Riddle me this, Virtual Reality Users….What might make you want to look even closer at a bunch of great early 19th-century
British landscape paintings by J.M.W. Turner and John Constable at the Victoria and Albert Museum?
Checking out works by the most important British Romantic painters has never been so engaging. As with all WoofbertVR experiences, you can zoom up close–as close as you want–to look at whatever piques your interest. You can see tiny brushwork or explore other minute details–from the legs of a leaping horse to the blue distress beacon of a sinking ship, or (almost all) 365 windows of a Gothic cathedral.
Additionally, in this experience, WoofbertVR is introducing an exciting NEW feature–a RIDDLE MACHINE which appropriates the form of another V&A object from an adjacent gallery, Gainsborough’s wooden Showbox. This late 18th-century invention offered a captivating experience when viewers peeked into a special box fitted with a magnifying lens at landscapes painted on glass plates backlit by candles.
Using 21st-century technology, WoofbertVR’s Riddle Machine generates 8 clever and cryptic riddles prompting the inquisitive user to venture throughout the V&A gallery on a scavenger hunt.
Based on the riddle below, could you identify which one of the 17 paintings in Gallery 87 is being described?
“Reading the trees from left to right
you might miss the local church spire,
nearly out of sight
Despite its obscurity,
this far left view is not at all trite
For there buried in the graveyard,
lie Constable and his wife”
If you can solve this riddle, you will be rewarded with coins and encouraged to continue the quest. Successful completion of all 8 riddles activates a special reward you will not want to miss.
Don’t worry if you need help along the way. Users can purchase hints….But before you make any guesses, why not wander around the gallery and familiarize yourself with some of the landscapes?
Of course, everyone is welcome to enjoy and engage with this room full of Turners and Constables at their leisure…But something tells me you are just curious and competitive enough to feel the lure of the WoofbertVR Riddle Challenge.
