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Signals Media and the Roman circus: App and launch event
On Saturday 10th September, Signals Media of Colchester held an event here at the Roman circus centre to launch their new Roman circus App. Visitors can now walk some of the site of the Roman circus using the App, which includes three site-specific audios and a mini chariot-racing game! We hope that our visitors will enjoy using the App as much as we do…
The Colchester Roman circus App is available for free at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/colchester-roman-circus/id1140119770?mt=8 and at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teaboygames.colromancircus&hl=en .
Signals Media write: ‘… Signals’ Dig Deeper project brought together a diverse selection of young people to learn about Colchester’s Roman heritage and to work together to create an animation and App for the Colchester Roman circus centre. This project was made possible through funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Working with the Colchester Archaeological Trust (CAT), the project saw young people, ages 11-25, learning about the archaeology of Roman Colchester and working with local professionals to develop an animation, historical audio tour and site-based App which are all to be installed at the Roman circus centre. Beginning in May half-term, we discovered the origins and explored the history of Roman Colchester through media animation, sound design and robotics workshops. Then, throughout the next few months, Signals ran more free workshops making short animations, writing stories for a Colchester-based historical audio tour and working with local developers to create an interactive map – which was subsequently unveiled on the 10th September 2016 at the Colchester Roman circus centre.
To celebrate the finale of our Dig Deeper project, we enlisted some of our young charioteers to re-create the procession which ancient Romans would have walked from the Roman temple, now Colchester Castle, to the Roman circus before a race. After making their costumes, our mini legion were met with smiles and cheers as they marched across Colchester and chanted Latin phrases. Once at the circus centre they were met with Roman food, music and games – and were treated to the launch of the brand new “Dig Deeper” animated film and the Roman circus App that they had all worked so hard on over the summer. You can view a gallery of images from the procession here.
Working with heritage professionals from the Colchester Archaeological Trust, Dig Deeper participants gained a deeper insight into this little-known part of Colchester’s heritage, as well as teaching them a variety of valuable new digital skills.
A huge thank you to everyone that took part in the Dig Deeper project: you can view a video of the day on our web-site and download the Colchester Roman circus App now for free!
The Colchester Roman circus App is now available to download, for FREE, for both Android and iOS …’. This report is also published on the Signals Media web-site, at www.signals.org.uk/dig-deeper , and it is reproduced here with their permission. Reports on the event have been published in the Essex County Standard and posted on the Colchester Daily Gazette web-site.
You can view the two Dig Deeper videos at www.signals.org.uk/ .
The Trust is delighted with the Roman circus App and we are very grateful to Signals Media for their support of the Roman circus centre. It was also great, at the launch event, to see the site of the circus starting-gates brought to life by so many children and their hand-made horses!
These images are from Signals’ Facebook gallery of the event.
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