Mr Seels Garden app for iPhone and iPad

About

The Mr Seel’s iPhone App lets you discover how we used to grow, make and eat food across Liverpool by scanning food products from the present day.

The barcodes on all food packaging are linked to a Universal Product Code database that gives information on what a product is. Supermarkets use these codes to access details about a product including its price.

When you scan a product with the Mr Seel’s App it links to our own database of memories and historical notes that tell you about how food was grown, cooked and eaten in the past. Just as the local food movement is transforming the global food system, our app seeks to transform Universal Product Codes into Local Memory Codes which uncover our local food heritage.


How does it work?

Scan the barcode on any food product within the Liverpool area and you will receive a historical fact or story about how we used to grow, make and eat food in the past.

The quotes and stories have been gathered from local people who have memories about food and from historical archives that tell us how Liverpool used to a centre of local food production.


Where can I use it?

The App will work anywhere within 20 miles of Everton, Liverpool City centre and Sudley House in Mossley Hill.

What was ‘Mr Seel’s Garden’?

“Mr Seel’s Garden” was a vegetable garden on the corner of Seel St and Hanover St. There is now a plaque on the side of the Liverpool One Tesco, with a copy of an old map that shows where it used to be.

What is the aim of the project?
The members of the project are all interested in supporting more locally grown food in Liverpool. We wondered whether knowing more about how we used to get our food in the past could inspire new ideas for growing more of our own food in the future.

What have you been up to?
The project started in Feb 2012 and since then members of Friends of Everton park, Friends of Sudley Estate and Transition Liverpool have been conducting oral history interviews and doing research with archives and old maps. We’ve now completed 24 interviews, identified hundreds of locations on old maps and done research in the Merseyside Maritime Museum Archives & the special collections of the University of Liverpool.

More info:
www.mrseelsgarden.org
[email protected]
follow us on twitter: @mrseelsgarden
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mrseelsgarden

Disclaimer
The notes and information that are retrieved when a products barcode is scanned are based upon the cultural and historical findings of the Memories of Mr. Seels Garden research project . The information is in no way associated with the manufacturer of the food product and is not intended to reflect upon the product brand.

Version 1.0
The Mr Seel’s App is one of the many outcomes of the Memories of Mr Seel’s Garden research project and is a collaboration between University of Manchester, University of Liverpool, University of Edinburgh and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

App developed by Duncan Shingleton, graphics Freddy Taylor.