Showing posts with label lfa2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lfa2010. Show all posts

Tales of the City: QRCodes, Architecture and Wired

The London Festival of Architecture is underway and via the project Tales of the City we have been capturing people’s memories of Shoreditch and playing them back them back via small readable and writeable QR codes and RFID tags. Tales of the City extends the TalesofThings project into the urban realm with the architecture of the city able to replay memories and its history and its just made Wired...


As Wired states: The project has been tagging architecture for a few months. In one location in Chalk Farm, a wall that used to feature a piece from Banksy that has a tag that lets scanners see what the work looked like. The BBC's Broadcasting House has also been covered in tags. In one Oxfam shop in Manchester, the project used RFID tags and QR codes to allow objects to be tagged with the memories of those who donated them.

Tales of the City starts off with a pre-placed tag at the historic heart of Shoreditch, St Leonard's Church. From there you will be able to spot tags (QR codes) on Shoreditch High Street which you can add your own stories to, contributing to the growing network of tagged architecture.

This will enable people to form a personalised tour of London’s contemporary history through architecture. If you have an iPhone or an Android handset be sure to download our free app - talesofthings to enable you to leave comments on the QR codes, or create your own codes to put on your favourite buildings.

In order to take part simply download our free “talesofthings” app for your iPhone or Android and when you spot a code on a building scan the code to add your own memory such as what the building used to be, why it is important to you or perhaps it is simply a building you hate.

If you don’t have a smartphone you can still take part by visiting our website www.youtotem/talesofthecity where you can clip on the map and add comments to buildings which have been tagged.



Tales of the City is part of 'TOTeM' - a collaborative research project run by Edinburgh College of Art, Brunel University, University College London, University of Dundee and University of Salford. This project aims to find a new way of preserving social history – through people’s memories. People will be able to preserve their family/community history by “tagging” (labelling) their personal objects via our website www.talesofthings.com. Users will be able to attach memories to their objects in the form of video, text or audio, this will enable future generations to have a greater understanding of the object’s past. TOTeM will carry out its research initially through case studies with different community groups who are not included in a written history of our time but their experiences and memories are just as valuable.

Its simple to tag architecture and objects with memories - you simply upload a photo, give it a story and print a QRCode:


Trailer for Tales of Things from digitalurban on Vimeo.


The project aims to offer a new way for people to place more value on their own objects in an increasingly disposable economy. As more importance is placed on the objects that are already parts of people’s lives it is hoped that family or friends may find new uses for old objects and encourage people to think twice before throwing something away.

If your in Shoreditch be sure to look out for the QRCodes, of course its not limited to Shoreditch, you can tag anything and everything with stories via http://www.talesofthings.com

Transparency and the City: Public Spaces or Forgotten Places?

As a part of their program of events for the London Festival of Architecture 2010, the gallery at Alan Baxter is hosting a group exhibition that explores different conceptions of private and public space, and in particular the areas of city life where they overlap.

Multiple exposure photographs are used to present a perspective on the city that brings to mind the liberating anonymity as well as the isolation that is unique to life in the city. This individual sense of privacy is extended into the political, as lost architectural icons such as Paxton's Crystal Palace are invoked to discuss the democratic ideal of transparency and it's effect on public life. Bandstands, fading sentinels of communal space, illustrate the presence of history and memory in the life of the city, while raising questions about the changes in what community means for contemporary urban society. The co-extensive boundaries of private and public space; of interior and exterior; of the personal and the political; and of the past, present and future, result in a multivalent territory that is charged with both tensions and possibilities.

Private view on Monday 21st June 18.00 - 20.30
Public view - Saturday 26th June 10.00 - 18.00

Other viewings by appointment throughout the Festival (22nd June to Friday 2nd July), please contact Jon Spencer tel. 07967 079150 / jon@jonspencer.co.uk


Take a look at the Urban Orienteer for more details....