Back to reality
Museum visitors get a taste of virtual reality
My heart was racing and palms sweating as I made my way to the starting line.
It was a beautiful day for a race on The Bras D’or Lake, but I was clearly in over my head.
WAY over my head. My opponent was Casey Baldwin, a familiar name to anyone who grew up in or around Baddeck.
The grandson of Robert Baldwin, Casey was an engineer and life-long associate of Alexander Graham Bell. In 1919 he set a world speed record in the Hydrofoil HD4.
I was clearly outmatched. Before I had time to think any more about it we were off - in a hydrofoil race for the ages. It was a bit bulky to steer but as I accelerated, it shook, rumbled and then finally roared its way across the bay. I hoped my grandmothers (who both worked on the estate at some point) were watching. I smashed buoys and lost badly but I had so much fun. Then it was over.
I took off the goggles and climbed out of the seat and back to present day reality at The Alexander Graham Bell Museum.
The virtual reality experience had a soft launch last summer, but Parks Canada used the next few months to gather feedback and work out the bugs before officially bringing it online this season.
The experience is in collaboration with The Alexander Graham Bell Museum Association, which received ACOA funding, a large portion of which went toward this project. It was designed by VMP Group of Sydney and even the props were all made in Cape Breton.
“It’s really the Museum Association’s project,” says visitor experience manager Valerie Mason. “It’s just being held here.
They call it bleeding edge technology. Not just cutting edge – bleeding edge. So, for us the great connection is the fact that Bell was on the bleeding edge of technology in so many different fields - and now we have this experience that ties back into the work he did back then.
“It was 100 years ago next year. That’s the anniversary, which is why in part the hydrofoil was chosen for the experience. All three (booths) are identical but in the future, there may be another one coming because you can do anything with that technology. This can be modified for all kinds of different experiences.”
There are also plans for a fourth, but probably not this year.
“It’s available in English and French but we found that it’s an experience that’s intuitive enough that there really isn’t a language barrier. You may not understand what’s being said in the headphones as you walk down (to the dock), but you can play the game.”
I might have been a loser in the hydrofoil, but the Bell Museum is on a winning streak,
with 2017 as its best year in the last 20. Attendance was up 34 per cent from the year before.
“There’s definitely an emphasis on giving visitors experiences,” says Mason. “Not just come and look at this - be involved in this. Certainly, there was such an enthusiastic response to 2017 and free admission, that although it’s not possible to continue that, admission is free for anyone under 18 going forward and admission for new Canadians is free. That’s the direction that Parks is going. They want to encourage youth to experience Canada’s natural and
cultural heritage.”
When I point out how much fun I had, Mason smiles in agreement. The experience gives you a real sense of what Bell and his team accomplished and as she says, “How exciting it must have been. A hundred and fourteen kilometres an hour, at that time - Nothing went that fast. Nothing went near that fast.”