Interactive Audio Trail App

Some of artist Genevieve Rudd's initial notes when planning the creative prompts for the interactive audio trail

Ever wondered what it would be like to take a walk in the woods with an artist? An artist who talks you through the landscape, helping you to explore the environment with a creative eye and prompting you to respond creatively to your surroundings?

A new audio trail app for Brandon Country Park allows you to do just that!

With a simple (and free!) download to your phone or tablet, and a set of headphones if you wish, you can take a walk around Brandon Country Park’s 1 mile Redwood Trail/Red Walk with artist Genevieve Rudd chatting gently in your ear.

During this guided walk experience, Genevieve will invite you to take notice of your surroundings and use simple sensory creative techniques that help you tune into the environment, habitats and weather of the season, as she encourages you to take a fresh look at the natural world around you and experiment with drawing, writing and photography.

All you’ll need to take part in the creative prompts is something to draw with and something to draw on, as well as your phone with the ECHOES app installed (pockets are useful!). All the activities are suitable for all ages and levels – for anyone willing to give it a go!

Where art, smartphone activities and nature collide…

We really hope you’ll enjoy this new audio trail in Brandon Country Park, whether solo or with family or friends. If you enjoy the audio trail and take part in the creative side, please share your sketches, written musings or photos to the Brandon Country Park Facebook or Instagram pages – we’d love to see them!

Ready to take a walk?

It’s very simple to get started and takes just a few minutes to download the app and walk (best done at home in advance while you have good reliable Wi-Fi!)

Just follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1 - Download the ECHOES app now

Step 2 - Register with the app and download the walk to your phone

Registering your mobile phone number with the ECHOES app allows it to connect to the GPS mechanism on your phone.
Once you've registered, you'll see there's a whole worldwide library of walks to explore; to find Brandon Country Park's interactive audio trail, search 'Walking Companion: Brandon Country Park'.
Download it so that you can listen more easily offline (signal in Brandon Country Park can be patchy at times!)

Step 3 - Enjoy!

Head to Brandon Country Park with a sketchpad and pen or pencil, and get those creative juices flowing!

Once at Brandon Country Park, look out for the trails map and ECHOES logo by the beginning of the Red Route near the Copper Beech Tea Room. Open the ECHOES app on your phone, go to Walking Companion: Brandon Country Park, plug in your headphones and as if by magic, standing next to the cafe you’ll hear Genevieve’s voice speaking directly to you.

This particular walk is designed to follow Brandon Country Park's Red Route around the park, and will take you approximately 60-90mins depending on how involved you want to get with the creative activities.

While the audio segments and trail markers are numbered, you can do them in any order you like, and all at once or one or two each time you visit... whatever works for you!

With thanks to...

Commissioned by MarketPlace: Creative People and Places, the Walking Companion project is a collaboration between environmental artist Genevieve Rudd and media producer David Johnson of DMJ Imagery, exploring a new user-friendly phone app called ECHOES. The project is supported by with Brandon Country Park, West Suffolk Council and Brandon Creative Forum. MarketPlace is part of the Creative People and Places programme, initiated and funded by Arts Council England through the National Lottery. We all hope that this is the first of many audio trails to come!