The Garden of 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.

The map of the park, shows the user the location of each GPS zone as a blue dot. As the user walks towards each dot, the GPS triggers the respective story as audio and text. The 'how to use' guidance page shows the user how to turn on location services on their device prior to experiencing the work. A green radius around each GPS dot enables the user to manually trigger each zone by walking into it.

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.

The Garden of Remember is a part of NetPark, a unique project curating digital content in Chalkwell Park. It was developed for NetPark as a collaboration between Metal and Southend Borough Council with funding from the National Health Service (England).

Images are by Joe Magee, stories were developed with participants in the project assisted by Alistair Gentry. Original music is by Jack Hurst. Project artist Elsa James.