Wanders in the (wild) smart city

This sound walk through central Manchester explores the networked digital processes that are happening all around us in new, smart cities, through technologies which are embedded in the urban environment, but which often remain invisible to us.

The walk takes between 50 minutes and an hour to complete. It is accessible to wheelchair users and a transcript is included below. If you have any other access needs or queries, please drop us a line at wildingthesmartcity@gmail.com. We'd be very happy to help.

Please download the walk to your phone before you come to the starting point, which is St Peter’s Square in central Manchester and make sure you allow Echoes to use your location to trigger the sounds. It is designed to be experienced through headphones, so make sure you bring yours with you.

These walks are part of a wider research project, so any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated. Please respond through this online questionnaire (https://forms.office.com/r/i2jYQN3Ysy) and get in touch at wildingthesmartcity@gmail.com if you would like to book a follow up interview to discuss your experience.

The walk begins at Manchester Central Library, at the edge of St Peter’s Square in the heart of the city. From the front of the library, bear left and take a seat at the first wide bench you see in front of St Peter’s Square tram stop.

All instructions and guidance will be offered within the audio, so you should be able to put your phone away for the duration. If you get lost or lose the audio, you can always check the map, which shows your route through the city.

A transcript of the text of the walk is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ygxo9gFZgB4rl-tacpPa1qpRGEl-hcEI/view?usp=sharing

PLEASE NOTE: due to a technical issue in the application, the final echo (Echo 8) is not playing on some devices. If you have any problems with this, please stop the walk and start it again, disabling Auto-Play, so Echo 8 can be played manually.