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Person C Age: 34 yrs MA Film student (Photographer and Cinematographer) Indian

Me: Have you visited the royal mile?

A: Yes, I have. I have actually shot a couple of short films in there already

Me: That sounds really great? Why did you choose royal mile as a site ?

A: Royal mile has a rich history , so it gave me good content for my movie, also the place is quite scenic with vibrant colours, it actually provides a really senic back drop

Me: Have you visited the Royal mile again after that day?

A: Yeah, couple of my friends were here to visit me, I showed them around, so have been there a few times. Funny thing is I still find new pieces of information there, like I accidently came across the World's end Pub.The story of the city ending there was really amazing

Me: Which experience do you prefer more (Heritage walk like the royal mile or a museum)?

A: I probably would go with the Royal mile. I feel it is more vibrant. Also, museums and galleries seem a little claustrophobic to me.

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Person E  Age 29 yrs MA Business Marketing student French

Me : Have you visited the royal mile before?

E : Only a few times, It's quite a busy place

Me : What do you like most about the royal mile?

E : I like the cultural sites and it's traditional values, there's a lot of interesting things to do there. The people, the atmosphere. It makes you think a lot about the history and how much it has changed over the years.

Me : Would you visit the royal mile again?

E : I definitely would, I still have a lot to experience there.

Me : What would you prefer more, the royal mile heritage walk or a museum ?

E : I do not have a particular preference, both have their own advantages.

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Person A   Age: 21yrs Design Student British Citizen

Me: Have you visited the royal mile?

A: yes, It was one of the first places I visited since arriving in Edinburgh.

Me: How would you say, your first experience there was?

A: It was an amazing experience, new place, so really amazing buildings, the castle was great, some of the closes had some nice history.

Me: Have you visited the Royal mile again after that day?

A: Yeah, a couple of my friends were here to visit me, I showed them around, so have been there a few times. Funny thing is I still find new pieces of information there like I accidentally came across the World's End Pub.The story of the city ending there was really amazing

Me: Which experience do you prefer more (Heritage walk like the royal mile or a museum)?

A: I probably would go with the Royal Mile. I feel it is more vibrant. Also, museums and galleries seem a little claustrophobic to me.

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An old Edinburgh tradition says that the natural spring by the Water of Leith was discovered in 1760, by three boys from George Heriot’s school. It was soon a visitor attraction as ‘taking the waters’ was thought to be very good for the health. Some claimed that the water could cure everything from a bruised leg to ‘total blindness’, but others described the taste as having the ‘odious twang of hydrogen gas’ or even like ‘the washings from a foul gun barrel’. The well was bought by Lord Gardenstone, and in 1789 he commissioned the artist Alexander Nasymth to design the circular temple building you see today. The well gets its name from an old legend that St Bernard of Clairvaux once lived in a cave nearby. The well and grounds were restored in 1888, and left to the City of Edinburgh. 

The design for St Bernard’s Well is inspired by the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli in Italy. Under the lead dome stands a marble statue of Hygieia, the Greek Goddess of Health. Her name is the source of the word ‘hygiene’.

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Currie Bridge is a very old bridge of single span, narrow on the top. It is said to have stood upwards of 600 years. This was recently restored and is very much in contention for the oldest standing structure on the river. 

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Retaining Embankment  Walls

The retaining embankment walls just after the bowling club towards colinton are of particular intrest, as these were used by Dougal Haston first for climbing practice.He was a currie lad, and also the first climber to conquer MT. Everest by the south face and the first Briton to scale the North face of the Eiger. 

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Upper Spylaw Mill

One of Scotland's earliest paper mill , built in 1682. Later it made snuff from about 1765. It had a colorful history and at one time the top floor was an inn frequented by smugglers. The mill became a dairy and than a writing school, but today is a private residence.

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Person C Age: 34 yrs MA Film student (Photographer and Cinematographer) Indian

Me: How often have you walked down the Water of leith walkway?

C: I stay at Slateford , and the water of leith walkway is just a few yards away from my place so I do visit it quite often, for a stroll, nevr walked the entire path though.

Me: Why do you go there for a stroll and not anywhere else?

C: It is really close to my place and it is a really good nature walk.

Me: What do you know about the water of Leith Walkway and how did you get to know about it?

C: There was a signboard along the road which showed me the way to the walkway. I don't really know a lot about the river, it looks like a small river and it probably runs all the way to leith.

Me: Do you wish to walk the entire length of the walkway?

C: Not really, I guess it would be more of the same experience, I just go there to relax.

Me: Do you know about the history of the river?

C: No

Me: Would you like to know about the History ? And would knowing that make you take a longer walk ?

C: I would definitely like to know a few good old stories. The river didn't really look like a lot though. If there are intresting things to see than I definitely would like to walk longer.

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Pictures  clicked by Person C.

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Is this really the best way to View the Mona Lisa [Musee du Louvre] ??

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Person D   Age: 24yrs Design Student Chinese

Me: How often do you visit a Museum/gallery ?

D: I visit a museum/gallery around 3-4 times in a month.

Me: Why do you visit a museum/gallery?

D: To follow fashion and make a note of development of technology and design.

Me: Why do you take photos in a museum/ gallery?

D: To make a note for myself, and also so share the information with my friends, so that they can learn from it too.

Me: What artwork/artifacts do you pay more attention to?

D: I like looking a older paintings, like those by Picasso, Leonardo Di Vinci as they tell us about the evolution of art at those times.

Me: Which was your favorite artwork at the National Portrait Gallery and why?

D: I liked "Three Oncologists" by Ken Currie, as it depicted hospitals, in a way I had never seen before. The darkness and light of such a place was very well depicted in it.

Me: What were the things you disliked about the portrait gallery?

D: The narrative of the exhibits were not very clear without someone to explain them about it.

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People focusing just on the Black Burns Statue, and not noticing the other ones beside it.

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Comfortable viewing and reading distance at Scottish National Portrait gallery.

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Personal Notes on behavior of people in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

DOUGLAS GORDON BLACK BURNS

Large seating spaces allow people to sit and discuss the artwork, but at The black burns exhibit, the seating has been arranged in a way, which looks straight at the main sculpture, ignoring the sculpture heads around it.

The brief about the artwork was not really enough, as there was no refence to the turned sculpture heads on any info graphics in the room, leaving people wondering as to why were the heads turned around. This does not allow people to comprehend the entire exhibit.

Smaller details about the sculpture were not presented well enough, for example the Robert Burns Statue by John Flaxman was commissioned in Bombay (Mumbai, India). Just having this point highlighted, would have brought more Indians to view the statue as they could than relate to it in some way.

People usually spent about 5-7 mins at the exhibit, unless they had a guide. The main focus was on the Black burns statue, and the turned heads were mostly ignored, even those who noticed them, did not really understand why they were turned that way. Very few people actually went to the staff nearby and enquired about the reason for the turned heads.

This was the part of the portrait gallery which prompted most people to click pictures.

GRAHAM MACLNDOE COMING CLEAN

People spend an average of about 10 Minutes at this place, though a few people spent close to 20-25 minutes in this exhibit.

The large font size in this gallery made it a comfortable experience for people to read the content from a comfortable distance, and did not have to go very close to the info graphics as they had to do at most of the other galleries. This prompted more people to actually read the text.

This gallery was one in which most people actually spend at least some time around. Few people spend considerably more time at this gallery, and on enquiring about it, I found that it was coz they could relate to in some way or the other.  

I also noticed the time spend in this gallery was not really proportional to age, when compared to other exhibits. Younger people (age grp 20-40) spent considerably more time here, compared to other places. The only people who did not really spend time over here were the kids.

Very few people actually clicked pictures at this exhibit. The ones who did, mostly did it for the information they provided on the techniques of photography.

One other thing I realized though my interviews later was how differently these photos were interpreted by the photographers, they were noticing smaller details in the pictures which I had missed even after visiting the place over 4 times in the week and spending at least 2-3 hours at that particular exhibit.

The audio visual set up and the artifacts from his personal life did not get as much attention as the photos got in the area.

THE MODERN POTRAIT

People tend to follow others and watch portraits if there is already someone seeing them.

People started the gallery reading the infographics and spending time on each artwork, but by the time they were art work the frequency decreased significantly, with most people just glancing past pictures, while going into details on a very few occasions.

The area being really compact at spaces did not really help, as people who wanted to read more details about the portraits could not get much time with them due to constant disturbance from people walking by.

By this point most of the younger people were starting to feel a little bored, I found lot of people pulling out their phones, especially younger girls.

The abstract artwork, or the perspectives ones actually attracted more people than simpler portraits.

Older people spend considerable time at this gallery, usually trying to get more comfortable and relaxing while trying to interpret the images.

This exhibit had quite a few pictured being clicked, but they were mostly by tourists.

The painting people normally looked into with more interest, were the ones about which they knew something, I.e. if they knew about the person/place in the painting or the artist.  

Time spend in this gallery was spread over a long-time span, few people covered in about 7-8 minutes, while some people took over 45 mins to cover this exhibition.

MISCELLENIOUS POINTS

Why people clicked photos in the gallery?                                                    . To list artwork information, to post on Instagram, to prove they were actually at the place themselves.

Abstract and uncommon art forms were more appreciated.

People liked the Architecture and were clicking pictures of the artwork.

People did not always get the context and tended to get bored after a couple of exhibits.

The infographics sometimes caused problems in the circulation of the space.

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Person C Age: 34 yrs MA Film student (Photographer and Cinematographer) Indian

Me: Why do you visit a museum/gallery?

C: To understand the evolution of realistic art over the ages. It provides me with important insight about the cultural, social trends around the world at different times. It also helps me understand and comprehend how art might be perceived in future.

Me: Why do you take photos in a museum/ gallery?

C: To record names to collect further information about the artwork. Also, we tend to remember the artwork, but often forget the name of the artwork or the artist, Photos help me create an archive. In galleries where they do not allow me to take pictures, I note down names for the same (but is not always as helpful).

Me: What artwork/artifacts do you pay more attention to?

C: Realistic artwork, or artwork depicting life. Don't really like abstract art.

Me: Which was your favorite exhibit and why?

C: Coming Clean. It portrayed the feeling through pain, and also was inspirational for me. It had captured the emotions and feeling people go through when they are addicted to drugs. The pictures of the flat and the room also portrayed a quite accurate picture of the atmosphere. I know this as one of my friends was addicted to "Weed" and his room was in similar state too. There was a picture in which he was watching the television in a dark room, and the TV seemed to be too bright and hurt his eyes, also the picture in which he had slept, while the TV still being on, maybe portrayed the tiredness it caused him. Also, if you noticed, most of the windows were closed and there was very little natural light in the apartment.

Me: What were the positive or negatives of the portrait gallery?

C: Positives

Really liked a few artifacts, found them really interesting, i.e. Robert De Bruce sculptures. Also, there were many artworks in "A Perfect Chemistry Photographs" exhibit, which showed the evolution of photography in Scotland. It also had an art work which took close to 10 years to complete. The details on the painting was worth noting down. I also found the employees really good, as they allowed me to take pictures.

Negatives

Directions in the place was not really great, I was not sure where to start and where to end, so I was never sure if had completed everything, also sometimes I felt lost.

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Person B Age: 62yrs International Humanitarian Worker British Citizen residing in Edinburgh for the last 10 years

Me: Why do you visit a museum/gallery?

B: To see new exhibits. I visit the galleries quite a few times a year.

Me: What artwork/artifacts do you pay more attention to?

(reason for him spending quite a long time at "Coming clean" close to 20 minutes)

B: I have spent a lot of my life traveling across the world during my job. I even spend a couple of years in India during the floods in Odisha and the Gujrat earthquake. I have seen people suffer. "Coming Clean" was about a perspective to which I could relate to the pain and it was a really great insight about the life of an addict.

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Person A  Age: 21yrs Design Student British Citizen

Me: Why do you visit a museum/gallery?

A: To see famous artworks/artifacts.To look at the way the story line was narrated in the place

Me: Why do you take photos in a museum/ gallery?

A: To share on Instagram , and sometimes to make a personal note of places or artwork I liked.

Me: What artwork/artifacts do you pay more attention to?

A: I liked the

Things he could relate to in a personal, social, cultural way.

Me: Which was your favorite exhibit and why?

A: I liked "The male gaze", as it depicted artwork from more than one era, unlike most other exhibits in the gallery which were dedicated to a particular time line. It had a good mixture of traditional and contemporary artworks.

Me: What were the things you liked or disliked the most about the portrait gallery?

A: Positives:

Liked the "Male Gaze" and "The slave's lament" exhibits.

Lighting and planning of the space was good.

Negatives

The narrative of the exhibits were not very clear without someone to explain them about it.