The theme of Smithsonian Museum Day 2018 was Women Making History. On this day of free access to over 1300 Smithsonian institutions and affiliated museums, programming focused on the achievements of women across the arts, science, and humanities. Knowing that women remain underrepresented in the sciences (they make up only 29% of the science and engineering workforce), Microsoft sought to create a Museum Day activation to inspire young women in STEM and celebrate the accomplishments of some heretofore unheralded women in the US space program. Our goal was also to create an approachable but immersive museum experience. Microsoft HoloLens (and a Dr. Jemison hologram) was the only way to do this.

The theme of Smithsonian Museum Day 2018 was Women Making History. On this day of free access to over 1300 Smithsonian institutions and affiliated museums, programming focused on the achievements of women across the arts, science, and humanities. Knowing that women remain underrepresented in the sciences (they make up only 29% of the science and engineering workforce), Microsoft sought to create a Museum Day activation to inspire young women in STEM. In partnership with Smithsonian and Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, we developed a mixed reality experience powered by the Microsoft HoloLens. Located aboard the Intrepid beneath the Space Shuttle Enterprise, Defying Gravity: Women in Space explores the stories of previously unsung women who have made critical contributions to the US space and shuttle programs. The 10-minute experience is hosted by a holographic Dr. Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to go to space.

The Defying Gravity activation and visual content focused on weaving a narrative that appeals to our Gen Z tech-forward target, particularly girls/women, and especially those with an interest in Women’s Equality/Empowerment, Space/NASA, and Science and Education/Technology. We sought to sound a rallying cry of representation and inclusion to inspire the next generation. Inspired by Smithsonian Museum Day’s theme of “Women Making History,” we focused on underrepresented figures in the US space program—all women. Enlisting Dr. Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to go to space, was cruciall to creating an authentic experience that could inspire women and women of color in particular.

106 cameras at Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Capture Studio captured Dr. Jemison from every angle, creating a life-sized hologram to anchor our Defying Gravity experience. She takes visitors on a journey beneath and around the Space Shuttle Enterprise, sharing the stories of women pioneers in the space program, herself included. The mixed reality experience utilizes custom animations, historical photos, and the aforementioned holographic Dr. Jemison to bring these stories to life. Defying Gravity launched on September 22, 2018, and will continue to run through to September 21, 2019. Up to 4 people can be in the experience at a time, with the experience running during the Intrepid’s opening hours, Monday-Sunday, 10am-5pm. The activation and visual content focused on weaving a narrative that appeals to our Gen Z tech-forward target, especially those with an interest in Women’s Equality/Empowerment, Space/NASA, and Science and Education/Technology. With Defying Gravity, we sought to sound a rallying cry of representation and inclusion to inspire the next generation, to ensure that what happened to Dr. Jemison, doesn’t happen again: “When I was a little girl growing up, I was really irritated that there were no women astronauts and no people of color,” says Dr. Jemison. “As a seven-year-old, I thought, ‘What if aliens run into this crew? They’re going to think that those are the only people on Earth!’ I thought it was unreasonable for us not to have everyone represented.”

The installation was a huge success at Museum Day; wait times for the experience were consistently over an hour. Which, for a museum and not an amusement park, is impressive. Attendees young and old have noted coming away inspired and impressed — not by the technology, but by the stories we’re sharing, which is always our goal (for the tech to be in service to the stories, and not the other way around). The Intrepid even asked to keep it installed for an entire year. So far, a whopping 1.4 billion people have been exposed to Defying Gravity through earned media alone. We had amazing reach of over 25M with 2M engagements and 1.9M video views and counting.