It Must Have Been Dark By Then

A beautifully designed book, a map on your smartphone, and audio stories through your earphones—all work together to help you explore how your experiences color your environment. As you make your own route to explore the city you’re in, you also hear stories from the disappearing swamps of Louisiana, from the rising Tunisian Sahara and from deserted Latvian villages. Since every story will always be connected with the place you first heard it, this walking tour attaches memories to the places you visit on your route.

Speakman’s It Must Have Been Dark by Then was commissioned by Ambient Literature, a two-year collaboration between the University of the West of England, Bath Spa University, the University of Birmingham, and development partners Calvium, Ltd. Funded through a grant from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project was established to investigate the locational and technological future of the book.

“The digital age has brought with it a bunch of new ways to read a book, but ambient literature might be the first step toward an entirely new way to experience a book. . . . What is ambient lit, you ask? As reported in Metro, it’s a style of literature that is ‘read on a mobile electronic device which uses data about location, weather, time… to personalise the reading experience.’ Essentially, these stories use data from your specific location and adjust accordingly and take the reading experience to another level. For example, if it’s raining in real life, it’ll rain in the story, and if you’re out in the city then the story will take place there as well. These tailored details put the reader at the very heart of the story – sometimes quite literally”

— Melville House

“In January and February this year, the composer Duncan Speakman travelled with collaborators across three countries on three continents, visiting environments that are experiencing rapid change from human and environmental factors. What he created on his return is somewhere between a travel journal and a poetic reflection on connection, progress and memory. The completed work — ‘It Must Have Been Dark By Then’ — takes the form of a mobile phone app and a beautifully designed book, both of which guide you through the city you are in, seeking out types of locations in your own environment, offering sounds and stories from remote but related situations. As they traverse their city, each listener/reader is invited to tie those stories to their location, creating a map of where they are right now and of places that may not exist in the future.”

— The Bookseller

“Duncan Speakman’s ‘It Must Have Been Dark By Then’ (2017) is a melancholic stroll across three continents that uses geo-location technology, as well as audio and printed material, to tell stories of far-flung locations without ever letting you forget your actual physical surroundings. As I listened to accounts from the inhabitants of depopulated Latvian towns and of cities with rapidly encroaching coastlines, the voice-over constantly encouraged me to be mindful of where I was, to view my experiences, thoughts and feelings alongside those of others. Isn’t that what empathy is all about?”

— frieze

It Must Have Been Dark By Then

Medium: Interactive Book

Created by: Duncan Speakman

Country: UK

Date: March 2017

Launch Project

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