The curzon memories app

Crofts, Charlotte

Abstract

The project piloted locative technologies to develop a smartphone application that provides a digital tour of the interior and exterior of the Curzon Community Cinema in Clevedon using GPS and QR Codes respectively to trigger dramatisations and oral memories of the cinema in the exact places where they happened, from snogging in the back row to the bomb that exploded in the entrance in 1941. The app was published in March 2012 in time for the Curzon’s centenary celebrations and launched with a cream tea in the Curzon’s Oak Room Cafe. Available on iTunes and Google Play.

Citation

Crofts, C. The curzon memories app

• Physical Artefact Type: Artefact
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Keywords: mobile phone application, creative technologies, ubiquitous computing, locative media, pervasive media, iPhone App, Curzon Community Cinema, digital heritage, digital humanities, cinema history, digital memories, oral history, digital storytelling, mobile
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/948689
• Publisher URL: http://www.appfurnace.com/apps/curzon-memories-app/
• Related Public URLs: http://www.dcrc.org.uk/people/charlotte-crofts; https://vimeo.com/43216346; http://vimeo.com/35771849
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Publications • ‘Technologies of Seeing the Past: The Curzon Memories App’, conference proceedings of EVA Conference (available at http://ewic.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/40611) • Prize-winning poster (MeCCSA 2012): http://curzonproject.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/curzon-poster-5.pdf • Planned publications, one on Locative Screen Heritage in Convergence and another on ‘App-aratus Theory: Cinematic Space and Mobile Media’ for Screen 4. Research Blog: http://curzonproject.wordpress.com 5. Official Website Official Website: • http://www.eyefullproductions.co.uk/curzon 6. Video Documentation • Promo video (3mins) https://vimeo.com/43216346 • Documentation (7mins) https://vimeo.com/35771849 7. Presentations about the Curzon Memories App • ‘Curzon Locative Media Project Case Study’ for Gloucestershire University MA visit to Pervasive Media Studio (Dec 2010); • ‘The Curzon Creative Technologies Project: Context Aware Media in a Screen Heritage Context’ Media Communications and Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Salford (12-14 Jan 2011); • ‘The Curzon Memories App: Designing a Screen Heritage Experience’, Birmingham City University Research Seminar (invited, plus expenses) (4 May 2011); • ‘Screen Heritage, Pervasive Media Practice and Research: or, How does the Curzon Memories App Create Impact, Public Engagement and Knowledge Exchange?’ Creative Media Research Group Seminar, UWE Bristol (18 May 2011); • ‘Technologies of Being: Pervasive Heritage’, ‘Postdigital Encounters: Creativity and Improvisation’ Journal of Media Practice Symposium, UWE Bristol (24 June 2011): http://www.vimeo.com/26491086; • ‘Pervasive Screens: Transforming the Consumption of Cinema History with the Curzon Heritage App’, Screen Conference, University of Glasgow (1-3 July 2011); • ‘Technologies of Seeing the Past: The Curzon Memories App’ Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA) Conference, BCS – Chartered Institute of IT, London (6-8 July 2011). Published in proceedings (see above); • Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference – poster and demo of the App and Projection Hero installation – won the MeCCSA Poster Prize, (January 2012); • ‘Geo-spatial and Geo-temporal documentary: The Curzon Memories App, City Strata and The Cinemap Layer’ Idocs2012: http://i-docs.org/idocs-2012/speakers-2/charlotte-crofts/ (March 2012); • ‘Spatialising the Archive: Dramatisation, Oral History and Locative Heritage in the Curzon Memories App’ at IMTAL International Museum and Theatre Alliance Conference, Bristol, (invited), (October 2011); • ‘The Curzon Memories App – Shifting Practices, from Filmmaking to Experience Design’ MA Masterclass, University of Sussex Department of Media, Film and Music (invited, plus fee and expenses), (October 2011); • Presentation on ‘The Curzon Memories App’, with Curzon Education Officer, Cathy Poole at MovIES (Moving Image Education Specialists) Meeting, BFI Southbank (invited, plus expenses), (November 2011). Forthcoming: • Keynote: Title to be confirmed, Environmental Utterance Conference, University of Falmouth (invited, plus fee and expenses), (1-2 Sept). • Cinematic Battersea Symposium, University of Liverpool (invited, plus expenses) (5 Oct). Public Engagement/Impact/Press • ‘The Curzon Memories App: The First Iteration’, Pervasive Media Studio ‘Lunchtime Talk’ (25 March 2011); • All the digital memories filmed as part of my project are also being archived in the Curzon Collection, as part of the Curzon Memories Archive curated by Curzon Education Officer, Cathy Poole. • A short film of Curzon Memories was screened at opening of the ‘Living History’ exhibition, (2 & 4 March 2011) - “the memories DVD got three more people talking on Saturday and we have a few more people who want to provide their memories! So - an extremely positive result of the memory collecting we did - really building the sense of community around the exhibition and the Curzon. Jean Thomson's husband told me she is getting so much out of this experience and Heather Williams is now 'hooked' on the Curzon!” (email from Cathy Poole), and is now on permanent display in the exhibition; • One-minute extracts are to be shown regularly as pre-film screeners. • My grant has enabled me to contribute to the Curzon’s education programme: a selection of war memories is being used with 5-6 year olds as part of the Start Programme, Princes Foundation for Children and the Arts in 8 schools. • Yeo Moor Primary School visit – 10-minute documentation of their visit screened to staff, pupils and parents at film premier at Curzon, (6 April 2011) • Published interview ‘In Conversation with Charlotte Crofts and Siobhan Harrison’ published online by Imperica.com http://www.imperica.com/in-conversation-with/in-conversation-with-charlotte-crofts-and-siobhan-harrison (May); • Presentation to Curzon Board of Trustees (29 June); • Featured in Curzon’s newsletter, Screen Talk (Autumn 2011) http://www.curzon.org.uk/downloads/screentalk/screentalk12.pdf • Projection Hero installation to be publicly exhibited at Hackspace open studio event, BV Studios, 15 Sept. • Projection Hero exhibited at Watershed throughout December 2012 featuring films from their online advent calendar, Electric December: http://www.electricdecember.org. • The App was launched to the public on 30 March 2012 in time for the Curzon’s centenary with a cream tea in the Curzon’s Oak Room Cafe. • Interview on BBC Radio Bristol Saturday Breakfast Show 30 Mar 2012 • UWE Press release: http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=2246 • Featured on the Curzon’s website: www.curzon.org.uk/content/public/main/History.aspx • Featured in the Pervasive Media Cookbook: http://pervasivemediacookbook.com/387/curzon-memories/ • Featured in Guardian ‘Apps Rush’: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/mar/27/apps-rush-madonna-temple-run • Featured in Wired Magazine UK: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/03/heritage-sandbox?page=all • Featured in: Film Studies for Free: http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/screen-heritage-goes-app-curzon.html • Featured on Bristol Silents website: http://bristolsilents.org.uk/2012/06/09/the-curzon-community-cinema-celebrating-cinema-going-in-the-south-west-since-1912/ • Selected to pitch before prestigious industry judges at AppCircus, Google Campus, London 2012: http://appcircus.com/blog/july-4th-london-appcircus-the-selected-apps • Interview published in International Journal of Cinema (Forthcoming, July 2012): http://www.journal-cinema.org/home_EN.html