Following the June announcement that Living Computers: Museum + Labs would stay closed for good, fans of the Seattle institution lamented the inability to ever set foot in the place again, to see and use the collection of computing history assembled by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
A virtual tour may not provide the hands-on experience that made Living Computers so special, but it could help keep some memories alive for museum lovers. And for those who might want to own one of Allen’s old machines, the tour has been updated with links to the Christie’s auction of some artifacts.
Paolo Tosolini, a Seattle-area tech veteran and founder of Tosolini Productions, originally did one of his high-tech 3D photo scans of Living Computers back in 2015. He returned in 2017 to do a more detailed scan of the first and second floors of the space in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood.
Tosolini hoped to do another refresh in 2019 or 2020, but by the time the pandemic hit, Living Computers was closed, and it would never reopen.
“It’s frozen in time,” Tosolini said of the view inside Living Computers that his tour provides.
Using technology from the 3D capture platform Matterport, the tour contains interactive “hot spots” to 16 items that are up for auction. They include a variety of mainframes, micro and minicomputers, early Microsoft software packages, an Apple Newton Messagepad, a Microsoft Surface tabletop and more.
Not all auction items are tagged in the tour because many may have been in storage and not on display when Tosolini did his scans. But along the way, users can move through the museum and view a variety of former exhibits and even poke around in areas that were originally off limits, like behind mainframes.
Even though he provided the easy ability to get from the museum to the auction site, Tosolini wasn’t rushing to buy any computers, some of which were expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“I was looking at the Apple-1,” he said. “Let’s assume I had the cash. Should I buy a new apartment? Should I buy Nvidia [stock]? Or should I get the Apple-1? Which one will appreciate more?”
Tosolini also has a tour of the first floor of Living Computers — a space that was dedicated to more modern technology and interactive displays. Both tours can be viewed in virtual reality through headsets such as the Meta Quest.
Like others, Tosolini misses what Living Computers provided, and admits he had an emotional attachment to seeing and interacting with the old machines. He views his work as way for technology to aid in historic preservation.
He’s previously scanned airplanes for Seattle’s Museum of Flight, and in 2018 he took to a boat in Lake Washington to capture shoreline views. He even scanned the old Randy’s Restaurant near Boeing Field, and his view inside is all that is left of the diner that was demolished in 2021.
Although it appears to be too late to use on Living Computers artifacts, Tosolini is experimenting with virtual tours that also combine augmented reality views of items. And a mobile app for the Museum of Flight uses 3D scans taken right from smartphones.
“All this tech is opening doors for museums to connect with people and preserve history in exciting new ways,” he said.
Related coverage:
- Seattle’s Living Computers Museum logs off for good as Paul Allen estate will auction vintage items
- Fans upset by closure of Living Computers question why Seattle museum couldn’t be saved
- They gave machines to Living Computers for preservation, but museum’s closure is a bitter end
- Key artifacts from Microsoft and Apple history to be sold by Christie’s from Paul Allen’s collection
- Computer shoes, Pac-Man, a rock from space and more gems in the upcoming Paul Allen auction
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