Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Scotsnet

Welcome to Scotsnet - discuss all aspects of life in Scotland, including relocating, schools and local areas.

Original poster

Beyond Van Gogh ‘Immersive’ experience

30 replies

HigherOptions · 18/08/2024 22:10

Went today. Was bought as an early birthday present. First room was great, lots of lovely background information and quotes, soothing music etc… Then into the ‘experience’ itself. What a bloody let down. I really feel I’ve been Mis-sold. Not quite on a par with the Willy-Wonka experience but for the price?! I’m not going into detail right now but has anyone else been? Went with my partner and teen DD who has an interest in art. We had a giggle but my partner refused to tell me how much he’d paid and then we were hit with the fecking outrageous £12 flat rate parking charge for the car park. To coin a phrase, ever had the feeling you’ve been cheated?

OP posts:
Scotteacher · 18/08/2024 22:12

I don't know if it's the same one that was in Edinburgh a couple of years ago, but it was really enjoyable and interesting!

provemewrongthen · 18/08/2024 22:15

I went to The Hyde Park one and absolutely loved it!

kiwiane · 18/08/2024 22:16

I’ve been and it was in an old church during lockdown - I appreciated it and the VR experience and we stayed around 1.5hours.to 2 hours as we sat around a while as it was nice to be on an outing - we didn’t have to pay to park.

Imtryingnottoworry · 18/08/2024 22:18

I saw this advertised and did consider going.
But I found the idea of making Van Gogh into such a commercial venture, making money out of him in this way, quite offensive. Given his life story.
So I decided I really wouldn't feel comfortable going.

ghettihead · 18/08/2024 22:21

I did the one Edinburgh a couple of years back and found it v disappointing. The sunflower room at the end was a joke.

Original poster
HigherOptions · 18/08/2024 22:25

See I’m wondering whether it was just the SEC staging of it. The screens were washed out - it was so much brighter than I thought it would be (as in the general lighting not the projections themselves unfortunately) I felt like I was in a glorified airport lounge minus the ample seating.

And it was full of kids running around and everyone with their iPhones out. I imagined a really cocooning, intensely colourful experience - it touched on it momentarily in the starry starry night imagery. We all agreed that it felt like someone (not very creative) had been let loose on an Ipad and was playing with the liquify/ blending brush. I’ve been to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, seen pieces in various museums - but this was a huge disappointment. And where is all the money going? My DD and I talked about the wonderful Doctor Who episode which made us both cry when it came out. Might have to watch it again.

OP posts:
BabstheBounder · 19/08/2024 09:31

Oh that sounds so disappointing! I went to the Van Gogh live in Edinburgh a couple of years ago and felt almost overwhelmed by it (not quite screaming in the Sistine Chapel...) the music and the movement of the paintings across the screens was beautiful.

The plastic sunflowers in a carnival hall of mirrors room was not quite the Instagram idyll it was billed to be, but it made me and my dad laugh. I also got a photo of him sitting in the mock up of Van Gogh's bedroom which also was amusing.

Overall, that experience was absolutely a favourite afternoon in my life. Sorry to hear the SEC one wasn't so good.

Original poster
HigherOptions · 19/08/2024 13:34

I remember it being on in Edinburgh years ago but never went. I’m starting to think that it does depend on the staging in each venue - some obviously do it better than others. This felt half-arsed. There was no mock-up of the bedroom - the sunflowers barely featured and the cavernous space, with its exposed, industrial ceiling of pipes and ducts dominated. I thought there would be a blurring of floor, walls and ceiling in a true 360 way but it was very ‘boxy’ and the projections weren’t the richly-coloured, saturated spectacle I expected. I was expecting to walk into a space that was cinema-dark but it felt like just another hall of the SEC with projections instead of exhibition stands. Doing some research, the people behind this have been doing it for years, all over the world making hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a huge money-spinner and knowing what we know of Van Gogh’s life? It left me with a bitter taste.

OP posts:
Ginny98 · 19/08/2024 13:44

We went to the one a few years ago and yeah, we found it incredibly disappointing. It was so expensive and the whole thing was rubbish

ThatsNotMyTeen · 21/08/2024 22:46

We went I thought it was rubbish.

mibbelucieachwell · 22/08/2024 14:01

Ohhh. I went to the one at the SEC and really enjoyed it. However, I don't have an artistic bone in my body and I wasn't in the mood when I went, by car, which was stressful as I kept missing the entrance to the car park. Grin

Once inside the main exhibition I found it very relaxing and generally pleasant. No one was running around though. In fact there was complete silence from the audience for a good 20 minutes.

Imicola · 23/08/2024 20:47

We went to it when it was in Edinburgh. I wouldn't say we thought it was rubbish, but i thought it was underwhelming for the cost. Kind of good to do something like that once, but i won't be doing it again in a hurry. Someone must be making a fortune...

Groovester · 25/08/2024 00:49

I was disappointed with it, OP. A lot of money for what it is.

DestroyEverythingYouTouch · 25/08/2024 00:55

I went to the one in Leicester, which was in an old church. It was amazing. I went twice.

DustyOwl · 25/08/2024 00:58

Go to the “frameless” one. It’s lots of different styles of art, one being Van Gogh, it was amazing. Going back to do it again with more people!

Cattenberg · 25/08/2024 01:17

I enjoyed the Van Gogh Expo in Bristol and so did my DM and four-year-old DD. I don’t remember any plastic sunflowers in a hall of mirrors, but there was definitely a re-creation of his bedroom. DD loved being able to “step inside” a painting! The hall with moving paintings projected onto the walls was great too. I also remember a large sculpture of Van Gogh’s head with moving images projected onto it and an exhibit which claimed that he had a form of colour blindness and showed how one of his paintings (probably) would have looked to him.

garlictwist · 25/08/2024 02:10

I went to it in Budapest. The last room was quite good but the rest of it was shit. Especially as I'd been to the national portrait gallery the week before and seen actual Van Gogh paintings in the flesh for free.

Hollyhocksandlarkspur · 25/08/2024 02:18

We went to the Bristol one and thought it was amazing. Don’t know how much it cost as friend treated us. Loved learning about him and his paintings in more depth. The final room was wonderful and it really felt like being inside the paintings, people quietly soaking it in on deckchairs around the vast space, great atmosphere.

DickEmery · 25/08/2024 02:22

These things are everywhere now aren't they? They must be raking it in. I foolishly believed the advertising and went to one - bloody rip off. It's just a slideshow and then if you pay extra there's some really quite poor VR goggle contraption that is no better than my little 1970s viewfinder toy I had when I was a child.

Grimgrump · 25/08/2024 02:23

Oh that’s unfortunate. I saw it in Australia and it was spectacularly staged. The audience was mesmerised and quiet. A truly immersive experience. No plastic sunflowers with mirrors!

OrangeCrusher · 25/08/2024 05:09

I went last week and really enjoyed it. I went quite late and it was fairly quiet. I found it really relaxing and loved the music too. Not sure if I’d have been so keen if there were loads of kids running about.

Billybagpuss · 25/08/2024 07:05

We went in Bristol, the room where the pictures were animated and you sat in deckchairs was amazing, we sat through it twice and it was better the second time as you knew where to look if you’d missed bits before and a family with young children, who weren’t really old enough, had moved on. The VR bit was good too.

Sgtmajormummy · 25/08/2024 07:14

There’s a highly visible exhibition center in my town (used to be the fish market) that mostly does these “travelling shows” but by the time they reach us the exhibits are really tired.
A visitor said “Ooh, let’s go!” to the Frida Kahlo one and I answered “Nah, it’s just smoke and mirrors…”

Sgtmajormummy · 25/08/2024 07:17

But I did love the Vincent animated film. That was a work of art in itself. I expect a lot of the Van Gogh exhibition was based on that since it was hugely labour intensive.

ChocoChocoLatte · 25/08/2024 09:38

It was loads more expensive in Glasgow than it was in London for some reason!

I took DD & we booked an early spot to try to avoid it being too busy.

Folk rocked up with bugges and stood right in front of her letting the wee ones run wild.

She was furious.

I was less so, trying to frame it as an excellent way to immerse young children in art early on.

They would have done well to put on some child free or quiet sessions though.

And as much as I enjoyed it, I also didn't think it was worthy of the price.

We did the low level from central out for a couple of quid to avoid parking charges.