Museums & Culture
Step into the exhibition
Your visitors read the label, look at the case, and move on. Put a Manifest Mirror in the atrium and they become a queen of Egypt, a samurai, a Renaissance artist — live, in their own face, in seconds. The recording travels home by email. The story travels with it.
The proposition
History is easier to remember when you have worn it
A mirror-format display with a camera stands in the visitor route. A guest steps in front of it and a real-time generative video engine dresses them in the period — wardrobe, setting and light change, the face does not. There is no photo booth countdown and no still image. It is continuous video, and it is them.
Why culture venues
Three problems a mirror actually solves
Cultural institutions rarely need more content. They need participation, a reason to circulate, and a souvenir that does some work after the visit ends.
Passive rooms become active ones
Most of a permanent collection is looked at. A mirror is entered. The guest is not an audience for the period — for ninety seconds they are inside it, and their friends are watching them be inside it. That changes how a room behaves.
Dwell where you want it
Place the unit at the entrance to pull people in, or at the end of the route to hold them before the shop. Formats run from a free-standing portrait unit to a wall panel, so the mirror fits the floor plan rather than the other way round.
A souvenir with a sender
The recording arrives in the visitor's inbox after the session. It is a video of them, so it gets watched and it gets shared. Every share carries the exhibition into a feed you did not have to buy.
Museum world — Ancient Egypt
Interpretation
Education that lands in the body
Costume is one of the few things in a museum that everyone already understands. Wearing it — seeing your own shoulders in the linen, your own face under the headdress — turns a distant period into a personal one.
- Ten periods, one face. Ancient Egypt, Roman Empire, Medieval Knight, Samurai, Renaissance Artist, Viking Age, Victorian Era, Baroque Court, Roaring Twenties, Ancient Greece.
- Switch mid-session. The guest moves between moments during the same ninety seconds, so comparison happens naturally: what a Roman wore, what a Viking wore.
- Your curatorial voice. Worlds are built in Manifest Studio from references your curators supply or approve, and every moment is reviewed by a human before it is published to a venue.
The recording leaves with the visitor
Afterwards
The souvenir that markets you
A postcard sits in a drawer. A video of yourself as a samurai does not. The session is assembled after the guest steps away and delivered to the address they entered on their own phone.
- Delivery by email. No download queue at the unit, no staff handing out files, no cables.
- Consent is the entry condition. The guest gives the address themselves, so what leaves the building leaves with permission.
- Short retention by design. Recordings are deleted automatically after seven days and email deliveries after thirty.
Museum world — Victorian Era
Operations
No app. No attendant. No stall.
Visitors will not install anything for a three-minute encounter, and your front-of-house team cannot run a studio. The mirror is designed to be left alone.
- Phone as remote. The guest scans the QR code and pairs at qr.manifestmirror.com in the browser. Touch on the unit works just as well.
- Kiosk mode. The unit runs as a fullscreen PWA with the whole world precached, so attract mode keeps playing if the network drops.
- One policy, every unit. Session length is set centrally and applies to the whole fleet — shorten it for a busy Saturday, restore it on Monday.
The Museum world
Ten moments, one visit
A brand world is a set of ten moments a guest can move between in a single session. The Museum world is the reference set: broad enough for a general collection, specific enough that each period reads at a glance.
The visit
Ninety seconds, from glance to inbox
The whole encounter is designed around a queue that has to keep moving on a Sunday afternoon.
- Attract
Between guests the mirror plays the world. People see the transformation happening to someone else before they ever consider standing in front of it.
- Pair or touch
Scan the QR code to use a phone as the remote, or use the unit directly. Nothing is installed and no account is created.
- Ninety seconds
The guest appears in the period and switches moments at will. Identity lock holds the face, proportions and expression while wardrobe, setting and lighting change around them.
- Home by email
The recording is assembled and sent to the address the guest entered. The unit is already back in attract mode for the next visitor.
Operating model
Rent it for the show, or keep it
Two ways to run a mirror in a cultural venue. Both use the same unit, the same worlds and the same central configuration.
Special exhibition
A rental for the run of the show. We build a world around your subject in Manifest Studio, test it on a mirror, and publish it to the unit before opening. At the end of the run the mirror leaves and the world stays in your library for the tour.
Typical build: brief to live in about ten days. Commercial terms on request.
Permanent installation
The mirror becomes part of the permanent route — atrium, foyer or the last room before the shop. Swap the world by season or by department: the Museum world as a baseline, a second world for a school programme or a partner campaign.
Purchase or rental. Session policy and look are configured centrally.
| 9:16 portrait | Free-standing unit for the atrium, the entrance or a window facing the street |
|---|---|
| 3:4 | Counter unit beside ticketing or the shop till |
| 1:1 | Plinth unit inside a gallery, where a full-height mirror would dominate |
| 4:3 | Wall unit along a corridor or in an education space |
| 16:9 | Wall panel above a counter or in the foyer, visible from the queue |
| Modes | Outfit only, which keeps your real gallery behind the guest, or full world |
| Session | 90 seconds by default, adjustable centrally for peak days |
| Look | Gold is the default for culture venues; nine looks available, including Atelier and Concierge |
A screen asks for attention. A mirror gives something first — and then the visitor decides to give attention back.
Manifest Media manifesto
Curator questions
The five questions we are always asked
Treat each moment as an interpretation, not a reconstruction. Moments are built in Manifest Studio from a scene image, a garment reference and a written prompt, all of which your curators can supply or amend, and every moment is reviewed by a person before it is published to a venue. Where a period needs to be exact — a specific dynasty, a specific regiment — we build that moment against your references rather than a generic one.
Identity lock preserves what the camera sees: face, skin tone, age, expression and body proportions. Glasses, head coverings, beards, wheelchairs and seated guests are preserved the same way — the wardrobe and the setting change around the person, the person does not change. The camera sits at eye height and the mirror can be operated from a phone, so a guest who cannot reach the unit can still control the session.
Children take part only with the consent of a guardian, who also provides the email address for the recording. Guests see a notice that the image is AI-generated before the session begins. Recordings are deleted automatically after seven days and email deliveries after thirty, and no biometric templates are stored. Our approach is set out in full under privacy and compliance and in the AI notice.
Switch it on. The unit runs in kiosk mode as a fullscreen PWA with the world precached, so it survives a network interruption without leaving attract mode. Session length, look and format are set centrally and protected, so nothing on the floor can be changed by accident. Diagnostics and content updates are handled remotely.
Yes. The rental model exists for exactly that: a world built for your show, a mirror for the run, removal afterwards. If the exhibition tours, the world goes with it and can be published to a mirror at the next venue without being rebuilt.
Next
Keep reading
Museum showcase
All ten moments of the Museum world, the Gold look and the session narrative.
Explore
Events & trade shows
The same unit as a temporary attraction, with consent-based lead capture.
Explore
Why physical media
The argument behind Value-First Media, and why presence is not yet participation.
Read the essayMuseum world moments are demonstration concepts produced for the Manifest Mirror platform. Costume, setting and lighting are artistic interpretations and are not presented as scholarly reconstructions. Build times and operating models are indicative and confirmed per venue.