The Curzon Memories App
The Curzon Memories App is a locative media mobile application based at the Curzon Community Cinema, Clevedon, UK. The Bristol Radical Film Festival began in 2011 to showcase contemporary and historical works of overtly political filmmaking
The app was developed as part of an academic practice-based research project by Dr Charlotte Crofts in collaboration with the Curzon’s education officer, Cathy Poole, and was funded by an Early Career Research Grant from UWE Bristol and the Digital Cultures Research Centre.
The app draws upon the extensive Curzon Collection of Cinema Heritage Technology and contains audio and video dramatisations and oral histories of employees and patrons recounting their experiences throughout the life of the cinema, including Julia Elton (daughter of Sir Arthur Elton, a pioneer of British documentary) and Muriel Williams, who was in the cinema on the night it got bombed during the Bristol Blitz January 1941.
Visitors to the cinema are invited to download the free app, from iTunes or Google Play, and access those experiences in the locations where they actually happened. QR Codes are discreetly placed around the cinema, which act as triggers for these memories. The App also contains a walk around the exterior of the building which includes memories and re-photography of archive photographs triggered by GPS signals as the participant takes the walk. For those who cannot get to the Curzon Cinema, there is a manual interface, and the QR codes are available at the official website.
The app was built using the AppFurnace authoring system, made by Calvium, and is available on both Apple iOS and Android. For more information visit: