Imagine Portsmouth’s maritime district, anytime between the 18th and early 20th Century, an area crowded with salubrious pubs, lodging houses, brothels and money lenders.
These areas had reputations for exuberant and excessive leisure as it was here that sailors first stepped ashore after long and arduous maritime journeys. University of Portsmouth’s social and cultural department uncovered the notorious histories of these areas and created an app, a digital walking trail and called it Sailortown.
Now thanks to support from The Arts Council and a partnership between the University of Portsmouth and BIG Adventures, creative producer John Sackett is taking Sailortown one step further and has created Dark Side Port Side. The project asked Portsmouth and the region’s poets and film-makers to re-imagine these histories and create an alternative storyline in response to one particular district, the area of Portsea. The stories have been told in the form of 14 poem-films which can be accessed by an app and walked as a trail.
Dr Lighthouse (aka Roy Hanney) provided consultancy and technical support for the project and also installed projection equipment for the launch event in November 2018 as part of that year’s Darkfest. It was great fun working on the project said Roy, the opportunity to co-produce 14 poetry films meant we got to work with some inspirational artists and is a significant achievement. Currently, the films are available to watch on the walking tour plus they are being submitted to film festivals as poem film an anthology.
The Dark Side Port Side poetry film walking tour is currently live until the end of October 2020. All you need to do to follow the trail and experience the films is to follow this link to the online app: https://darkside.nautoguide.com/
Do charge your phones and make sure you have plenty of data before taking the tour though as its quite data-hungry. Also, do keep an eye out for cars and bikes as you explore 18th century Portsea Island.
Hallmark of Poverty AR App for Darkside Portside
For those of you with Android phones, you can also download and install the Hallmark of Poverty App which will allow you to see this particular poem-film as an augmented reality (AR) experience. Just open the app and point it at the plaque at the top of Curzon Howe Road, opposite Groundlings Theatre.
You can get the AR app here: https://dindinzcafe.co.uk/HallmarkPoverty.apk
The AR app was developed by Dr Lighthouse (aka Roy Hanney) in collaboration with digital artist Maja Hill. They were commissioned by the project to prototype an AR version of the walking tour as a proof of concept. It was a struggle to make this work explained Roy Hanney, there is no easy and free workflow for producing an AR walking tour though there are companies offering this kind of service. What the project offers is an insight into what might be possible for the future.
