The City of Forking Paths
Free AppAbout The City of Forking Paths
This app is a site-specific artwork designed for the streets of Sydney, Australia. The app houses a video walk entitled The City of Forking Paths created by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. It is intended for playback commencing at Customs House (31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay 2000) after sunset. The video will not work if you attempt to play it from any other location at any other time.
The City of Forking Paths was commissioned by the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014) as a City of Sydney legacy artwork as part of the City Art Collection.
Users must be 18 years and over unless accompanied by an adult. The walk is not suitable for children under 12 years. This walk is intended for individual use. If you feel uncomfortable with the idea of being in quiet parts of Sydney at night, please do not attempt the walk alone. The wearing of comfortable shoes is recommended as the route involves steep staircases and uneven surfaces in low light. Users are advised that the piece may provoke feelings of distraction and disorientation. Please be aware of your surroundings as you do this video walk.
The walk is just over 1 hour and covers approximately 2 km of distance. It concludes on Cumberland Street in The Rocks.
Audio is an important part of this video walk. Using quality headphones is strongly recommended.
This app contains a high-quality video file and is approximately 1.8 GB in size, requiring 4 GB of free space on your mobile device during the download process. Please be advised that downloading this app may take up to an hour or more over a standard wifi connection but this may vary depending on the speed of the internet connection. We recommend that you download the app ahead of arriving at Customs House and delete it from your mobile device after use.
The app is compatible with the following devices:
Android:
ARMv7 processor with vector FPU, minimum 550MHz, OpenGL ES 2.0, H.264 and AAC HW decoders
Android™ 2.3 and above
256MB of RAM
For optimum experience of this artwork or for those unable to access this app, devices pre-loaded with this artwork are available to loan from Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay 2000.
The City of Forking Paths was commissioned by the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014) as a City of Sydney legacy artwork as part of the City Art Collection.
Users must be 18 years and over unless accompanied by an adult. The walk is not suitable for children under 12 years. This walk is intended for individual use. If you feel uncomfortable with the idea of being in quiet parts of Sydney at night, please do not attempt the walk alone. The wearing of comfortable shoes is recommended as the route involves steep staircases and uneven surfaces in low light. Users are advised that the piece may provoke feelings of distraction and disorientation. Please be aware of your surroundings as you do this video walk.
The walk is just over 1 hour and covers approximately 2 km of distance. It concludes on Cumberland Street in The Rocks.
Audio is an important part of this video walk. Using quality headphones is strongly recommended.
This app contains a high-quality video file and is approximately 1.8 GB in size, requiring 4 GB of free space on your mobile device during the download process. Please be advised that downloading this app may take up to an hour or more over a standard wifi connection but this may vary depending on the speed of the internet connection. We recommend that you download the app ahead of arriving at Customs House and delete it from your mobile device after use.
The app is compatible with the following devices:
Android:
ARMv7 processor with vector FPU, minimum 550MHz, OpenGL ES 2.0, H.264 and AAC HW decoders
Android™ 2.3 and above
256MB of RAM
For optimum experience of this artwork or for those unable to access this app, devices pre-loaded with this artwork are available to loan from Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay 2000.
All Application Badges
Free
downl.
downl.
Android
2.2+
2.2+
Android app
What are users saying about The City of Forking Paths
M
by M####:
by M####:
The idea of a site specific artwork app is a nice one but this is not the greatest execution. The app is essentially a 1hr long video that walks around the Rocks in real time as a story unravels. You must walk along the streets keeping pace with the app. The need to be looking at your phone and listening to the audio means you're a bit distracted from your surrounds - is it REALLY a good idea to be encouraging people to walk busy streets staring at their phones? This both distracts from the immersiveness of the app (not least because you are often given safety tips) and also creates a (minor) safety risk. As for the story itself, it's a little slow to get going, seems to be heading in an interesting direction for a while, but loses momentum and focus about halfway through and at the end seems to throw in a lot of disjointed ideas to pad things out, including an extended street percussion performance, a corny musical joke and some clumsy meta-moments.
by M####:
If this lives up to my expectations, this will be a unique experience. Can't wait to try it out one night soon.