Virtual experiences have become so closely associated with the Internet, it’s easy to forget that virtuality existed before computers.
But even 10 minutes — or, better still, an hour — spent meandering wide-eyed and fingers-ready through the spanking new Gorton’s Seafood Gallery, an airy loft added over the winter to tie together three heretofore separate parts of the Gloucester Marine Heritage Center, will rectify the misconception that virtual reality is the dimension only of the Web.
Indeed, it won’t take long for the "Fitting Out" exhibit, a gallery filled with examples of the many technological fields needed for a marine economy, to remind visitors that it doesn’t take a computer or a personal digital assistant to enter a virtual world.