VoiceMap app: a platform for storytellers to give personalised location-aware tour guides

The Revolution Route, one of the routes on VoiceMap, begins at the Grand Parade, right at the bottom of the statue of Edward VII, in front of the Cape Town city hall. It is here, amongst homeless men and women lying around in the hot sun, that Iain Manley and Lauren Edwards from VoiceMap and I begin to take the walk. Gael Reagan, the storyteller, is a legendary journalist and activist. She begins by telling the history of the Grand Parade, City Hall and, in part, the history of South Africa.

The story is historical and this divorces it from the men and women lying at the base of the statue of Edward VII, trying to figure out what they are going to eat next and where they are going to sleep. The story is apathetic and delusional but historical. I had thought that VoiceMap was an app to obliterate the apathy of tour guides but this story fails to tear itself away from that trap. The route begins at the Grand Parade, heads out to District Six, goes up to Buitenkant Street, passing District Museum, turns left on the Book Lounge and heads right into Parliament, then out to Gardens and ends at Church Street.