Virtual Gallery Reflection



Industry sectors and Job roles


Safe working practices

Audio and visual language






The best social media for interactive media studio

Wet Flame Studios Research


My questions:


Job role:



Virtual Gallery

For this task we were comparing the experience of actually visiting a museum or gallery to the experience of a virtual gallery and discuss the pros and cons of each. We did this task as it relates to the work we are doing which is creating a virtual gallery showing off our work so we need to know the pros and cons of a virtual gallery.

There are many pros and cons of visiting a museum or gallery in real life and of using a virtual gallery to view the artwork. When discussing these pros and cons it is important to consider all the factors, such as the scale of the object you are looking at.

Pros of visiting museum:

The pros of actually visiting a museum include you can actually see the scale of the pieces of art you are looking at, for example most people have only seen the Mona Lisa through pictures online and don’t know the actual scale of it, but by actually going to the Louvre you will be able to see the actual scale. This is the same for all pieces of art and you can’t tell the scale without actually seeing it in real life.

Another pro of visiting a museum in real life is you get the full visitor experience that is not available elsewhere. You can also see the curation of the exhibits when you go in real life which you can’t see in a virtual gallery. Actually seeing the object in real life offers a much better experience than looking at an image of it and your interpretation of the art can change depending on if you’re viewing it in real life or in a virtual environment as in real life you can see much more and it creates different feelings.

Also viewing art in real life means you can see all the finer details of it, such as the brush strokes on a painting, which gives you a greater understanding and appreciation for the art.

Cons of visiting museum:

However, there are also cons to visiting a museum in real life. These include;
The cost of visiting a museum can be quite high if you do not live close to it and have to travel a lot to get there. This could potentially keep people away from visiting museums and galleries.

Another con is some museums and galleries do not have disabled access, for example the Louvre does not have much wheelchair access and because it is so busy it would be hard for a person in a wheelchair to get around the museum and see the art pieces. This means that disabled people can not actually go to museums in real life and have to find other ways to experience the art.

Pros of virtual gallery:

One option for disabled people to view artwork is a virtual gallery. The pros of this include it is considerably cheaper than actually going to a museum. For example the Louvre guide for the Nintendo 3DS is only about £15 which is a lot cheaper than travelling to the Louvre and paying for admission, which would be quite a lot of money as you would have to pay for transport and accommodation as well as the admission fee.

Another pro of a virtual gallery is you can view a wide range of the exhibits in the comfort of your own home. This is much easier than going to the Louvre and can be available to everyone. This means that you can look at the exhibits without the huge crowds of people who could distract you or obscure your view of something.

Also a virtual gallery has detailed audio and video descriptions of what you are looking at, so you can learn more about the exhibits without having to go and see them in real life.

Cons of virtual gallery;

Virtual galleries also have cons. One of these is you can’t get any sense of scale when you are looking at a virtual image of an exhibit which can affect your interpretation of it.

Another con of virtual galleries is not all of the exhibits are available to view in them. For example the Louvre guide for Nintendo 3DS only has over 600 images of the exhibits compared to the 70,000 exhibits that are actually on display at the Louvre. This means that you are not seeing all the exhibits when you use a virtual gallery and the only way to see them all is to actually go to the Louvre museum.


Going to a museum and using a virtual gallery both have their various pros and cons and there are benefits to using both but you are able to see much more and learn more by actually going to a museum in real life. From my experience of going to museums and galleries I think it is much better to go visit a museum in real life as you can get close to the objects and see all their details and you can see their scale much more accurately.


Digital Media and User Generated Content debate

The statement that was put forward for this debate was “Digital media and user generated content has changed the production and consumption of media”.

For this debate the class was split into three separate groups, one group that argued in agreement of the statement, one group that argued against the statement, and one group that had the opportunity to question the two other groups on their statement. I was placed in the group arguing against the statement.

In my research in order to argue my point I discovered that although the amount of content being produced has increased the quality of it has decreased due to everyone being able to create what they want and there being no one to make sure the quality of content is of a certain standard. This strengthens one of the arguments made by the side against that Gatekeepers are still needed to check the quality of the content.

Another piece of information that I found during my research was that user generated content is becoming more like the old content made with old media as they all use advertisements to try and make money and the content that they make is made to make money.

The group that was arguing for the statement opened up their argument by saying that newspaper sales have been declining gradually over the last 10 years, in comparison to Twitter which in the last 5 years has gained around 300 million active accounts, and the group had the statistics to back this up. They also claimed that Twitter offers more unbiased viewpoints than newspapers because of the Gatekeepers that control the newspapers. They finished their opening argument by saying that the internet has become a much safer platform for viewing the news and other things that were formally viewed in old mediums.

The group against this statement started by saying that the old media is still around, such as newspapers and radios and the old Gatekeepers such as BBC are still the largest providers of content. They also argued that modern editing techniques on software such as Photoshop are techniques that were used before for editing in places like Dark Rooms, so the only thing that has changed is the platforms used for editing. Finally they argued that we still take in information in the same way suggesting that consumption hasn’t changed and that even in all the new ways of getting information bias still exists as its just peoples opinions instead of companies opinions.

After this the side arguing for had a chance to counter and they said that the BBC uses new media t get its information and even has a whole section dedicated to searching social media for news. They also said that digital media and user generated content has introduced the “many to many” communication option whereas before it was “one to one” or “one to many”.

Then the against side had a chance to counter and I argued that although anyone can become producers now the quality of the content being made has declined so we are getting more content but it is no longer as good as it used to be. I also argued that many of the older generations do not use social media and therefore still rely on old media such as newspapers, radio, and television for information. Another argument that was made was most Twitter accounts are inactive, meaning that those account don’t post anything or follow any other accounts.

After both sides had made their arguments and counter arguments the Floor had the opportunity to ask questions to both sides about what had just been discussed.

After both sides had had a chance to answer the questions we took a vote and 14 people voted in favour of the statement with 2 people voting against it. The end result was we all agreed that digital media and user generated content has changed the production and consumption for the better as everything can be accessed digitally it makes accessing them easier for everyone.

This task was difficult for me and my group as there was not a lot of information available about what we had to argue but there was a lot that the side arguing for could say so it was easier for them in the debate. However if I had searched a bit more I could have found more useful information that I could have used to strengthen our argument.

Research sources – Date accessed 5th November 2015 – Date accessed 5th November 2015 – Date accessed 5th November 2015


Introduction to research

There are many types of research that can be carried out. These are Primary research, Secondary research, Qualitative and Quantitative.

Primary research is research that you have done yourself through techniques such as interviews and questionnaires. Primary research also includes observing photos, film and drawing. Talking to other people is another form of primary research and can be useful as it gives you an opinion from someone else that can help with your research.

Secondary research comes from another source such as reviews on a company’s website or reading information in books or magazines. Secondary research can also be collected in the form of documentaries as they include information that someone else has found.

Qualitative research is heavily based on peoples opinions, for example a questionnaire asking someone to write about something. This allows for better feedback as people can explain their opinion in detail. This type of research gets more personal results.

Quantitative research is about statistics and numbers. This way the responses can be measured and instead of getting peoples opinions it is only dealing with facts.

The research task that I have carried out is to find the cheapest possible mobile phone that has the specifications that I want which is, how much data the phone has and how much memory the phone has. I do not need a lot of texts or minutes as I rarely text people or make calls. Other factors such as the battery life also are not important to me as I don’t mind having to charge a phone often.

The primary research that I did for this task was asking people about the different phones that they have. This gave me more information about the phones that I don’t have, as I have an IPhone 5s and don’t know much about all the other phones.

The secondary research I did was going onto data providers websites and looking at reviews of phones posted by people who have bought them. This also gave me more information about the phones. Also on the websites I looked at the different deals I could get with each phone and worked out which would be the cheapest deal that would have the specifications that I require. The document below contains my findings in a table.
Mobile phone spreadsheet

This task has helped me understand research as now I know about the different types and what they all contain and now I also know the various methods of researching, such as using books and websites and asking questions. This knowledge will help me in future research tasks. I think the task went well and I am happy with the information I found that I think has helped me make a good decision on what mobile phone is best for me.