SATSYMPH

SATSYMPH GPS-triggered soundscape

‘On a Theme of Hermes’

‘On a Theme of Hermes’ is a geo-located music and poetry soundscape for large-scale ensemble and voices accessed through an app downloaded to your own smartphone. What you hear depends on where you are: the soundscape responds dynamically to your location.

SATSYMPH chose the theme of the Greek god ‘Hermes’ as he is, traditionally, messenger of the gods, guide to the Underworld, patron of thieves, liars, of literature and poets (!), as well as of boundaries (and those who, as in this work, “travel across them”).

‘On a Theme of Hermes’ is installed in only three locations worldwide; two UK locations, Bristol and Poole and Wroclaw in Poland. Here, the artists have sensitively composed ‘On a theme of Hermes’ into the landscape using unique layerings, module behaviours and combinations of material that work only in these specific sites. We recommend you visit them!

Excitingly, a portable version of the Hermes experience can also be accessed anywhere in the world you choose by going to a large open space, opening the app and following the on-screen instructions. Different to the site-specific installations above, the portable version of ‘Hermes’ spreads in a radius around your position at a given site throwing up unpredictable and serendipitous relationships to the chosen location.

Download the SATSYMPH-HERMES app here

or go to SATSYMPH:

Poole Launch

Saturday 26 May
Hamworthy Community Library,
Blandford Road, Poole, BH15 4BG

10.30 – come and meet the artists and learn about the work. Following a short talk everyone is invited to walk from the Library to Hamworthy Park at 11.00 a.m. for a live demonstration of this imaginative art installation.

Sunday 27 May
Lighthouse – Poole’s Centre for the Arts, The Esplanade Poole, Dorset BH15 1UG

15.30 to 16.30 – come along to an in-depth, fun, interactive talk to find out why and how we made ‘On a Theme of Hermes’, how the technology works, and how it may affect and be applicable to your own art form. Then go forth and experience the work for yourself!

Bristol Launch

Saturday 9 June
MSHED Bristol (Foyer)

10 – 14.00 and 1500 – 16.00 – come along to the Foyer with your own smartphone & ear/headphones. SATSYMPH will explain what the app is and does. You can then download it FREE on the spot and experience ‘On a Theme of Hermes’ for yourself.

14-15.00 – SEMINAR/TALK (Studio2): How do you compose music & words for geo-located media? An illustrated talk/seminar by the SATSYMPH team on our approach to writing for this platform as well as on the underlying technology. For artists, creatives and anyone interested.

Sunday 10 June
Arnolfini Bristol

19.00 SATSYMPH (Arnolfini Auditorium): talk on the compositional challenges and potential of geo-located media. Followed by concert of contemporary classical music by Bristol Ensemble incl. Marc Yeats – Tlos (with an introduction from the composer on the relationship of Tlos to SATSYMPH’s ‘On a Theme of Hermes’)

SATSYMPH is contemporary composer Marc Yeats, poet and writer Ralph Hoyte and coder Phil Phelps. We create multi-layered GPS-triggered soundscapes for your personal smartphone which respond dynamically to where you are and what you do.