The Ruskin Project

Recently, ITPI joined forces with Professor Sandra Kemp, the esteemed curator of the Ruskin Museum and Research Centre, for a transformative project. The Ruskin Project focuses on celebrating the legacy of John Ruskin by utilising Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and Artifical Intelligence (AI) to provide a unique platform for appreciating and learning about his work.

John Ruskin (1819-1900), The epoch-defining writer, artist, and social thinker.

What we've been working on

The Ruskin opened a museum and research centre at the Lancaster University campus with the aim to make Ruskins collection, programme and research accessible to more people. Sadly, this building had to close and this project strived to obtain the funding and build appreciation for Ruskin's work, with the hopes that the building could be 'future-proofed' and once again house this wonderful artwork. We are very pleased that our efforts have been succesful!

As part of this project, we developed a series of Virtual and Augmented Reality experiences relating to John Ruskin's artwork and philosophy. This technology toured the country, visiting schools, London and many pop-up stalls across the university. The success of our innovative project contributed to the securing of the funding for the Ruskin building on campus to be renovated.

Want to know more about the reopening of the building or our project? Check it out here.

The Ruskin VR and AR Digital Experiences

Want to see a snapshot of our VR and AR experiences? Watch our team discuss the project and it's impact across campus.

Click to view

The Customer

The ITPI team are working closely with the Curator of the Ruskin Museum and Resarch Centre who is Professor Sandra Kemp.

Sandra and the Ruskin Team have been working very closely with us to find a mutually beneficial solution. She came to us with a problem, and we are working on innovative solutions for this. This collaborative work has so far been very successful, and we are very excited for what is still to come of this project and everything we've achieved so far.

Want to find out more about The Ruskin Team. Click here for their website.

The Problem

When The Ruskin approached us about this project, their concerns lied in the lack of awareness around Ruskin, his work, and the museum. Therefore, we wanted to provide an innovative solution.

Our question therefore was, 'How could we create a desire to learn about Ruskin and make his work accessible throughout the world to people of all ages and backgrounds through one innovative solutions?'

We came up with a series of experiences using the latest and most popular technologies... Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and even utilised Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In using these technologies, we have been able to attract various audiences to Ruskin’s work, creating engaging experiences that appeal to all and can be accessed by a wide variety of people.

A young boy using a Cyanometer to measure the colour of the sky with AR.

Our Success in Images

Working on this project has been truly rewarding. For us, seeing you use and enjoy the experiences we've created means everything. As you can see from the images below, we have been able to reach a wide audience and the impact of these experiences have really been shown in the feedback we've received.

Young girl seeing her Ruskin style unicorn creation

Ruskin VR Imagination Cave

Our Ruskin Imagination Cave experience in VR allows you to create anything you like in the style of Ruskin using AI. We have seen how successful this experience has been amongst the younger audience as they are fascinated by the creations they have made and the unique Ruskin style. This experience allows them to use their creativity and inspires them to learn about Ruskin as they are intrigued by this style of art.

Ruskin postcards being shown through AR

Ruskin AR Postcards

We have come up with an innovative postcard experience allowing you to see the word through a different lens. The postcards are scannable through the 8th wall platform, allowing you to see the story behind the images on the postcards. Whether it's the bigger picture or the painting in a modern day context, the postcards aim to teach you about Ruskin's thinking and the philosophy he was trying to instil. By using AR, this experience has attracted people through its innovative and engaging approach.

  • Ruskin's Cyanometer AR experience

    We've used Ruskin Cyanometer creation and turned it into an AR experience. This allows you to measure the colour of your sky from anywhere, a concept created by Ruskin in his aim to asses climate change. Bringing a 19th century creation into the modern world through an engaging way that allows you to share your sky.

  • Our Ruskin VR experiences are really for everyone!

    We want to get as many people as possible engaging with our experiences and learning about Ruskin. Therefore, we have created them very carefully so that they are easy and fun to use, made for all audiences to us (even when carrying your baby). We are also really encouraging young children to learn about Ruskin and these innovative ways have proved to be a great solution as they love technology.

  • Your feedback is invaluable!

    We're so glad you've liked our experiences. By letting us know what you've liked and how we can improve, we can work to constantly better our offering.

The Team

The team behind this project has really been working hard to make it the success it is becoming. Here you can find the ITPI members who have been working on this project:

Brian Green & Abigail Wells

Lead the interface between the client and the team, reviewing and overlooking the project.

Raeesa Parker, Eden Wong & Henry Do

Developers working on the VR experiences.

Anthony Humphries & Maria Hristova

Developers working on the AR experiences.

Cat Bond & Ava Sims

UI/UX Developers and design guidance for the experiences.

Joanna Ortiz, Farzanah Parker & Dulcie Brewer

Assisting with any Marketing, Admin and events for the project.