Areti Galani, 22 May 2001
Vee is now in the Lighthouse
and she has decided to see the Mack room along with the rest of
the exhibitions. She bought the ticket in the reception on the
ground floor and off she goes up to the main exhibition hall.
After visiting the first floor she gets the escalator to the second
one, where the Mack room is. On the way up she puts the earpiece
on. Approaching the room, the system warms her to have her ticket
ready. She walks into the room, shows her ticket to the receptionist
and makes a couple of steps. She looks around to adjust to the
new environment. The first thing she sees is the small pictures
of Mackintosh buildings on her right. She things that this can
give her a general idea of how Mackintosh buildings look and she
may even manage to find some time to visit some of them later
in the day. She picks up the leaflet with the map hmmm,
not many things on Mackintosh in this leaflet but a nice map.
While staying for a few more
seconds in front of the panels the system starts introducing Mackintoshs
work. It also points out that a written text about Mack and his
wife M. Macdonald in on the opposite wall. She stands a bit longer
listening to the story and gradually moves towards the end of
the room. The system starts lowering the voice.
When she reaches the case with
the chair and the cupboard the system introduces the options:
on your right is the entrance to the view tower, in front
of you is an original Mack chair and on your left you will find
information about most aspects of Macks work. She
likes the chair. She had noticed the chair from the moment she
walked into the room. The system tells the story of the chair
while Vee walks around the case.
Intrigued by the story she decides
to walk left into the main exhibition space. She will go for the
view in the end of her visit. When she turns she poses for a moment
to decide which direction to follow. This space seems really interesting
but complex. At this moment the system takes advantage of the
opportunity to tell her that on her right she can have a look
at the city map with buildings designed by Mack and other Glaswegian
architects.
Vee ignores it and go straight
forward to this model of GSA in front of her. She is amazed by
the architecture. She listens a brief story about the building
and she also is informed that the drawers under the model hide
the plans of the building. She is looking at them happily when
the system informs her that if she is interested, more channels
of information are available. She takes out her PDA and she checks
the available options: well she can listen to a real time sounds
from the sculpture studios, she can listen to students
impression of how it is to work in an authentic building, she
can also see some of the paintings children did in their visit
in the GSA. Additionally, she can e-mail/text her friends, she
can put a bookmark on the building so she can check opening hours
and probably visit their webpage when back at home. She decides
to listen to some of the students comments just to take
a flavour of living and working in GSA, she taps the screen and
she listens. At that point she notices that the video screen above
the model shows picture of Mack work. Oh, she definitely needs
to tell her friend Anna about this building. She will text her.
While walking away from the
GSA model she texts Anna, she also decides to send the URL of
the VR model of the Mack room, just in case Anna is in office
and wants to have a break.
Bingo! Vee sees casually the
model of the house of an Art Lover when her PDA announces that
Anna is next to her and she asks permission to speak to her. Vee
accepts the call. They spend a couple of seconds exchanging greetings.
Anna had heard of Mackintosh before but she did not have the chance
to visit Glasgow. They decide to go around the Mack room together.
The system free the sound stream for their discussions and delivers
in text mode the rest of the content. Vee enjoys the visit and
look occasionally on her PDAs screen. In many of the cases
Anna reads aloud comments she likes.
In that last workstation Vee
is interested to find more about this blue stripe bedroom. The
label on the wall says that the room is reconstructed in the Mac
house in the Hunterian Art Gallery. Anna, however, has already
clicked on the room. She finds herself in an entirely new environment.
Vee does not understand whats happening, she is trying
to read this strange story about the Mack house when Anna starts
describing the so-called guest room in the Mack house. On her
screen can see that Anna is not in the room any more. She asks
from her if she can open the drawers in the bed side tables. Nothing
interesting there! Some other visitors in the virtual Mack house
inform Anna that she can also try the chairs in the living room
downstairs. She will go for it. She thanks Vee for her text message
and go to explore the rest of the house.
Vee wishes Anna good luck and
turns back heading to the tower, time for fresh air. The system
starts speaking to her again, giving hints ant tips about the
glass wall on her right. She keeps on walking. Just before she
enters the tower the system reminds her to have a quick look in
the photo of old Glasgow hanging in front of the window on her
left. She glimpses at it and starts climbing the stair. On the
top of the tower she feels surprised of the view. She walks around,
more visitors enjoy the view chatting happily and pointing out
places. She decides to take of her earpiece and just spend some
moments looking at Glasgow. She can even see this enormous screen
in Buchanan Street: Hey, wait a minute! Vee, thanks for
the trip. Anna, thats her friend.
Returning back to the Mack room
she thinks of where else she can go for the rest of the afternoon.
She gives a last look back in the room and she walks out. Its
time for coffee. She decides to go upstairs to Boocoot café,
she gets her coffee and reviewing her visit to the Mack room,
she browses the thinks she bookmarked earlier. She also has a
look on the recommendations the system makes. She finds that this
visit to Princes Square shopping mall across the road that this
guy from Edinburgh did the last time he was in Glasgow and had
visited the Mack room is not a bad idea. The system informs her
that Princes Square hosts some of the posh shops in the area;
she will go window-shopping! She finishes her coffee. She leaves
a brief comment in the on-line visitor book and her address to
include her in their mailing list and takes the lift down.