Ghost Cinema App Launch and Film Screening

On Saturday 6th June at 7pm, we will be launching the Ghost Cinema iPhone app and celebrating with a screening a mystery Battersea-based film. The event will take place at The Whole Foods Market, 305-311, Lavender Hill, Clapham Junction, London, SW11 1LN.

Join us!

Ghost Cinema App Needs You!

Come along to Battersea Library on Lavender Hill at 2pm this Saturday 28th March, to test a new iPhone app about the cinematic history of the area called Ghost Cinemas.

Please sign up on our Eventbrite page if you would like to come along, and please download the app before the event. See you there...

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/battersea-ghost-cinemas-app-needs-you-tickets-16200179172?aff=eac2

Nine Elms: Film as Spatial Critique

Nine Elms: Film as Spatial Critique. A conversation with Patrick Keiller and project member Matthew Flintham. At the Open University, Camden, 13-03-14, 6.30pm

CGB Database Goes Live!

Our fully searchable database of 600 films shot in Battersea has gone live. Click the link to identify films by location, theme or name. This is still very much in beta stage so there may be a few glitches and bugs, but we would be really grateful for feedback.

http://expressivespace.org/cinematicbattersea/

Cinematic Battersea goes Global...

 Battersea Ghost seminar led by Prof Richard Koeck at Nanjing University China.

Cinematic Urban Geographies conference update

Here is a timetable for the forthcoming conference at CRASSH, Cambridge. All times, places and people are subject to changes. Please watch this space for more details.

CINEMATIC URBAN GEOGRAPHIES CONFERENCE @  CRASSH  - 3&4 OCT 2013

DAY 1

9.00 - 9.20 Registration

9.20 - 9.30   Welcome

CARTOGRAPHIC CINEMA: THE ROLE OF MAPS IN FILMS

9.30 -  10.00    Tom Conley (Harvard University)

10.00 – 10.20  Teresa Castro (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3)

10.20 – 10.40  Henry Keazor (Universität Heidelberg)

10.40 – 11.00  Discussion

11.00 – 11.20    Coffee Break

11.20– 12.00 [10x1x1]

Eric Schuldenfrei (The University of Hong Kong)

Emma Hayward (University of Liverpool)

Berit Hummel (TU Berlin)

‘MOVIE CENTRIC’ MAP OF CITIES – MAP-READING AND CINÉ-TOURISM

12.00 - 12.30    Roland-François Lack (University College London)

12.30 – 12.50    Andong Lu  (Nanjing Univesity)

 Discussion

1.15 – 2.15 Lunch

FILMS AS SITES OF MEMORIES – LIEUX DE MÉMOIRES

2.15 – 2.45  Steve Pile (Open University)

2.45 – 3.05  Frederick Baker (University of Cambridge)

3.05– 3.20  Discussion

3.20 – 4.00  [Panel 1 of 3 x 10 mins + discussion]

Maurizio Cinquegranni (University of Kent)

Evgenia Giannouri (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3)

Annalisa Mirizio (Universitat de Barcelona)

4.00 - 4.30 Coffee break

4.30 – 5.30 [Panel 2 of 4 x 10 mins + discussion]

Sophie Jackson (Anglia Ruskin University)

Anna Batori (University of Glasgow)

Liew Kai Khiun & Natalie Pang (Nanyang Technological University)

Carmen Pérez Ríu (Universidad de Oviedo)

End 5.30pm  - all go to Arts Picture House

6pm Screening at the Arts Picture House – Helsinki Forever Intro and discussion with Peter van Bagh

8.15PM DINNER AT TRINITY HALL

DAY 2

CINEMATIC TOPOGRAPHIES WITHIN THEIR SOCIAL & CULTURAL PRACTICES

9.15 – 9.45   Charlotte Brunsdon (University of Warwick)

DATABASE CINEMA: VISUALISING THE CINEMATIC URBAN ARCHAEOLOGY

9.55 – 10.25  Andrew Prescott (King's College London)

10.35 – 11.00 coffee

11.00 - 1.15 Parallel sessions

PARALLEL SESSION 1 - cinematic topographies within their social & cultural practices	PARALLEL SESSION 2 - database cinema: visualising the cinematic urban archaeology of a city
Session 1 Chair:  Charlotte Brunsdon Mark Shiel (King's College London) John Beck (University of Westminster) Erica Stein (University of Arizona) Fran Bigman (University of Cambridge) Simone Chung (University of Cambridge) Seungho Yoo (University College London) Lawrence Webb (University of Gothenburg)	Session 2 Chair: Andrew Prescott Stavros Alifragkis & Giorgos Papakonstantinou (University of Thessaly) Chris O’Rourke (University College London) Amir Soltani (University of Cambridge) Gul Kacmaz Erk (Queens University Belfast) Luisa Feiersinger (Humboldt Universität, Berlin) Ruxanda Berinde (University of Sheffield) Michael Hrebeniak (University of Cambridge)

1.15 – 2.00 Lunch

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT WITH LOCAL FILMS THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKING

2.00 – 2.30 Richard Coyne (University of Edinburgh)

GEO-LOCATING MOVIES IN THE CITY – MOBILE APPS

2.40 – 4.00  Cinematic Geographies of Battersea Panel

Aileen Reid (English Heritage) & Maureen Thomas (University of Cambridge) Chris Speed & Chris Barker (University of Edinburgh)

Richard Koeck & Matthew Flintham (University of Liverpool)

Alex Butterworth (Amblr)

Eleonora Rosati (University of Cambridge)  

4.00 – 5.00   [4 x 10x 1]     

Rocio von Jungenfeld (University of Edinburgh)   TBC

Bertrand Pleven (Université Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) TBC

Myriam Fazel (University of Sheffield)

Kateřina Krejčová & Lukáš Matoška  (Charles University in Prague)

PANEL DISCUSSION

5.00- 5.30

5.30pm   Drinks reception in the foyer

END

App Testing and Interviews

Under the sweltering July sun, the Cinematic Geographies project team had a full day in Battersea Park testing the prototype of BatterCtrax, an immersive, geolocative iPhone app designed to deliver audio from feature films that were shot in and around the park. Working with app developer Amblr, the project team have identified dozens of film locations in the area and refined a technology that allows the audio from those films to be delivered to the iPhone user as they pass through the park triggering GPS-enabled geofences. For example, the experience of hearing sounds from the Festival of Britain Pleasure Gardens (1951) or Battersea Fun Fair (closed - 1974) while standing in those locations is pretty eerie, or looking out over the Thames and hearing the sounds of the industrious river as it was 50 years ago is startling. BatterCtrax is still in research and development phase but we are working hard to make a publicly available version as soon as possible. Watch this space.

We also spent a good deal of the day interviewing and filming a group of ex-Battersea residents who gather once a year to catch up with friends and say hello to SW11. Many thanks to all those who kindly gave up their time to share memories and observations of Battersea as it developed over the course of the 20th Century. It was invaluable for us to hear directly about the social and cultural changes that have shaped the area, but also to have certain historical preconceptions of the area (largely presented to us through cinema) changed in a positive way.