LOCATION-AWARE MUSIC

LOCATION-AWARE MUSIC

An Experiential, Site-Reactive Musical App created by The Holladay Brothers

The Holladay Brothers are renowned for their location-aware composition: music created and mapped to a physical space, released exclusively as apps, using a mobile device’s GPS to dynamically alter the music as the listener traverses a landscape. Their first production in 2011, “The National Mall” mapped to the park in Washington, DC, was described by the Washington Post as “magical… like using GPS to navigate a dream” and was included in their list of the year’s top albums (a first for an app).

They have since gone on to create site-specific app experiences for:

• Central Park, New York, NY

• Downtown Austin, Texas, in partnership with SxSW Interactive

• Washington Square Park, New York, NY, in partnership with NYU Skirball Center

• The Fairmont Orchid, Big Island, Hawaii, in partnership with IBM

• The grand opening of the new US Embassy, London, UK, in partnership with the US Department of State

• Osseghem Park, Brussels, Belgium, in partnership with BOZAR I Love Science festival.

• Michigan Tech University

• Texas A&M University
  

The location-aware app is tailored not only to the landscape, but it also serves as a community building tool which engages the unique local narratives and talent. Field recordings and works by local composers and spoken word artists can be integrated into the app, as well as collaboration with local computer programmers and engineering students for technical support and maintenance.

Ryan Holladay’s TED Talk on location-aware music “To hear this music you have to be there. Literally” has been viewed 1.3M times.

ABOUT THE HOLLADAY BROTHERS

Brothers Hays and Ryan Holladay create innovative music experiences that celebrate the act of discovery. With a shared background in composition and music production, their projects span a range of fields and disciplines and frequently invite user interaction, blurring the lines between performer and participant. From sound and video installations to mobile apps, their expansive body of work represents an intricate blend of art and technology that reimagines how we interact with and experience sound. The Holladay Brothers have garnered critical acclaim as sound pioneers and multi-dimensional storytellers.

The duo received early praise for their location-aware composition: music created and mapped to a physical landscape, released as mobile apps, using GPS to dynamically alter the music as the listener explores their surroundings. Their first production, “The National Mall,” a location-aware album mapped to the eponymous park in Washington, DC, was described by the Washington Post as “magical…like using GPS to navigate a dream” and was included in their list of the year’s top albums (a first for an app). They’ve since gone on to create similar works for New York’s Central Park, SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, and other sites around the world, partnering with groups like IBM and the US State Department in the process. As a Senior TED Fellow, Ryan spoke about the project at the annual TED Conference in a talk that has been viewed more than a million times.

Hays and Ryan continue to break new ground with the latest iteration of their live show, which showcases an interplay of old and new, utilizing an array of antique lamps retrofitted with LED bulbs, networked and synchronized with the music to create a duet of light and sound. Last year, they created new commissions for Dolby’s headquarters, the Hirshhorn Museum of Art and Disney’s Magic Kingdom, among others. Their scoring and sound design work can be heard in television shows like ESPN’s 30 for 30 series and on podcasts such as Meditative Stories, Sincerely X, Constitutional and Masters of Scale.

The Holladay Brothers have spoken at universities and institutions worldwide and have been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, BBC World Service, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, WIRED and Fast Company.