Guia de Visita
MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM: "ROSALINA ALVES"
This multi-purpose room aims to provide the museum with a new exhibition space, as well as a workspace, archive, and preservation area.
It is an area designed to host temporary exhibitions that help bring life and dynamism to the museum, but it is also an exhibition complement to the core of the LOAD Museum. The museum’s collection exceeds the existing space by far, and this was the way found to minimize the situation, hence being a complement (or extension) to the core exhibition, and therefore identified in the rest of the museum as LOAD EXTENDED.
By nature, it is a room that is different from the rest of the museum. It is a more work-oriented space that gives us flexibility to fulfill our mission. The base exhibition is a complement to Sir Clive’s inventions. It also includes a vast collection that allows us to better understand the role of TMX Portugal and TIMEX Group, as well as some historical notes of other relevant Portuguese companies.
This space is symbolically named after Rosalina Alves, in honor of all the people who have embraced the project as their own and who dedicate themselves heart and soul to helping us in every way possible with Rosalina being one of the best examples to date. Rosalina embodies in a very particular way the spirit of TIMEX, the company that gave international fame to Portugal in the world of the ZX Spectrum.
Rosalina grew up with TIMEX. She began living in Quinta dos Medronheiros even before anyone dreamed that the famous factory would be born there, initially for watches, but which in the 1980s became one of the epicenters of the computer that validates our museum. There are countless historical moments and information that were only possible to collect thanks to the hours and hours she has dedicated to helping us in this mission.
From the moment she became aware of the project, Rosalina established all kinds of contacts with former colleagues whom she introduced to us, collected information for us, gave us guided tours of the property, and even promoted activities just to help us better understand what that company was, which most former employees refer to as “the best they ever worked at”.
Like Rosalina, a woman of many trades and skills, this is also a multifunctional and dynamic room, which is why we thought of this symbolic gesture, but which means a lot to us because it is never too much to thank those who help us.
With this gesture, we hope to honor all the “Rosalinas,” from TIMEX and other national companies of the time, who paved the way to put computers in our homes. To all of them, our heartfelt thanks. THANK YOU!