There is an app for Android that I accidentally discovered when I was in the Central Library. I tried to download the app into my phone more than once but every time, there was an error before the installation was complete. I finally succeeded when I installed in my tablet and last weekend, I did the trail.
Missorts, "an urban soundwork delivered directly to your smartphone", is an app created by Tony White in 2012 which you can download for free to your Android or Iphone smartphone, and listen ten stories by ten distinctive new writers. The GPS tracks your location all the time and Missorts delivers stories to your headphones when you get to certain locations around Temple Meads area.
As you can see in the above picture, I have created a 4km trail starting and finishing in front of the Arnolfini which goes through all the story locations in Missorts. I did it on my bike and it was obviously faster than doing it on foot, but less comfortable at the same time, as I had to stop to take my tablet to listen to the stories. If I were on foot, I could walk around while listening to the story at the same time. More fun!
The first stop (1) is located in Friary where we will be introduced to Betty, one of the characters in the stories. The second stop (2) is located between two buildings in works. There are stone benches in the third stop (3) in front of a business building where a woman's voice will share her thoughts with us, about the surrounding area, the noise, the traffic... and she will explain that, once upon a time, there was a fairground located at the same place we are.The next stop (4) is the first one in Redcliff Way, where you will be able to admire the St Mary Redcliffe Church perfectly while listening to the poem "Witness to the tides". Further in Redcliff Way (5), a woman's voice will tell us about an island between Bristol and Redcliffe, about how landwater wants to be the sea.
Taking the second exit at the roundabout, we get to (6) and listen "A bricked-up doorway". When you get in front of the St Mary Redcliffe Church (7), a woman will complain about how did this happened to them in "Losing her again but forever this time". "Everyone heard the scream" when you get to the back side of St Mary Redcliffe Church (8) and as you follow Colston Parade until Prewett Street (9), you will realise "How it happened". The last stop is located close to the Ostrich Inn, just on the other side of Thekla, where you will travel "Forward and backward in time".
I found the project very interesting, the fact of creating an artwork from a simple thing as a walk. However during the trail, I had some issues regarding the app. In between story locations, there is an organ background music that is cool at the beginning, but gives headache after a while. Some of the stories were triggered before the background organ music finished, and I missed the first part of some of the stories. As the app does not allow to stop or rewind the story, the only way to restart is actually restarting the whole application.
LINKS
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Website: http://www.missorts.com/
About Tony White: http://www.situations.org.uk/projects/tony-white-missorts-2012/
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