Lucy Harrison has bought her research into the hidden heritage of the Carnaby area to life through an innovative walking tour app that harnesses GPS technology to activate content.
As you walk through the streets of Carnaby, the app provides a unique experience by automatically playing music that originated in the buildings you pass, and gives you access to insider stories which are indicated by plaques along the way. Production of the app has been powered by Calvium’s Soundwalk platform. The platform has allowed artist Lucy Harrison to design a musical location aware soundscapes around Carnaby Village.
Lucy created the app with a Soundwalk Designer, drawing regions on a map of the streets and attaching songs to them made by artists who composed, recorded or were inspired by the area. In this case numbered plaques marking the historical locations are attached to the facades of the relevant buildings. A map with numbered plaques creates an interface so that when you see one you can tap the corresponding marker to hear the story. The resulting onsite experience is thus a blend of automatic triggering of background music and precise user control for listening to a story in exactly the right place.
