Three Virtual Museums: From Dubious Splendors to Death and Other Realities

The article reviews three virtual museums available as apps or games. The Museum of Dubious Splendors is a hybrid of fairy tale book and exploration game, recreating rooms from a legendary collection of stories by Gujarati poet Mir UmarHassan. His work, originally written in 1962 for the Malwa Chronicle, mixes Urdu and Hindi and was notoriously difficult to translate. The collection became the subject of India's first intellectual property lawsuit after being published without the author's permission. Despite restoration efforts, the text used for this adaptation may not be the original. The Dark Hill Museum of Death offers five themed paths: Executions, Human Sacrifices, War, Burials, and the Black Death. It is designed as a calm, explanatory walkthrough suitable for older children, lasting about an hour, with no jump scares. The Museum of Other Realities is an interactive, immersive world hosting artists and collective exhibitions, with a monthly opening schedule. It aims to attract artists to experiment with new art forms. The article notes the rise of such virtual spaces, following earlier examples like Second Life and Occupy White Walls.