People living in and around Loch Lomond are being invited to journey into the future with the visit of a hi-tech Virtual Landscape Theatre next week.

Visitors to this virtual-reality world will be able to experience how their real-life local landscape, including areas within the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, might look in years to come, with changes such as the addition of windfarms or woodlands.

The mobile theatre – the first of its kind in the UK – immerses people in a realistic, computer generated version of the real world, and allows them to see the landscapes of tomorrow and possible changes in store.

The Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen, will bring its ‘Virtual Landscape Theatre’ To the Millennium Hall in Gartocharn from Sunday 22 till Wednesday 25 October 2006, as part of a ‘Landscape Research Week’ Aimed at gaining an insight into people’s attitudes towards alternative future landscapes.

Interested individuals are asked to volunteer one hour of their time to participate in the event, identify potential changes to their local landscape and vote on some examples. The project is also hoping to help improve the methods currently used for enabling people to imagine how landscapes might look, using modern computer graphics and 3D visualisation.

Professor David Miller from The Macaulay Institute’s Integrated Land Use Systems Science Group, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for people to see, use and react to the very latest technology for exploring different landscape options. Our virtual reality theatre is the first mobile facility of its kind in the UK and the Gartocharn event is a perfect opportunity to involve the wider community in its development. We are keen for as many people as possible to come along and take part.

The Macaulay Institute is looking to attract more than 200 participants. Individuals, families and groups are asked to book a time to participate or drop in on the hour between 10 am and 7 pm each day. Children and adults are both welcome.

They will be able to vote on proposed changes, and explore a range of possibilities for themselves, navigating through computer-generated landscape models of various parts of the National Park.

There is no charge for attending any part of the events during the week and coffee, tea and soft drinks will be served. Anyone interested in participating should contact Jane Lund at The Macaulay Institute, on Tel: 01224 498200, email: enquiries@macaulay.ac.uk.

As a thank you for participating, the names of all attendees during the week will be entered in a prize draw. Prizes will include a bottle of whisky, cashmere scarf and gift tokens.

Children will be entered in prize draws for the under 18s.

The Macaulay Institute is the premier land use research institute in the UK. Two hundred and seventy staff are based at the Macaulay Institute at Craigiebuckler in Aberdeen. The Macaulay Institute aims to be an international leader in research on the use of rural land resources for the benefit of people and the environment and is involved in research across the globe; from Scotland to Chile and China. More about the Macaulay Institute can be found at www.macaulay.ac.uk.

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The Macaulay Institute will be showcasing the research outputs from projects funded by both the Scottish Executive and the European Commission from which they developed tools for supporting public participation in landscape change. The scenarios include a model of the woodland change on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, a change in an agricultural area, and a hypothetical windfarm. The Macaulay Institute’s Landscape Research Week is based on two main research projects, as follows:

Wind turbines – The Macaulay Development Trust in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and Heriot Watt University is conducting research into the computer modelling of wind turbines. Local residents will be asked their opinions on the use of interactive computer visualisations for capturing opinions on the siting of wind turbines.

Landscape perception and experience – this project, funded by the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department, is looking at the effectiveness of computer modelling in representing landscapes compared to the experience gained when really there. Participants will be asked to experience a ‘walk-through’ of a virtual reality model of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in which features )such as wind turbines) can be moved by participants to places they think would be acceptable. Residents will be asked for their opinions on the use of computer visualisations and maps for assisting in the understanding of changes in woodlands, and a walk-through of the landscape using a virtual reality environment of areas within the National Park.