Getty Villa’s sweeping exhibition, Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World, was in alignment with the museum’s mission: to advance and share the world's visual art and cultural heritage for the benefit of all. But extending this important work to a global level required the integration of interactive technology, to re-envision how art and history inspire a modern audience.

Audience goals included accessibility and inclusivity. Engaging global viewers meant extending beyond “typical” museum experiences. Our content needed to be accessible and relatable: across all ages, from casual observers to educated historians, with particular care paid to the Iranian community.

Getty’s carefully curated collection of ancient art objects from museums across the globe revealed a story that took shape in the halls of Persia’s opulent and influential citadel, Persepolis. Virtually walking the grounds of this influential landmark led our educational storytelling to become personal, explorational, and memorable.

Developed with leading experts, a historically-accurate, detailed model of the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis became the basis for two immersive activations:

Persepolis Reimagined is an immersive digital experience that allows people to explore the palaces, plazas, and gardens of Persepolis while learning about ancient Persian culture and discovering digitized objects from the exhibition. Utilizing advances in WebGL 2.0, the experience is packed with technical marvels to ensure seamless transitions and optimized quality and performance.

At the Getty Villa, an on-site, 360º immersive film, Persepolis: The Palace Experience, transported guests back in time to discover Persepolis firsthand—traveling the path a visiting emissary would have taken to bring tribute to the king.

On a global scale, the experiences challenged the world’s perception of ancient Persia— reviving the past for a modern audience and allowing them to intimately connect with history like never before

Persepolis was built over 200 years, but our brief was to recreate it in a few months. We worked with Getty curators and experts to design an accurate 3D recreation of Perseoplis as well as a narrative that helped contextualize the exhibition both online and on-site at the museum.

Optimizing the 3D model for web use was the biggest challenge. To achieve a photorealistic representation of a city-scale subject while allowing the user to explore details on a human scale, things like lighting and surface details had to be baked into a single diffuse texture. We optimized our model and code in both WebGL and HTML/CSS — achieving the perfect balance between performance and audiovisual experience.

At the museum, we used the same model to create a cinema-quality 360 degree immersive animated experience that literally transported visitors back in time to experience the capital firsthand.

Getty’s exhibition revealed to people around the globe that Greek and Roman art, politics, and culture intersected with Persia in deeper ways that are commonly known. In fact, Persia preceded and influenced many factors of our integrated modern society, with Persepolis serving as a ground for tributes from many nations to share gifts representing their way of life.

Persepolis Reimagined is a reclamation of historic Iranian power and wisdom. The site’s in-depth exploration of art objects, religious beliefs, and noble words of Persian kings aims to give the Iranian community — in California and abroad — the opportunity to walk in the steps of their ancestors and see the achievements of the Persian Empire up close.