Picts, Pixels and The Future

Remember when museums were dusty, old buildings that you only visited on school trips, tip-toeing around the exhibits, afraid to touch anything? A lot has changed since those days, and since Culture Perth and Kinross took over control of Perth Museum & Art Gallery (along with library services, and The Fergusson gallery) in 2016 they’ve made it their mission to create a bright interactive space that attracts exciting, dynamic events and exhibitions.

Their new one, ‘Picts & Pixels’, brings history to life using cutting edge digital and gaming technology. It opened last week and runs until the 12^th August, so you can catch it all summer long. Visitors can explore the Pict era through virtual reality headsets and interactive stations, including a reconstruction of Moredun Top Hill Fort in Perth as it may have been, which visitors can ‘fly through’ and explore.

Visitors can also get hands-on and examine ancient Pictish objects up close through 3-D modelling technology. These include the Inchyra Stone with its cryptic inscriptions and a ‘celtic’ stone head originally found by two schoolboys in 1965 at the North Muirton end of the North Inch.

Forensic artist Hayley Fisher will be producing a 2-D facial reconstruction of the face of a Pict, using a partial skeleton found in Blair Atholl, and there’s plenty of opportunity to explore items on loan from the National Museum of Scotland.

The exhibition is a collaboration with the University of St Andrews’ Open Virtual Worlds Research team, who set out to create an event which attracted both those with an interest in the subject matter and the younger generation who are into technology and gaming. They wanted to start conversations between these people, to spark an interest into both local and human history.

If you’re guilty of walking straight past the museum, assuming you already know what is behind those shiny doors, think again. Go inside and explore, there's so many great things going on, including this latest exhibition.

Picts & Pixels runs from May 20^th to August 12^th.

£4 Adults; £3 Concessions; £10 Family ticket.

For more information see here>

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