I had this idea the other day and thought “such a thing must already exist”, and indeed there are many similar ideas out there, but I thought I’d outline my version anyway.
The sound museum is an archive of sounds, virtually or in a space, that can’t be heard anymore. Ideally these would be original sound recordings, primary documents of the sounds in their natural environment. The sound of a city street in Paris in 1950 available to compare with another sound of a city street in Shanghai from the same time. Visitors could hear different accents that have evolved over the years or even what the ocean sounded like crashing against rocks that have eroded. What does the crow of a peacock sound like? What’s the wind sound like on a glacier?
Most of the sounds in the sound museum are things that people haven’t thought to record up until now, so I imagine we’d need to simulate a lot of sounds. Museum curators would hire professional sound dramaturgs and historians to accurately recreate a particular sound. For instance, the sound of a horse walking on cobblestones would have to be different in the 17th century than today because the quality of steel the horses were shod with was different.
Ideally these sounds would be available online, or perhaps broadcast in curated programs. like an audio version of Life magazine or National Geographic they could be put together to express a particular idea or theme through sonic juxtaposition and recontextualizing of common noise. Maybe there could be a website that just streamed random entries to your player of choice. One minute you’d be listening to the calls of North American songbirds, the next, idling Ford engines throughout history.
Some additions would be expensive and involve elaborate productions. We might try to recreate the sound of the battle of Trafalgar. We’d have to find the right kind of wood, build ships, source original artillery or more likely make replicas. We’d need historical dialect coaches to come work with voice talent. Then we’d take the whole thing out to sea and blow it all up. Luckily we wouldn’t have to source much English wood, mostly just French. We’d only get one take, but I bet it would sound amazing.
Critical Notes
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Thursday, August 13, 2009 8:43 am
From the computer of Scott
I really like this idea but the cost of producing specific sounds will never be justified by the amount of money the museum can make. We need a audiophile billionaire to get behind this idea.
It’s a shame, too, because I love the idea of linguistics over time. Remember when Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves came out and everyone ragged on Costner’s accent. Granted, it sounded terrible but I enjoy how people don’t seem to understand that British people from the time didn’t even speak modern English, much less have English accents. So the idea of a “British” accent somehow being more accurate than an “American” is actually pretty silly. I think your museum could help understand how organic and dynamic language really is. But…it’s probably not meant to be.
Scott
Thursday, August 13, 2009 1:29 pm
From the computer of Zach
Reminds me of the exhibit Visitations at MASS MoCA when it first opened. It documented the sounds of the old mill’s previous tenants: employees of Sprague Electric.
Zach