''Circa 1948'' is both a 2014 interactive app for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

devices and an interactive installation created by Stan Douglas and the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

's Digital Studio in Vancouver, led by Loc Dao. The project allows users to virtually explore such former districts and landmarks in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

as Hogan's Alley and the original Hotel Vancouver, in the year 1948. ''Circa 1948'' is set in two distinctly different neighbourhoods:

West End, Vancouver The West End is a list of neighbourhoods in Vancouver, neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, located between the Coal Harbour neighbourhood and the Financial District, Vancouver, financial and central business districts of Downtown ...

, which was a wealthier district, home to many veterans back from the war, and

East Vancouver East Vancouver (also called East Van or the East Side) is a region within the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to the ea ...

, which was, in the words of Douglas, "basically an ethnic slum where the laws of the city had been suspended. There was bootlegging, gambling, prostitution. Even the mayor would go there to party." The project was originally pitched to the NFB as a

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

feature by Douglas and screenwriter

Chris Haddock Chris Haddock is a Canadian screenwriter, producer and director best known as the creator and showrunner of the CBC Television series '' Da Vinci's Inquest'', '' Da Vinci's City Hall'', ''Intelligence'' and ''The Romeo Section''. He has won 14 G ...

, but evolved into a non-linear work based on Douglas' expertise in that field as well as that of the NFB's digital studio, which had produced such works as '' Bear 71''. Douglas has also stated that his initial concept had been for site specific installations in Vancouver but the NFB, with its mandate to create works accessible to all Canadians, encouraged him to rethink the project as an app and movable immersive experience. Douglas, who lives in Vancouver, researched the project with maps and photos, which were digitally converted by the NFB into an explorable

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore th ...

, using

Autodesk Maya Autodesk Maya, commonly shortened to just Maya (; ), is a 3D computer graphics application that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, originally developed by Alias and currently owned and developed by Autodesk. It is used to create assets for inter ...

. Kevin Kerr wrote the narration for the project. Approximately 20 Vancouver-based character actors provided voices.

Release

The app was launched on April 22, 2014, followed one day later by the installation, at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

. The installation premiered in the Greater Vancouver area in the fall of 2015 at the downtown campus of

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

(SFU) from September 18 to October 16, followed by SFU's

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

campus, from October 27 to November 13.

''Helen Lawrence''

Douglas has also created the play ''Helen Lawrence'', which shares graphics, story and characters with ''Circa 1948''.

References

External links

*
''Circa 1948''
at the

''Hidden Pasts, Digital Futures: Circa 1948''
SFU Woodward's. History of Vancouver 1948 in British Columbia 2010s interactive fiction Installation art works IOS software National Film Board of Canada works Virtual reality works Vancouver in fiction Fiction set in 1948 Warning: An automated filter has identified this edit as potentially unconstructive. Please be aware that vandalism may result in revocation of your editing privileges. If this edit is constructive, please click 'Publish changes' again, and report this error. {{mobile-software-stub