National Gallery Multimedia Guide

I went to the National Gallery and to La cage aux folles last Monday with my Greek friend. We decided to test the National Gallery application. It was probably my sixth time there and my friend visited it for the first time. As we went in the morning, it wasn't so full, then we could enjoy more the visit. Well, she got a paper plan that had a map and I started the application. We started the welcome part. She had her headphones connected as well. We started listening to it, and we didn't realized that it was an animation. Just in the middle end of it, because we're walking. Anyway, the first painting was one by Leonardo da Vince. I said that maybe I knew where it was as I went there before. I didn't. So she looked the plan and I was trying to find a map in the app. I pressed on the icon insight (that the shape looks like a box, or a map in my view, nope it wasn't a map. In this part they have themes that actually we didn't looked at. Maybe because we were visiting the gallery and not studying the paintings, or because we were together or even because of the time.

Let's go back to where I was. I touched the last icon that says info (i). This section had information about opening hours, address, admission. (It's not interesting because we were there already) In this section we have 2 buttons "map"and "website". I pressed on map. It opens the Google map, showing how to get to the Gallery. I didn't have an Internet connection, so it didn't worked out. Ah, we were using the IPod not the IPhone. The Gallery doesn't have Wi Fi, it was frustrating. Not because of this information that we didn't needed but the information that maybe we could access on the website. So, no map of the Gallery. How did we suppose to find the paintings?

She looked at the paper plan, that is available in the Gallery. We used that map. They also have in this plan the Highlight paintings. Consequently, we had to check the paintings that were in the App and find them on the plan. So that we could know where they were. Some of the paintings like the one from Renoir wasn't in the plan. It was difficult to find it. In the plan, you have the pictures of the highlighted paintings organized by colours that you can identify in the Plan map. Very easy! I was a little disappointed as I couldn't use the map on the IPod. My friend had the plan and, sometimes I had to borrow it to see where we were. I thought in take one for me when I noticed that I needed, but we were far from the entrance that time.

We found the room by Leonardo but the painting wasn't there :( . We decided to move on, the second was the Vicent Van Gogh. We checked the paper map. It was so far. So we checked againwhich paintings we had in the app that were closer to where we were.

The content was very interesting. We could look at the paintings and listen to it.I liked the explanation of The Ambassadors was great. The hidden objects, "The Pierre" (an animation) was very well made and clear. The content of Venus and Mars was very good too. We really enjoyed the one called " Nothing has changed" (So typical!!! About man and woman behaviour). I liked the Rembrandt content, called my attention. The explanation gives a reason why he painted himself in that position.

On the other hand, I missed the name of the paintings while we looked at it without touching the screen. And also, when different paintings appear in certain explanations like in the Rembrandt when a painting of Titan is in the screen. The system doesn't say that those paintings were in the Gallery. The Gallery view shows other paintings related by theme to the current one. If we knew that they where in the Gallery and where they were would be much better. We didn't explore that section because we taught that they weren't there. The one called English or French, the explanation was very attractive. We didn't notice that it was double side, and neither noticed the patterns in the gold. The App helped us to notice those details. The Arnolfini Portrait called attention by the video. They showed a nowadays couple and a photographer. It sent the message that everything in the painting was fake. I read about this in a paper before, so I knew the story of the painting. I'm not sure if it is clear for somebody that doesn't know it.

Sometimes we where distracted looking at the paintings and the screen saver went on. So we had to slide to unlock and opens the App again. I know that it is part of the configurations, but should have an advise to change it before using the application.

We also had to cross the Gallery twice, because one of the paintings was in the other side of the galleria and another was in a special exhibition. To be honest, we didn't see everything in the last paintings. Just the main explanation.

I enjoyed the experience of having a company. We had the same device, so it was easy to discuss about what we saw. It would be interesting to see how it works with 2 devices.

In general, it was a very exciting experience. We concentrated the paintings on the App, which make us to learn more about those. Much easier than go to the Gallery without knowing what to see, or try to see everything.