures – how that was done is just incredible. It happens in a kind of IKEA build system. They found all these little inscriptions inside numbering all the things that, in the end, created the sarcophagus and the mummy and everything, and the mask and all the layers around it, because they had to get in that room and then construct it. I could see hours of documentaries about how that was done. The cleverness of all these engineers is fascinating.
It’s interesting that you’re looking at the cutting edge of their technology using the latest of our technology and bringing those two worlds together.
Exactly, and that’s always a challenge, because building all that content takes lots of time with with big groups of people and high investments. But we’ve now created three of these shows, and we have found a way of doing that in the most attractive and challenging way. Seeing the reviews in London, people are very excited and happy about how much of an experience they get when they visit the show. Everybody’s inside for two hours easily, because it’s a huge exhibition with so many elements.
What are you hoping people take away from this exhibition?
I hope that apart from having fun, they learn something. But also that they have some things to talk about with their friends or their family or their classmates, because that’s what you see with these kind of experiences. Some parts are individual, like with the glasses, then when you come out, you have something to share. I hope they’ll have lots to talk about.
Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition will open at SEC Glasgow on 24 July – find tickets here
