The Garden of Remember

remember

The Garden of Remember is a series of locative stories set within Chalkwell Park in Southend-on-Sea in the UK. Using storytelling methods, illustration, sound and GPS, the app explores memory and its relationship to dementia. As you enter the GPS zones within the park, each story is triggered as a narration with audio and text. The app has an ‘at home’ mode to listen to the stories while not in the park.

It was developed for NetPark as a collaboration between Metal, Southend Borough Council and National Health Service (NHS, England). The Garden of Remember has been managed by local artist Elsa James and  NetPark Mental Wellbeing Co-ordinator, Emma Mills working with people living with dementia, local school children and young people over a series of workshops in 2016.

PRODUCTION Emma Mills, Project Coordinator, Southend Borough Council & Metal Elsa James, Artist Facilitator & Project Development Joe Magee, Illustrator Alistair Gentry, Writer Jack Hurst, Music Simon Poulter, NetPark Curator and Software Development Sophie Mellor, Software Development Richard de Wet, Project Technical Support Segun Olaretan, Software Technical Support, Essex University Student Volunteer Ian Wilson, Dementia Friend Volunteer John Newell, Narration, Southend Shakespeare Company Ross Norman-Clarke, Narration, Southend Shakespeare Company Elsa James, Gareth Jones and Richard de Wet, Recording and Sound

PARTICIPANTS Participants living with dementia Tony Delaney Allan Guthrie WESTBOROUGH SCHOOL PUPILS Jessica Gilbert Oscar Baines Fletcher Marsh Euan Bennett Finlay Chambers Iolanda Trotta Anne Briant, Teacher THE PRINCE’S TRUST TALENT MATCH Tom Merison Becky Clarke Stephanie McPaul With thanks to Milton Hall Primary School for use of their recording studio.

HOW TO: This is a story app best experienced with headphones with a GPS ‘Play in the Park’ mode or as a ‘Play at Home’ mode. Make sure to switch your GPS on in the park. Use the bespoke maps in the app to find the story zones. You can read as a text based experience by scrolling up on each page, or listen as audio.

NOTES: This project requires iPad 2 or higher and does not work on iPhone or Android.

Many of the apps use GPS on your phone, make sure that GPS is switched on. On iPhone or iPad go to SETTINGS > PRIVACY > LOCATION SERVICES > ON