From 21st to 23rd September we had possibility to participate in the NoTours workshop led by two Spanish artists from Escoitar.org. The workshop was held in Finlayson and we got not only great experience but many new ideas and a lot of inspiration!

NoTours is a project that allows us to walk in the city and hear different sounds in our headphones depending on GPS location in which you or somebody else have attached sounds. Project is based on application created for Android phones that determines your location and plays the audio file for the actual place. This is how we get a soundwalk around the city in a very creative way.

So, what we did was:
On Friday we were introduced with projects and sound events organized by Escoitar.org. (This is very interesting, so go ahead and check out what these sound enthusiasts are doing http://www.escoitar.org) We were also introduced by previous NoTours workshops and explained how this is working.

We went out and tried this in real experience. The day was sunny and our soundwalk in Keskustori succeeded very well. After inspiration and lot of information in the morning we moved on and started create a little task/project by ourselves and did in a few hours. So, in the end of first day we already knew how to create a new project and we made sure, that it works.

On Saturday we made two groups and worked all the day on a new, more serious project starting from the idea and moving forward step by step. We dived more deeply into some specific things that we should know and be aware with when creating a project. We work inside as well as outside, walking around and determining GPS coordinates. This is a part of the work.

On Sunday we completed last technical issues and finally went out!

Shortly, these are steps that we did
1. Step
Idea! You have to know, where you want to go and what you want to hear there (to make others hear) Open editor for this application and let’s start. (http://www.editor.notours.org/)
2. Step
Create a new project and get recordings/sounds/noises/etc. that you need.
3. Step
Go and check GPS coordinates in reality (google.maps is not always very precise)
4. Step
Put in your sounds in editor on direct locations and add needed properties for them.
5. Step
Save/download the project and put files in your phone. Remember, that you also need to install NoTours application in your phone.
6. Step
Go and try, if this works well!

Despite the rain we had excitement about soundwalk (each group made one project) Not everything worked as we wished, but for two days’ work the result was good and we were satisfied with it. The most important was experience we got from these days and we can still improve it.
You are very welcome to take your Android phone (or borrow from a friend) and came for a soundwalk in a city, OR create your

Go here and get more information http://www.notours.org/about

Story: Dita MalinovskaThe author is student at Liepaja University doing her exchange period at TAMK
Photos: Horacio González Diéguez, Escoitar.org

The workshop was part of the Sound Art course of our Degree Programme in Fine Arts and the European Acoustic Heritage events in Tampere.