Last weekend, as part of Aberdeen’s annual soundfestival, I co-led a walk, ‘Sounds like Aberdeen’, between two of the programme’s performances.
The walk was one of a series hosted by my colleagues and I over the last couple of years and used our app, [M]apping, which we co-developed with funding from a University Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation award.
The app encourages users to ‘Explore – Discover – Exercise’ and was inspired by our interests in visual and audio culture (Professors Ed Welch and Pete Stollery, School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture) and my own recent work in the area of digital health, including the use of apps to support active lifestyles. Working with local app developer, Andrew Sage, we have built an interactive platform to guide people around various trails across Aberdeen city, providing information about a range of sites and drawing attention to sights and sounds along the way. The app includes interactive and immersive features, including re-photography and audio capture.
Despite the rain, our weekend walk attracted 15 people and we led them on a sonic adventure between St Andrew’s Cathedral and our own King’s College Chapel.
The app is freely available (currently only for iPhone users) and can be downloaded from the iOS app store here.
