Dark Side/Port Side Launch Success (via Supernatural Cities)

Reposted from Mel Bassett’s post supernaturalcities.co.uk/2019/10/22/dark-side-port-side-launch-success

Dark Side/Port Side Launch Success

Last night witnessed the launch of Dark Side/Port Side; an exciting interactive online tour of Portsmouth’s murky past through contemporary word and film. The app was the brainchild of John Sackett, Creative Director of events company Big Adventures who, with the support and part-funding of the Supernatural Cities and Port Towns and Urban Cultures projects at the University of Portsmouth, successfully secured a grant from Arts Council England.

‘In the Hands of Men’, one of the fourteen points on the tour

 

 

 

The route is peppered with fourteen points which can be geo-located through the user’s smart phone. Each point on the walk reveals a stunning vignette showcasing artistic interpretations – in film, song, spoken word, and multimedia imagery – of an aspect of the location’s dark past as a Royal Navy port and a hub of iniquity.

Intrepid explorers using the tech last night saw films inspired by mudlarking, a famous Portsea murder, eerie tales of childhoods and motherhoods living in poverty, women whose lives were constrained by their gender, and a sailor slang argument.

Desperate Beauty and Jay Groovara

The launch also featured a few surprises. DarkFest musician-and-author-extraordinaire Will Sutton whipped up morale on a cold October night by engaging us all in a music hall-style singalong. Then, embodying the ‘Spirit of Portsea’, author Matt Wingett recounted the militarism and working men of the Dockyard, the ‘blood and the fighting’, the mothers and the molls, and other upheavals the town had seen in the last three centuries. On the Hard, with HMS Warrior (1860) as a spectral backdrop, Desperate Beauty and Jay Groovara played a mini-concert.

We lingered outside pubs and in alleyways. Alongside some of Portsmouth’s most iconic landmarks

Dark Side/Portside is available throughout #DarkFest19 at https://darkside.nautoguide.com/. The first point on the map is outside St George’s Church Portsea, PO1 3AT. The walk is flat and easily accessible – do watch the traffic though! It is recommended that you wear headphones, have your phone fully charged, and make sure that you are mobile data rich!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Side/Port Side was inspired by the Sailortown walking tour of Portsea and Old Portsmouth which was created using research from the University of Portsmouth’s ‘Port Towns and Urban Cultures’ project, including Dr Karl Bell’s research into Portsmouth’s supernatural side. We are delighted with the result as Dark Side/Port Side showcases the rich and innovative new ways in which local artists and filmmakers can interact with our academic research. Moreover, we are excited by the potential it has to encourage the wider public to learn more about Portsmouth’s past and its creative present!

Both Sailortown and Dark Side/Port Side were developed with Nautoguide, a SME who specialise in mapping data in ingenious and creative ways. Read more about their creative journey with the project HERE.

We value your feedback!

If you went on the tour last night, or you do go on it at some point in the near future please tell us about your experience. If we can demonstrate to different funding bodies how arts and humanities projects such as Dark Side/Port Side can inspire, inform, entertain, and generally be beneficial to our overall well-being, we will have a stronger case for doing more in the future.

Intrepid explorers of Dark Side/Port Side outside the Historic Dockyard Gates

Get in contact with us and tell us:

What did you previously know about the history of Portsmouth’s sailor town?
How has the app made you think about Portsmouth and its past?
In what ways did the poetry and films reflect the history of the city?
How did you feel a sense of place and time was evoked in the Dark Side/Port Side app and walking tour?
Which video and /or poem resonated with you most and why?
What did you learn about the dark side of “Portside” that you did not previously know about?

You can do this by cutting and pasting the questions in the Contact from at the bottom of this page, or downloading the “Please tell us what you think” Feedback Form, filling in and sending it back to us (scanned/photographed/typed) to supernaturalcities@port.ac.uk

Your comments will make a difference. Thank you!

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