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December 11 2019
By Jim Richardson
These projects show how museums and artists explored mixed-reality interpretation with HoloLens in the late 2010s. They remain useful design references, but should not be read as a current list of available installations or a recommendation to buy the same hardware.
What is HoloLens?
HoloLens is a mixed-reality headset developed by Microsoft. Unlike Virtual Reality, which is closed to the surrounding world, mixed reality adds images to a user’s surroundings. These 3D holographic images are displayed on the transparent HoloLens display and are visible only to the user.
Originally released in 2016, HoloLens was followed by HoloLens 2 in 2019.
Technology note, 10 October 2026: Microsoft states that HoloLens devices have not been manufactured since December 2024. Check Microsoft’s device-specific release and support notes for the hardware and software you use; support periods differ by generation and version.
Alongside applications in healthcare, manufacturing and retail, museums experimented with HoloLens to add digital images and stories to physical spaces. The examples below describe those historical projects.
Historical HoloLens examples: Defying Gravity (2018)
Imagine putting your visitors face to face with an important figure from history, that’s what Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City did with its 2018 HoloLens experience. Visitors to the museum could put on a HoloLens headset for an encounter with a life-size hologram of astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison (the first woman of color in space).
In the “Defying Gravity” installation, Dr. Jemison discussed her career and those of other women involved in the space program. Rather than transporting users to another place, the HoloLens technology brought the astronaut to their physical location in the museum.
Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Capture Studio in San Francisco used 106 cameras to record the hologram of Dr. Jemison. The installation opened on September 22 2018.
Destination: Mars (2016)
Another example of an important figure from the exploration of space being immortalised for an exhibit comes from the Kennedy Space Center.
The Destination: Mars experience opened in September 2016 and took visitors on a tour with astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Curiosity rover operator Erisa Hines. Through the headset, visitors could view Martian sites generated from real images captured on the planet’s surface.
The HoloLens experience wasn’t originally developed for public use, but was adapted from a program used by NASA scientists to analyze Mars imagery and simulate working in the field.
HoloLens Brings Mixed Reality Museum to Kyoto
One of the big advantages of the Mixed Reality experience delivered by HoloLens over Virtual Reality is the way in which it allows holograms to interact with the real world. One example developed in partnership with the Kyoto National Museum gave visitors to the oldest Zen temple in Japan a personal tour from a Zen Monk.
The HoloLens experience blended historic artifacts with digital imagery visible through the headset to give visitors a new way to appreciate and understand one of Japan’s national treasures.
Mixed Reality Art on HoloLens
Concrete Storm was an artwork developed by Amsterdam-based artist duo Studio Drift in collaboration with Microsoft and Artsy for the 2017 Armory Show New York.
In the installation, a trio of concrete pillars that were static to the naked eye appeared to nearly quadruple in height and animate through the headset, like tree trunks swaying in a sudden breeze, when visitors put on HoloLens.
The artists said “Concrete Storm expands our boundaries of the digital world, unbound from screens, and integrated into the fabric of our physical existence”.
HoloLens Exhibition brings iconic cars to life
The Petersen Automotive Museum is home to one of the greatest collections of cars in the world, including many one-of-a-kind vehicles from film, television, and video games.
To celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2019, the Petersen teamed up with the Comic-Con Museum to spotlight iconic cars in their collection. The Petersen turned to HoloLens to bring a new element of theater to the iconic DeLorean from Back to the Future with an intimate tour from Bob Gale the creator and producer of the movie.
Fans could also explore the “Warthog” from the Halo gaming franchise.
Exhibit lets visitors look inside the Supercars
Also at the Petersen Automotive Museum was An American Supercar, an exhibit looking at the history of Ford’s renowned GT sports car. Microsoft’s historical account of the project described an exhibition scheduled to run through September 2018.
HoloLens technology allowed the museum to tell the story of these cars as never before, taking visitors into the inner workings of the GT and its historical predecessors.
The museum described HoloLens as “unique technology provides an untethered altered reality where users connect with others inside the same scene while remaining aware of their surroundings.”
Bringing Mont Saint Michel to Life
In 17th and 18th-century France, large-scale 3D maps—painstakingly built by hand down to the most intricate details—were the most advanced mapping technology of their time.
Fast-forward 300 years, and Musee des Plans-Reliefs and Microsoft brought one of these maps to life using HoloLens.
Mixed Reality Exhibit in New York’s Times Square
Unmoored was a site-specific artwork about climate change developed by North Carolina-based conceptual artist Mel Chin. Times Square Arts dates the project to 11 July–5 September 2018.
Unmoored allowed guests to explore a version of Times Square where thanks to melting ice caps, erosion, and coastal flooding it is entirely under water. The artwork could be accessed using HoloLens, or in augmented reality via a mobile phone.
Operational and access questions
Look at what each experience helped a visitor see or understand, then ask whether that task still needs a headset. If it does, test fit, visual access, comfort and movement with different visitors. Plan supervision, battery charging, hygiene and the time needed to prepare each device for the next user. A successful demonstration does not establish that a fleet will be practical to operate. Provide another way to encounter essential content, and consider the trade-offs of visitors’ own devices.
Plan for technology lifecycles
For a new commission, agree what happens when a device or connected service reaches the end of its supported life. Keep source assets, documentation and licences in a form the museum can maintain or migrate. Check content portability and plan for retirement before committing to hardware. Start by choosing technology around a museum task.
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With thanks to Roberta Bertini and John Stack for sharing links to HoloLens examples above.
About the author – Jim Richardson
Jim Richardson is the founder of MuseumNext. He has worked with the museum sector on digital and innovation projects for more than twenty years and now spends his time championing best practice through MuseumNext.
