Meeting Minutes

Back to Emma's Office

Present: Simon Tinsley, Frank Churchill, Shirley and Martin Johnson, Mr. Tinsley Sr., Evelyn Prosser, Chester Vyse, and Emma Knytleigh.

Simon: Well, we meet again. Any thoughts on my last ideas list?

Emma: That you’re crazy…

Chester: I’ve been in contact with some of my professional colleagues and I was actually able to discuss some of these matters with Ann. Miss Simmons that is. I think she might have sent you an email with her thoughts…

Simon: Yes, Chester, she did. Thanks.

Chester: I think it’s very important that we maintain the fabric of the house. It seems modern thinking suggests that the landscape also not be materially affected by change.

Evelyn: Professionally I can’t agree to any changes that would affect the landscape without a lot of archaeology being done. You’ll destroy the evidence that is out there.

Emma: Basically, your list was rubbish, Simon.

Chester: Why do we want to put in an amusement park, or a game reserve, or an Imax theater here? They could go anywhere really. What makes people want to come here is to experience this place. It’s a microcosm of England. You can get the whole sweep of history over the past two hundred odd years here on a manageable scale. That’s what people want, not elephants or fair ground rides.

Emma: We’re just starting to learn about the people that lived here. We’re starting to uncover some very interesting stories about both William and Fanny Blake. I think that it’s not just the place, but a collective history of the people that lived here that is most important. We should focus on that.

Frank: The voices have been very agitated recently. I think the people that lived here want to be heard. And the tours were quite a success though people seemed a little reluctant to ask questions.

Emma: Yes we've had visitors from around the world including the USA, Germany and Argentina. They've been looking around the house and were quite positive.

Frank: From some of my early tours, I can assure you that big game is not a popular subject.

Shirley: See, I told you. I’m not having elephants. I said that at the first meeting and I’m sticking to it.

Martin: …though they would help my manure problem.

Simon: Well what I’m thinking about is the other idea, virtual tours with computer generated interpreters. When the visitor comes to Stoney Grove I want them to believe it’s real, I want them to be totally submerged in the history, house and landscape.

Chester: But I wonder what you mean by "real"? One might muse on the cognitive model and wonder at the nature of reality in a dynamic universe, but surely it is real now.

Emma: Do you want Georgian real, or Victorian real or Edwardian real? The house has changed and the people have changed. How do we decide what to represent?

Simon: I don’t know the details yet, and we need to do much more research, but technology is the key. We want people to be able to come to the house on their own terms and react with it directly. They should be able to set the time period that they are looking at, and the house should respond to their questions and interact with them.

Evelyn: This sounds very impressive. Quite protective of the resource. How do you know about all this Simon?

Simon: Well, you know, I did work in computers for many years.

Mr. Tinsley: Still, not much demand for Y2K programmers these days, is there?

Emma: And this is your idea of real? Come to a genuine house covered in wires and computers to see someone’s ideas about the past broadcast on a badly-generated virtual screen? Why can’t people look at the real walls and look out the real windows? Why do they need us to make some hi-tech fantasyland out of it all?

Chester: And how are you going to get all this stuff into the house without ripping it to shreds? Where are your wires going to go? Do we pull up the original floors to run cable through? If it’s all going to be virtual, why do it in the house at all? Do we even need a real house? You haven't thought this through, have you?

Simon: Emma, you’re the one who’s so big on telling everyone’s story. How can we do that in real time? We can’t. Let people choose for themselves what stories they want to hear. Let them pick their version of reality. We give them choices, they make a selections. Seems democratic to me. And Chester, I don’t know the specifics of how it will be done yet, but I promise we won’t ruin the house to do it. Actually, your point about not needing the real house is valid. Maybe we do it in a visitor facility  instead. Hmm. Well, lots of details to figure out. Let’s meet again and we can start to prototype these ideas and develop a working project.

Chester: I thought we were going to vote?

Simon: Okay, we had five ideas on the table from the last meeting. Votes for number one, the elephants? Okay Shirley, you can stop glaring. No votes. Two, motor bikes? No votes either. Three, amusement park? One vote from my Dad. Four, Imax theatre? Dad you’ve already voted once. Five, virtual experience as I’ve started to detail? Thanks, Evelyn and with me that’s two. Six, tourists as skivvies? That’s one from Shirley. Everyone else abstaining? Seems we move on.