Castle telescope

The castle means memories_rediscovering local memory_castle telescope

Idea description:

The Bratislava castle and the castle hill are places that have witnessed many historical events as well as human vicissitudes over the centuries. Most people connect the castle to important personalities leaving their footprints there. The place has seen many twists and turns of fortune. People experiencing love, joy, victory, failure, delusion have left their traces there (such as names carved in the rocks, etc.). They contributed to creating a certain town memory. The castle hill has been the place of pleasant encounters, walks, recreational activities, while representing the positive relationship of the people with the town as a whole. Today, after some stages of the castle area reconstruction, the carved memories of those people have been lost, the names romantically incised in the castle ruin walls have been covered with layers of plaster. The castle has been renovated, the walls painted, the sculptures reinstalled, new garages dug out, yet the people’s relationship to the castle has not been renewed.

The objective of the intervention is to renew, or rediscover, the lost memory of the place in a non-invasive way, and thus try to improve the town residents’ relationship to the castle area. The proposal includes a digital telescope equipped with a camera to be installed in a selected spot in the area (on the hill opposite the honorary forecourt). The users would access the system via a smart phone application which would offer them the possibility to place their own memories, confessions, etc. As if they were leaving a “trace” in a virtual database of memories, visible in the cone-shaped camera view on the castle facade. The users would have the possibility to choose and set memory visualization options (private, public), the place and specific message. After a payment confirmation, the application would generate a QR code which, when scanned, would allow the users to see a preview of the castle with their personal message. Making a personal photo of the preview through an incorporated polaroid camera would be also available.

  • Ing. arch. Anna Gondová