NLA Festival - Tales of the City: Tagging Shoreditch and Beyond

At the recent London Festival of Architecture we discovered a fantastic use of a location based service: Tales of the City inviting local people to add their voices to London's architecture.

Via the project talesofthings.com it captures people’s memories of objects and has been playing them back via small readable and writeable QR codes and RFID tags. Tales of the City extends the concept into the urban realm with the architecture of the city able to replay memories of its history.

The project will enable participants to add their own tales to buildings and view stories that other people have left. The project has been tagging architecture since its launch in April 2010, most notably Broadcasting House in Portland Place and a wall in Chalk Farm which when scanned replays how the wall used to look with a Banksy Stencil in place. Tales of the City starts off with a pre-placed tag at the historic heart of Shoreditch, St Leonard's Church. From there you will be able to spot tags (QR codes) on Shoreditch High Street which you can add your own stories to, contributing to the growing network of tagged architecture. This will enable people to form a personalised tour of London’s contemporary history through architecture. If you have an iPhone or an Android handset be sure to download our free app - talesofthings to enable you to leave comments on the QR codes, or create your own codes to put on your favourite buildings.

For a full list of all locations that have been tagged (including a tattoo parlour, hairdresser, bars, gardens,
shops) visit http://www.youtotem.com/talesofthecity

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