CULTURE · EDUCATION · TECHNOLOGY
Cronovizor: interwar Bucharest
History, exactly where it happened.
Colorbitor · Bucharest, 2013 · The founders' portfolio
A walk through Bucharest. A phone raised towards a building. On the screen, today's city meets footage filmed there decades ago. Cronovizor brought archive film back onto the street, through augmented reality.
A city with several times
Every day we pass places whose story we barely know. We see a façade, a square, a street. It is harder to imagine the people who lived there, how they moved around or what life looked like before us.
Cronovizor started from a simple question: what if you could see a place's past while standing in it? The Colorbitor team matched archive film sequences with the Bucharest spaces where they had been recorded. The historical image appeared on the phone or tablet screen, laid over what the camera saw.
From the archive, back into the city
Launched in April 2013, the project was developed by Colorbitor with its own resources, with the support of the Romanian National Film Archive for access to the materials. Researching the footage and identifying the places mattered as much as building the digital experience.
In the version of the time, the points were marked on a map and through QR codes in public space. The experience used the Junaio platform and Metaio technology. Positioning and environment recognition made it possible to tie the video material to the real place.
How the two cities met
STEP 1
You found the place
You reached a point included in the route and opened the experience on your phone or tablet.
STEP 2
You looked through the camera
You pointed the device at the place the app recognised.
STEP 3
You saw the archive in context
The historical sequence appeared over the image of the present. You could compare buildings, people and ways of using the city.
DEMOS FROM 2013
The interface, as it looked then
VIDEO
Cronovizor, filmed in 2013
ECHOES
A city visited from outside as well
The launch documentation gathers the reactions of the time: journalist Andrew Evans tried the app on the streets of Bucharest, and the project was included in National Geographic's “Smart Cities” programme.
Heritage you can run into
The cultural value of the idea lies in that proximity: the archive document reaches the place it speaks about. A walk can become an occasion to observe, to ask questions and to talk about how the city has changed.
For us, Cronovizor is a landmark in using technology for culture and education. It points to a direction worth continuing: experiences that make people curious about the places they live in.
Recognition at Internetics 2013
Mobile Apps
Cronovizor, winner of the section.
Best Use of Technology
Cronovizor, awarded alongside two other projects.
Best Newcomer
A distinction awarded to the Colorbitor Digital agency.
The people and organisations behind it
Colorbitor
Initiating and developing the project, the digital experience and the integration of the archive content.
Daniel Gontz, Georgia Gontz and Costin Crețulescu
The Colorbitor team mentioned in the launch documentation.
The Romanian National Film Archive
Support for access to the archive materials.
Susțin
A project presented as part of the founders' portfolio.
PROPOSAL FOR A CONTINUATION
A new route for Cronovizor
Cronovizor could return through a short cultural route, built together with an archive, a museum or a local community. We would start with a few well-documented places and with stories worth seeing where they happened.
A first stage could include a map accessible from the browser, archive sequences, comparative photographs and short explanations. Then, in the right spots, we could add augmented reality experiences.
Routes for schools, guided walks and screenings followed by exploring the city are natural ways of taking the idea further. These are directions proposed for a future edition; the calendar and the partners are still to be built.
Which place would you like to see in another time?
If you represent an archive, a museum, a school, a cultural organisation or a company that wants to contribute to a new route, let's talk.
Let's build a routeDocumentation:Colorbitor ↗ · Digi24, May 2013 ↗ · Internetics 2013 ↗
HOW THIS LINKS TO OUR IMPACT AREAS
Archive film reaches the place it speaks about, turning the city's heritage into a context for learning and public conversation.