Global Urban Wilds is a locative media app set in Montreal’s Champ des Possibles. Framed by sixties-era industrial buildings that once housed the city’s garment industry, the Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway tracks, and the walled garden of le Monastère des Carmélites of the Plateau-Mont-Royal of Montréal, the Champ des Possibles was designated as a protected parkland in 2009, the result of a community-led movement to retain it as an informal greenspace. This site-specific locative sound walk and app affords visitors an experience of ‘embodied knowing’ – learning through immersion and sensory encounter—in dialogue with the app’s design and content that highlights the history of the Champ’s many human and nonhuman influences.
As visitors move through the urban wild and interact with app’s haptic, sound and visual content, they trigger sounds and recorded conversations with local historians, activists, and artists about the significance of the urban wild to the community and the impact of globalization and settler culture on the land over time. Content unlocked when user’s position is sensed by GPS can be retained after leaving the Champ and revisited through the app remotely.
Global Urban Wilds is downloadable for remote and in-person use in Montreal’s Champ des Possibles. The app is optimized for use iPhone X, 11 or 12, and visitors are encouraged to wear headphones for optimal listening.
Photos of the Champ des Possibles and the developing stages of the project:
For more information on this SSHRC funded project visit: https://greeningnarrative.wordpress.com/