? Museum of Vancouver's Visible City Virtual Exhibition and App Launch Party, Tuesday, April 30, 4-7 p.m. at Vancouver FanClub, 1050 Granville St. For info and tickets ($10/free for museum members), visit museumofvancouver.ca/visiblecity.
THE Museum of Vancouver is launching a new virtual exhibition and mobile app that's intended to encourage users to look at the history of Vancouver's downtown neighbourhoods in a new light.
The Visible City: Vancouver's Neon Stories focuses on the city's neon signs to tell local stories and makes use of augmented reality technology to provide an interactive and illuminating museum experience.
The virtual exhibition and corresponding app are being launched Tuesday and museum members and the general public are encouraged to attend a party that evening, celebrating the organization's cutting-edge approach to bringing history to the streets and exploring Vancouver's continued social and cultural evolution through the lens of neon.
The Visible City grew out of the museum's popular Neon Vancouver Ugly Vancouver exhibition, launched in 2011 and currently on display as a semi-permanent show. It was also made possible through a funding grant from the Virtual Museum of Canada, a program under the umbrella of the Canadian Heritage Information Network, a federal government agency.
"It was based on an application that leveraged our collection of neon, but also touched on our desire to do something with new technology and locative media in a way that allowed us to very literally treat the city as our artifact," says Hanna Cho, curator of engagement and dialogue at the Museum of Vancouver as well as curatorial lead on The Visible City.
"We had this great collection of neon, we had a neon installation, and a lot of us were thinking there's so much wonderful neon out there. We definitely don't want to bring it inside the museum, but it would be great if we could share with people the stories that are behind all the neon that's still out in the city without having to collect it and bring in into our museum as a kind of traditional exhibition route would take," she says.
Museums in other cities have been making use of augmented reality technology inside their walls to deepen audience engagement, however the Museum of Vancouver is the first North American museum to do so "on the streets" through their new free app.
"What I think is really unique about this is that it encourages people to be outside the museum walls and have a museum experience," says Cho.
The app features two approximately 30minute audio-guided walking tours through the downtown Granville Street and Hastings/ Chinatown areas.
"In our case, augmented reality speaks to the ability to layer a location-based image using your smartphone, GPS and camera phone onto an existing physical location," says Cho.
The technology used in the specially designed app allows users to shift between present and past scenes, using their phones, gaining a glimpse into the locations as they appeared in the 1950s, '60s or '70s.
The app was designed to be easy to use, regardless of patrons' experience with technology, or familiarity with the city.
"We take you from spot to spot and we map it out and ask you to check in (and) continue connecting with the app to make sure you reach your destination - both figuratively and literally," says Cho.
The information is intended to be enlightening for local residents, as well as tourists, interested in learning more about their surroundings.
"It really chronicles the rise and fall and revival of neon because I think anyone who has any appreciation of neon or the built environments in Vancouver's downtown core has noticed an uptake in neon," says Cho. "And that was part of our interest in investigating the social and civic history behind the revival of neon because it's been closely linked to the evolution of Vancouver's civic orientation or collective desire to be a big bustling city versus a cosmopolitan feeling versus a quiet natural city. These are some of the tensions we explore a little bit in the (Neon Vancouver Ugly Vancouver exhibition). We also wanted to trace some of the rich social and cultural history exploring why Granville was so populated with neon and why Chinatown was also. What were some of the missing stories from the neon landscape?"
Sharing their perspective on the signs and neighbourhoods through the virtual exhibition and app are a host of well-known local residents, including, "people like Dal Richards who has seen Granville Street change inside and out and has really strong memories of those neon landmarks as a performer and longtime Vancouverite," says Cho.
Others whose stories are featured include the Yale's Joe Luciak, DOA's Joe Keithley and Judy Graves, a City of Vancouver advocate for those affected by homelessness. Users are encouraged to post their own stories and photos as well.
The virtual exhibition features a host of videos, and some additional neon signs and neighbourhoods, as well as a range of high school age learning materials. Initial feedback from teachers has been positive.
Cho is pleased with the results of the virtual exhibition and app and is hopeful the Museum of Vancouver will continue to experiment with new technology to increase audience engagement as far as both the museum and local history is concerned.
"I'm really proud of the team that came together on this," she says. "I thought they were just fantastic, passionate, and really talented people. I'm actually really proud that it's easy to use and it's beautiful. Everyone I've showed it to, it speaks to so many things they didn't know they wanted to know about neon and deepens their understanding of Vancouver," she says.
The launch party for The Visible City is being held Tuesday, April 30 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Vancouver FanClub.
"It's going to be evocative of the jazz and blues heyday of Granville Street," says Cho.
The Visible City app is downloadable for free for iPhone and Android phones through the iTunes App Store and Google Play.
For more information, visit thevisiblecity.ca.
