Veronica Watson Kuc, Zlaten del Castillo

Verizon: The Met Replica

‘We created an experience that brings art and history to life in a way fit for the digital age. Our goal was to make the museum visit an adventure that kids would never forget. It’s about igniting their love for learning, sparking their imaginations, and showing them that history is so much more than static objects in a glass case.’

Veronika Watson Kuc, Creative Director, UNIT9

The background

Verizon wanted to use the power of its technology to connect young people to art in a new and culturally relevant way. So together we collaborated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to create a connected digital experience that blends entertainment and education, making the world of art history an even more exciting, hands-on place for young patrons.

The execution

Replica is an interactive, gamified experience that combines the rich history of the museum with the modern excitement of Roblox and AR. The full experience consists of two parts – a mobile AR app for in-person museum visitors, and a Roblox experience for players worldwide.

Using the mobile app, visitors can navigate their way around the museum to discover artworks and artefacts that can be scanned and transformed into collectible digital replicas – from a 14th century Japanese suit of armour, to Vincent van Gogh’s straw hat. Once collected, these digital items can be worn by users as avatar skins and accessories on Roblox across all 40+ million games available on the platform.

To make the experience accessible to patrons at home, we also created a replica of The Met in Roblox, including the museum’s iconic facade and other renowned spaces like the Great Hall. Art and history buffs around the world can visit, explore the full Replica collection, learn about art, and take avatar photos in one of four immersive photo booths inspired by famous painted scenes from the museum’s collection.

It was great to harness the combined power of AR and Verizon’s technology to allow museum visitors to interact with history seamlessly and intuitively. And in order to bring The Met authentically to life in Roblox, we used the platform’s own Roblox Studio as well as 3D modelling software to get the visuals just right.

The results

Replica is an unprecedented experience that brings centuries of history to life by marrying one of the most culturally important institutions in the world with cutting-edge technology. It was an honour to be able to work closely with experts from The Met to turn the traditional museum visit on its head and inspire young visitors to engage with art and history on a deeper level.

AR and gaming hold huge potential to ignite the joy of discovery through interactive learning. We can’t wait to explore what could come next.