Jan 11, 2024

Embarking on a VR journey with AGO Bristol 1775

A virtual experience at the AGO sets sail to new territory in the research of historical artifacts

George Stockwell. Two-decker 50 Gun Warship, Bristol, Georgian Model, 1774. wood, varnished and painted; ivory or bone; copper alloy; glass, Overall: 41 x 27.5 x 112 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo © AGO.

If you’ve visited the AGO, you’ll know it is home to an incredible collection of ship models from across maritime history, dating from the 17th century to the 20th century. This fleet of 130 miniature ships was gifted to the Gallery by businessman and art collector Ken Thomson. In collaboration with Priam Givord Inc., an interactive virtual reality (VR) experience is writing the next chapter for one of these ship models, using groundbreaking technology to explore its fascinating history.

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One of the ship models in the Thomson Collection at the AGO is George Stockwell’s 1774 model of the Bristol. The Bristol was an actual Royal Navy warship that sailed around the globe for over three decades - first across the Atlantic Ocean during the American Revolution, then to the Caribbean and then to the Indian Ocean during the Anglo-French War of 1778 to 1783. By the turn of the 19th century, the Bristol was no longer seaworthy and was repurposed as a hulk to hold prisoners from the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815).

Stockwell made his living as a shipbuilder and model maker for the British navy. In the late 1770s, he crafted his Bristol ship model at the same shipyard in Kent, beneath the shadow of the actual ship being built at the same time.

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George Stockwell. Two-decker 50 Gun Warship, Bristol, Georgian Model, 1774. wood, varnished and painted; ivory or bone; copper alloy; glass, Overall: 41 x 27.5 x 112 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo © AGO.

George Stockwell. Two-decker 50 Gun Warship, Bristol, Georgian Model, 1774. wood, varnished and painted; ivory or bone; copper alloy; glass, Overall: 41 x 27.5 x 112 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo © AGO.

Fast forward nearly two and half centuries later, and a team of experts at the AGO is taking the Bristol – in ship model form – on yet another voyage, this time into a cutting-edge VR experience. The team, led by Gillian McIntyre, Interpretive Planner at the AGO, created AGO Bristol 1775: From Warship to Prison Hulk and launched the app in late 2023. A project years in the making in Ontario and England, AGO Bristol 1775  is an immersive VR app that takes users inside the ship when it was used as a prison hulk.

McIntyre explained to Foyer, “I became excited by the potential for using contemporary technology as a way of enhancing visitors’ experience of the AGO’s Collection while working on Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures exhibition in 2016. Priam Givord designed a VR exploration of a 1500s prayer bead in the show, and visitors loved how VR made a tiny, hard-to-comprehend thing enormous, permeable, and explorable. In 2021, we decided to experiment with an even more ambitious project. We embarked on animating the Bristol ship model to reveal the stories it holds. AGO Bristol 1775 is the result of two and a half years of the AGO team and Priam’s studio collaborating creatively and tirelessly to produce an innovative, digital, museum-quality experience. I served as a translator, working between the museum world and the tech world to help both teams work together.”

AGO Bristol 1775 is free to download on the gaming portal Steam. Users can access the app anywhere in the world at store.steampowered.com/app/2605210/AGO_BRISTOL_1775_From_Warship_to_Prison_Hulk/

Simon Stephens, Curator of Ship Model and Boat Collections at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich was an important supporter of the project as well, giving historical context to who Stockwell was. In 1992, Stephens discovered a note hidden inside the Bristol ship model, identifying Stockwell as the maker.

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British. Note related to H.M.S. Bristol SML038, 1774. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo © AGO.

To help bring AGO Bristol 1775 to life, Priam Givord, a Toronto-based designer and director of immersive media and computational design, provided the technological knowledge necessary to build this multifaceted VR environment. He told us, “The Bristol project is an innovative exploration of a museum object. It’s the first of its kind on Steam.com - the biggest game portal in the world. Using the latest technology, including multiplayer support, it launches the AGO into the future of museums in the digital age.”

The Photogrammetric Rendering of The Bristol

Sherry Phillips, also on the team, lent her expertise as a conservator of contemporary art and ship models to inform the research and content development. Phillips was struck by the fact that Stockwell took an enormous ship and made it miniature, and with VR, the team was able to take the miniature and rebuild the now-lost enormous ship. “Our application of VR to the Bristol ship model is a modern take on an old technique of changing scale; ship-building plans on paper were used to create the model in 1774, and the full-size ship in 1775,” says Phillips. “250 years later, we merged current technology -- CT scans, photogrammetry VR with an examination of the historical period to create a full-scale virtual, immersive ship model. AGO Bristol 1775 represents much of what I enjoyed most about my job as an art conservator: research and interdisciplinary collaboration to help make art more accessible.”

Adam Harris Levine, Associate Curator, European Art at the AGO, also supported this project from an art historical perspective. “The ship models in the Thomson Collection are incredible resources for the study of the past. This entire project revolves around a single, remarkable object, and allowed us to build a portal into a brief and fascinating moment in history. The Bristol doesn’t exist anymore, but with our model and our collaborative research, we have resurrected it, and our visitors can travel through time and space to study the past.”

Experience AGO Bristol 1775: From Warship to Prison Hulk for yourself  on Steam’s website. For more on the research that went into the project, visit ago.ca/collection/exploring-bristol.