| You'll
hear everything from anecdotes about the riot to facts detailing
how citizens came to clash with Dragoon guards in the city centre.
It's
all part of a wireless experiment run by Mobile Bristol, a
project which is running similar research across the city.
Equipped
with a hi-tech backpack, participants roam Queen Square where
they set off different audio clips by moving around.
What
they hear has been painstakingly researched by writers Liz
Crow and Ralph Hoyte, and voiced by a cast of actors.
 |
| Ralph
Hoyte co-wrote and produced the interactive play |
The
result is a trip back to the reign of William IV, complete
with Bristolian accents and bawdy language.
So
what's it like?
Armed
with an iPAQ and headphones, I spent half an hour wandering
Queen Square.
It
takes a while to get used to the experience.
As
you walk from zone to zone, you pick up one of three pieces
of audio relating to events happening in and around the square.
There
are 34 zones, and with three sound bites for each there are
thousands of variations for each riot experience.
Along
my way I heard about Brunel's reaction to the riot, a Moonlight
Sonata piano interlude, a woman being thrown from a pub window
and sexual propositions from newly-freed prisoners.
There
are also pockets of carnage around the Georgian square, where
thousands of people gathered to voice their discontent.
 |
| The
iPAQ tracks wireless zones in the square |
>>
Read about the background to the riot
As
the riot escalates, the mayor of Bristol, Charles Pinney,
begins to lose his grip of the situation and bloody violence
ensues.
If
history is not your bag then look at this as an opportunity
to find out some fascinating facts about the city and be part
of a unique experiment.
Tips
for participants:
::
Stay with it - allow a few minutes to get used to the experience.
:: Zones merge so if you walk into one from another, one piece
of audio will fade out and be replaced by another.
:: If you hear something you want to stay with, stay put!
1831 Riot! takes place in Queen Square from 15 April to 4
May 2004.
To take part you need to bring proof of address to the riot
tent outside Queen Square House.
The event is free and open from 10am to 6pm Monday to Friday
and 11am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.
|
Hear sound bites from the interactive play:
