Be Here Then — storytelling as an innovation tool
Charlotte Rodenstedt's picture was taken by Anneli Xie.
Charlotte Rodenstedt is behind the app Be Here Then, which is an app with stories and pictures tied to special locations. The app unlocks information at different geographical points, and there you can access the material via your mobile phone in the form of texts, pictures and experiences. In this way, people can take a walk to discover a city or an area in an entertaining way.
- I figured out that I needed an app when I wanted to see what it had looked like in the past in my neighborhood, says Charlotte Rodenstedt. I lived in Lugnet in Malmö, a neighborhood where a lot was demolished in the 80s and where it was then rebuilt. I found a lot of pictures but had trouble orienting myself where they were taken. That's why I wanted to create an app that shows where a picture is taken. Together with a friend I developed the idea, which was then taken further through The Creative Tour with the help of business development support.
When it was time for the final the presentation of entrepreneurs' business ideas at the Mejeriet In Lund, Charlotte was contacted by Lund's then Business Manager Per Persson who was interested in the app.
- The municipality of Lund became my first customer. Now Be Here Then is available in eight Swedish cities, in Norway's Stavanger and soon in Kosovo.
Charlotte Rodenstedt participates in the cooperation on the development of Cultural and Creative Industries, KKN, in Kosovo where Future by Lund, UN Habitat, Anibar The NGO includes and is led by Lund University on behalf of SIDA. (We use KKN here but see it as broadly synonymous with Cultural and Creative Sectors, FGM, and Cultural and Creative Industries, KKB.) The Be Here Then app is used as a development tool and will be adapted to visualize collected material, supplement with AR and create an experience in the city of Pristina. There is a wealth of material to draw on in the form of stories and films about civil society as it was before the war in the Balkans.
- I have written the first two stories and six more are being produced in Kosovo. We will work with AR (augmented reality), animation and historical photographs that talk about what it was like to live, visit and work in Pristina. At its center stand stories about the old bazaar, which was demolished long ago. It will be fictional people and stories based on reality.
The Be Here Then app has changed over the years from historical photos to something much more.
- Before Kosovo, we did not really use AR in the app, but only used the user's position and compass. Now our partner Anibar in Kosovo will hire two animators to make 3D versions of the fictional characters, so now we have developed a Unity-based AR tool,” continues Charlotte Rodenstedt.
The app is an important part of the work in Kosovo.
- We will have the app as an innovation tool in the project, says Katarina Scott at Future by Lund. Here we can work with urban development, animation and civic engagement in Kosovo.
The app will also be further developed in several projects in Sweden. There will be opportunities together with the archaeologists at Uppåkra Archaeological Center and through an innovation round in the Lund Innovation District. At the same time, new parts are added to the already existing app.
- The app is constantly evolving. It could be that a customer wants to add where there is public art or museum. In this way, when we bring new functions, they become available to the others,” says Charlotte Rodenstedt.
By constantly researching what the app could be used for, new possibilities are developed.
- When we use tools in new contexts, for example in Kosovo, we get new effects and at the same time we learn and can return the results to what we do at home, says Katarina Scott. The important thing is that we gather around something concrete and create new innovation, research and development. At Future by Lund and Lund University we work with the concept”Innovation by Production,” which is a way to innovate by taking advantage of innovative solutions developed during artistic work in cultural and creative industries. There is a strong tradition of creativity and coming up with new solutions, and as with Be Here Then, these can breed innovation.
Be Here Then also has a partnership with Skånetrafiken, so that material from the app is visible on Skånetrafiken's screens on buses and trains — giving Be Here Then a visibility while allowing travellers to look at material that may interest them during their journey. This will be an important lesson when an innovation round is created in the Lund Innovation District, which is located along the tramway in Lund.
