As part of our outdoor arts programme and one of the trails & maps strand which seems to have spontaneously generated itself for this year’s Fringe, today Bath Fringe announces our first piece of mobile app art!

Bath-based artist Stanley Donwood – best known for his cover artwork for every Radiohead release, as well as Glastonbury Festival’s official poster and T-Shirt – has made several pieces of work, mostly textual, deflating the ideas of Bath’s heritage by extending stories of the city’s history into the realms of outrage & fantasy: these include his pulp fiction novel Catacombs of Terror.

The latest iteration of that material is Bath’s Dark Past, a raging nightmare of the city narrated by Natural Theatre stalwart Ric Jerrom, and turned into an app with the assistance of Bath mobile tech company Blispa. It’s designed to be downloaded and listened to whilst walking the streets; the story unfolds as you follow the trail, like a guided tour – but with a distinct difference. You need a mobile device (no roaming download necessary, it’s a one-shot) equipped with bluetooth – and – if you don’t want to frighten passers-by with stray scraps of wild fantasy – headphones or earbuds.

Download the de.via app and (at present) it’s the only story. Go to https://go.blispa.com/devia and take a trip to a city you will only slightly recognise…