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 Mackintosh’s 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 Mack’s 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 PDA’s 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 what’s 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”, that’s 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. It’s 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.