Join Daniel F. Herrmann, Ardalan Curator for Modern and Contemporary Projects at the National Gallery, Dr Kevin Lotery, Associate Professor at Boston College and Isaac Nugent, art historian and researcher across the [re]curated series as they retell the story behind the exhibition and its paintings.
Together they try to answer questions such as, why was there an ironing board in the exhibition? Could you actually sit on those chairs? And who won Wimbledon in 1978?
Part of [re]curated, a series of virtual exhibition films from the National Gallery that explore how digital tools can help us unveil exhibitions from the past, for both research and enjoyment.
Making the Richard Hamilton [re]curated film marked a new opportunity for the National Gallery. Whilst the [re]curated series relied on creating virtual models using Unreal Engine and using them as a film asset, this time we were able to use the models in NGX – a newly created virtual production studio at the Gallery – offering the chance to deepen the experience and make a more engaging and rich film.
Researcher Isaac Nugent dug through the Gallery’s archives to help an Unreal Engine developer construct a virtual version of the exhibition space, as true to the exhibition’s 1978 reality as possible.
Then, with the help of production company Mind the Film, we placed Daniel Hermann inside the reconstructed exhibition.
Plenty of testing occurred to ensure that Daniel not only ‘floated’ in the space but interacted with the exhibition in the way a visitor in 1978 might have done. That includes sitting on a rattan chair and switching the exhibition’s television set off.
Outside of the technical innovations of the film, the scope of the film was extensive. The production included filming in Boston with academic and Richard Hamilton expert Kevin Lotery.
Creating rich assets in this way gives the Gallery the opportunity to present the research not only as a linear film. In conjunction with the film’s launch, Daniel and Lawrence Chiles, head of digital at the Gallery, premiered the reconstructed space at the 2025 Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria. Working with the Ars Electronica and their FutureLab team, they were able to make use of the models for the Richard Hamilton experience and an earlier project featuring a David Hockney reconstruction in their Deep Space immersive projection facility. Daniel was able to present a live lecture in 3D as part of the Ars Electronica programme, guiding the audience through the artist’s decision-making process, their choices of Gallery paintings and how the Gallery is discovering new meaning using digital tools.
