A virtual visit to Windsor Castle
The Royal Collections Trust’s new app for iPhones and iPads aims to offer a virtual tour of Windsor Castle and its grounds through a collection of 45 watercolour views by the brothers Paul and Thomas Sandby in the late 18th century.
The Capturing Windsor Castle app, which was developed by Aimer Media, starts with a geolocated map; each highlighted section is accompanied with a Sandby watercolour revealing how the castle looked before its transformation in the 19th century.
A scroll functions allows users of the app to reveal a photograph of the same views as they appear today. Accompanying text describes what the user is looking at and provides additional information.
For example, the views through the Henry VIII Gate explains that in the 18th century the gateway served as a debtor’s prison – as illustrated by an incarcerated inmate lowering a bucket from the grille window seeking aid. Users can share sections on social media sites or save the images to their devices.
The app can be used by people unable to visit Windsor Castle or during a physical visit.
It serves as a useful multimedia guide that visitors may find more illuminating and engaging than a traditional audio tour – especially because they can also use the app to take their own photographs of projected views, which can be compared with a Sandby watercolour original.
Set in Edwardian London, the Magic in Modern London free iPhone app is a treasure hunt based on the folklorist Edward Lovett, who trawled the backstreets of the city collecting amulets and the superstitious stories connected to them.
The app’s geolocation-enabled map allows people to “move through time” to see how the city has changed between 1908 and 2014.
You can’t tell exactly when the map dates from, but it’s nice to look up how the Museums Association’s Clerkenwell address has changed over the years. Dots on the map indicate the areas where objects are located.
Musical clues are provided when users are in these zones to help them fi nd each of the 64 scattered objects. Audio clips feature extracts from Lovett’s 1922 book, after which the app is named.
Other characters, voiced by actors, share stories through the app. Archive photographs create an atmospheric experience for users.
Magic in Modern London, which was developed by Amblr for the Wellcome Collection, aims to engage audiences through what is essentially a mobile game. How people use it will offer some interesting insights into the role of such experiences and what value they offer museums.
App: Curious Corners
Two Bath cultural institutions have enlisted students to create a grand tour app. Does it work?
Curious Corners is a free virtual cabinet of curiosities iPad app created by Bath Spa University students with No 1 Royal Crescent Museum and the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.
The app aims to explain the history and background of the Victorian cabinet of curiosities and the grand tour by presenting objects that a typical 18th-century gentleman would have collected.
Users of the app first choose a continent from a world map, before being shown a selection of objects that have been collected from that part of the world. Each object is accompanied by a high-quality photograph and some text introducing its history and meaning.
The information and the photographs do shed light on some unusual objects, although the app doesn’t offer anything that a user wouldn’t be able to see and learn in a museum.
It could benefit from more objects: Asia is represented by just one object, a set of poisoned darts in a bamboo container. The addition of more photographs, videos, audio or archive documents would also help bring the chosen objects to life.
The idea of creating a virtual cabinet of curiosities is a good one, and will no doubt appeal to iPad and other tablets users who want to use their device to explore collections.
Developing this app was probably a great learning tool for the students involved. But it doesn’t quite go far enough in exploiting the technology and offering a new and exciting experience in an already overcrowded marketplace.
