Cemetery phone app for visitors

A PROJECT has been launched to bring alive the history of Bristol's Arnos Vale Cemetery.

Researchers are working on a smartphone app that will enable visitors to the Victorian burial ground to take part in an interactive presentation.

It will help them find out more about some of the 320,000 people buried at the cemetery over the last 170 years.

A team from Bath University is working with the cemetery trust, Bristol-based Calling the Shots media and the Heritage Sandbox project, also based in the city, on the interactive app.

The pilot project, called The Future Cemetery, is one of six in the South West funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Dr John Troyer, pictured, deputy director of the Centre for Death & Society at Bath University, is in charge of the cemeteries project.

He said: "The idea is that people will visit cemeteries and become more engaged. One of the possibilities is to create some kind of smart phone app that will allow the user to enhance their visit. It would be more than a guided tour, more interactive."

Dr Troyer said he hopes that using technology in this way would help to break down the psychological barriers around death and dying.

He said: "It will be used to initiate discussions around future life planning such as what people want to happen to their bodies after death and organ donor issues."

Other AHRC-funded schemes include augmented reality mirrors on board Bristol's ss Great Britain; a mobile platform that enables users to explore different layers of Bristol's heritage; and a project at Bristol Old Vic on the relationship between archives and memories.

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