What kind of research goes into the design, creation, and maintenance of a museum dedicated to the culture and history of sound? Now’s your chance to find out, as we unlock our Research Library and present the Museum of Portable Sound Research Library Catalogue: 1,400 books, articles, patents, manuals, audio recordings, and more – including links to those available online – organised into over 50 subject areas! These are the items we have collected since our museum opened in November 2015, and cover a diverse range of cross-disciplinary topics from the worlds of sound studies and museum studies – available now as a FREE downloadable PDF.
Reviews in Digital Humanities reviews our museum
The open-source online journal Reviews in Digital Humanities has posted a thoughtful review of our museum written by musician Rebecca Gates.
The review is part of the journal’s September 2021 special issue devoted to sound, guest edited by Mary Caton Lingold.
Object of the Week: environments 9
Each week on our social media accounts, we post an Object of the Week from our Physical Objects Collection or Research Library. This week’s object is a new acquisition that we are also publishing here due to its extensive text-based content, which we are presenting as a free PDF.
This week’s object is an original 1979 pressing of Disc 9 of the famous Environments™ series of field recording albums produced from 1969–1979 by Syntonic Research, Inc., a company created by field recordist Irv Teibel. Our copy still contains the original shrink wrap including a promotional sticker that says:
‘ENVIRONMENTS™ are aboard NASA’s Voyager spacecraft as an accurate representation of Earth’s primal sounds.’
The front and back cover of the LP include numerous testimonials which can be seen in the first two pictures above. It is the inner sleeve, however, that we have decided to publish here as a PDF, since it contains a lengthy, fascinating essay about the origins and potential uses of the Environments™ records.
This essay provides great insight into the thought process behind the Environments™ series, covering topics such as noise masking, solitude, and the use of field recordings as aural atmospheres conducive to concentration and meditation. It is at this point that the essay begins to take on more adventurous topics such as Alpha waves, natural highs, and the use of Environments™ during sexual intercourse – resonating (perhaps somewhat uncomfortably) with the statement on the inner sleeve’s reverse side mentioning how Environments™ field recordings were “test[ed] in university dormitories near New York City” (see “How it all Began”, page 7 of the PDF).
Though great pains are taken in the text to emphasise the scientific nature of Syntonic Research, Inc, the essay also includes some possibly controversial material that may serve to undercut this assertion, such as an inference that humans and dinosaurs coexisted (see “Listening for the Dinosaur”, page 6 of the PDF).
We hope you find our publication of this material useful for your own research.
Ecsite 2021 Conference Appearance
Earlier today our Director & Chief Curator appeared as part of The Power of Sound, a panel session that took place at the Ecsite European Network of Science Centres & Museums 2021 conference.
The session was convened by Michèle Antoine of Universcience in Paris, and also featured presentations about sound-based exhibitions by Mark Read of Universcience and Christian Rohr of Museum für Kommunikation in Bern, Switzerland.
The Power of Sound was attended by an impressive crowd of 115 people from Ecsite’s extensive network of science and technology professionals – breaking our record for the most number of visitors to our museum in a single day!
Our Director’s 10-minute presentation – which includes a short guided tour of our museum – is available to watch for a short time on our YouTube channel:
Remembering George Floyd Silent Online Memorial Archived
More than 150 people gathered last night to memorialise George Floyd and all victims of racial intolerance in an online silent tribute organised by Marcus Ryder MBE on the one year anniversary of Floyd’s murder at the hands of police. The group remained silent for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, the length of time Floyd’s murderer knelt on his neck.
Participants were asked to keep their microphones turned on, and the ensuing collective ‘silence’ was recorded. This recording will become part of our museum’s Permanent Collection. We will announce details on how the recording will be exhibited soon.
Soundscape™ Barbie Online Exhibition Now Open
In 2019, we unleashed Soundscape™ Barbie onto an unsuspecting world. Now we’ve created an online exhibition exploring the complex public reactions to this controversial curio!
Online Visit Review in Museum Mutterings Blog
The Museum Mutterings blog has posted a review of their resident critic’s recent Online Visit to the Museum of Portable Sound, and they had some wonderful things to say – we are immensely grateful for the kind words!
Historic Dockyard Chatham blog review & interview
Historic Dockyard Chatham, who are currently hosting the ambitious sound-based project Ten Songs for a Lar, have published a review of their online visit to our museum, as well as an extensive interview with our Director and Chief Curator about the creation of our institution.
We’re Featured in the New York Times!
On 26 December 2020, the New York Times featured our museum – specifically our current temporary exhibition, SOUNDS OF EARTH – The Record That Went To Space – in their At Home calendar, a selection of online activities to help their readers get the most out of lockdown life. You can see it in their print edition above (thanks to a photo provided by MOPS Board Member Philip von Zweck) or view it online (scroll down to ‘Saturday’).
2020 Annual Report
Last week, we presented our 2020 Annual Report to our museum’s Trustees and Board of Directors. This is the first comprehensive annual report our institution has ever produced, a fitting milestone for the end of our fifth year of operation. We are now making this document available to the public.
• Download the PDF of our 2020 Annual Report
Announcing the Museum of Portable Sound Conference – Abstracts Due 1 Nov!
We’re having a Sound Studies conference – and you’re invited to submit a proposal for it!
In November 2021, we will host the inaugural Museum of Portable Sound Conference – an online conference featuring traditional conference papers, audio papers, and essay films – about areas of Sound Studies beyond music and ‘sound art’!
Be sure to watch our Conference Infomercial above, and check out the requirements on the conference’s page. Then make sure to submit your entry to museumofportablesound [AT] gmail [DOT] com by 12 midnight GMT on 1 November!
Announcing Our First Ever Online Exhibition: MP3@25, A Celebration Of A Quarter Century Of Worldwide Compressed Digital Audio
MP3@25: The Anniversary Exhibition, 1995–2020
Opens Online 14 July 2020
What is an MP3? What is the history of the MP3? What is the legacy of the MP3?
We’ll be investigating these questions and more in this provocative free online exhibition which explores how a file type can change the world.
Features work by Suzanne Vega, Ryan Maguire, Thomas Edison National Historic Park, and the Fraunhofer Institute. Special appearances by Bruce Willis, Metallica, and Karlheinz Brandenburg.
More information soon. Contact our Director and Chief Curator for any enquiries.
Our Adult Colouring-In Book Now Available
Relax, learn, and create! The Museum of Portable Sound Adult Colouring-In Book tells a mini-history of portable sound technologies through a series of patent drawings suitable for colouring in! Includes drawings of the first transistor radio, the ‘Miami Vice’ mobile phone, the Walkman, the iPod, and much more! Each drawing includes a descriptive object label, so you can learn while you colour! Plus there are waveforms of sounds in our Permanent Collection for you to test out your synaesthetic impulses upon! Suitable for colouring in with coloured pencils, crayons, markers, and even watercolours (since every other page is text) – tho we’d recommend placing a sheet of paper underneath your colouring page if using wet media.
INSTAGRAM LIVE EVENT
Our Director (and the author of the book) did a live reading of all the book’s object labels on Saturday, 13 June at our Instagram page – watch it again in the video above!
Free Audiobook: The How And Why Wonder Book Of Sound
Museum of Portable Sound Press has produced its first-ever audiobook, and you can listen to it for FREE on our Bandcamp page! You can also download a copy (and if you’d like to leave a donation, that would be swell!)
This 1962 children’s book makes for a great listen, especially with our Director’s annotations and some bells and whistles thrown in. Perfect for older kids or a refresher for adults, this audiobook covers the basics of acoustics in-depth in an accessible 90 minutes!
Here’s the full Table of Contents:
Part 1: A World Without Sound
Part 2: The Nature of Sound
What is sound?
How can you prove that sound is a form of energy?
How do we hear sounds that are far away?
How can we prove that sound needs a medium to travel through?
Sound Waves
What do we mean by compression waves?
What do we mean by rarefaction waves?
What do we mean by longitudinal waves?
Compression wave: How does it work?
Rarefaction wave: How does it work?
How can we make a vibration write its autograph?
Part 3: Measuring Sound
How fast does sound travel?
How can you use sound to measure distance?
How can you tell the distance of a lightning flash?
What is the pitch of a sound?
What do musicians mean by ‘tone deaf’?
How can you prove that pitch depends on frequency?
How do scientists give proof that pitch depends on frequency?
What is loudness?
How is loudness measured?
Why are farther sounds fainter?
What is resonance?
How did Joshua win the Battle of Jericho?
Part 4: Reflected Sound
What is an echo?
Do bats use their eyesight to find insects?
How do bats locate insects?
How do bats use sound?
How does the porpoise use sound to catch fish in the sea?
How do people who are blind locate objects?
How do ships locate enemy submarines?
How are echoes used to detect schools of fish?
How are echoes used to locate minerals?
Part 5: Musical Sounds and Musical Instruments
What is musical sound?
What is a musical scale?
What is harmony?
How do stringed instruments produce sound?
How do wind instruments produce sound?
How do percussion instruments produce sound?
Part 6: Living Sound Organs
What is the human voice?
How do we hear?
Part 7: Sound and Communication
How does a telephone carry sound?
How does a radio transmit sound without wires?
How can we record sound?
What is stereophonic sound?
How does a wire or tape recorder work?
How are sound movies made?
Part 8: Ultrasonics and Supersonics
What is ultrasonics?
How can you wash dishes with sound?
What is the sound barrier?
What is a sonic boom?
Part 9: Some Interesting Facts About Sound
Why are soldiers at the rear of a column sometimes out of step?
Why does an approaching automobile horn have a higher pitch
than usual?
Why is it easier to hear sounds from a boat during the day than
at nighttime?
When can you hear the ‘sound of the sea’ in a shell?
Your New World of Sound
Visit Us Online!
Until further notice, due to the Covid-19 outbreak we will now be conducting visits to the Museum of Portable Sound exclusively online. You’ll still get the same one-on-one access you’re used to, but now it will be via the magic of video chat. Learn more and book your Online Visit!
2019: Our Year In Pictures
Here are 12 highlights of our institution’s activities in 2019 – it’s been an eventful and productive year, and here’s to an even bigger and better 2020!
Unlocking Our Sound Heritage at The Keep, Brighton, UK
Yesterday our staff had the honour of visiting The Keep Archives in Brighton, Sussex, home to one of the satellite offices of the British Library’s Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project is working to digitise analogue sound recordings for the UK-wide #SaveOurSounds archiving project.
Our Acquisitions Team collected several sounds of the Keep’s recording and playback equipment to add to our 20th Century Audio Equipment gallery, and our Director had a great time chatting with the staff about sounds as culture and their experiences working on this important sonic heritage project.
• Follow Keep Sounds on Twitter
What Causes The Sound Of Thunder?
The latest addition to our Video Gallery is now viewable at our YouTube Channel!
Celebrate Our Grand Re-Re-Re-Opening & 40 Years of the Sony Walkman at the National Science and Media Museum
On 1 July 2019, the Sony Walkman will turn 40 years old. We’re teaming up with the National Science and Media Museum to celebrate this milestone.
The Sony Walkman was a breakthrough in portable technology that changed the way the world listens. It allowed individuals to create their own sound environment, opening up a new, cinematic, and personal way of experiencing the world.
As part of this event, we’ll mark the anniversary by launching the newest redesign of our own permanent collection galleries—all of which exist on a single mobile phone! This groundbreaking personal museum listening experience builds on the history that the Walkman started.
Come listen to selections from the 300+ sound objects we’ll now permanently have on display, and learn more about our mission to bring the culture of sound to the world… one listener at a time!
EVENT PROGRAMME
18.30–19.10
- See behind the scenes of National Science and Media Museum’s collection with a tour of Insight: Collections and Research Centre
19.15–20.30
- John Kannenberg, Director of the Museum of Portable Sound, will talk about the history of the Sony Walkman and how it has influenced our lives, as well as the development of his own museum
- Experience a sample of the vast array of sounds curated by the Museum of Portable Sound
- Q&A on sound in museums with John Kannenberg, Annie Jamieson (Curator of Sound Technologies at National Science and Media Museum) and James Mansell (University of Nottingham, author of The Age of Noise in Britain)
Many thanks to Annie Jamieson and the National Science and Media Museum for hosting this event!
Photos from the V&A Sonic Boom Friday Late, February 2019
Although tonight’s talk is free, there may be some mild product placement. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Eric de Visscher introduces the concept of sound & museums.
Eric de Visscher introduces the concept of sound & museums.
Eric de Visscher introduces the concept of sound & museums.
Our Director takes the stage and snaps a photo of the audience.
The audience in the V&A Sackler Research Centre’s Hochhauser Auditorium.
Our Director discussing his Sound Map of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, from 2010.
Introducing the Museum of Portable Sound Education Department and its flagship course, Listening to Museums.
Revealing the upcoming expansion of our museum campus, coming later this year.
On with the show – an introduction to the Museum of Portable Sound’s Permanent Collection.
One of three examples played of street crossing signals, soundmarks of local neighbourhoods around the world.
No, our Acquisitions Department did not do anything to alter the appearance of the waveform of their recording of the sound of Sigmund Freud’s toilet. That’s just how it looks. Get your mind out of the gutter.
The sound of an amolador trumpet, a disappearing sound of the local culture of Lisbon, recorded by João Caldas.
V&A Senior Curator of Design and Digital Corinna Gardner moderates an all-too brief Q&A.
The massive queue in V&A room 82 waiting to visit the Museum of Portable Sound.
Our stunned Director frantically sets up the museum.
Meeting the first group of visitors (and/or posing for a Last Supper painting).
Another group of visitors inside the stunning Room 82.
A visit in progress while the visitor queue is sorted by numerous assistants.
Our wonderful designated V&A staff member in action keeping the hoardes of potential visitors at bay.
A far shot of a visit in progress from inside Room 81.
Director’s Eye View 1
Director’s Eye View 2
Director’s Eye View 3
Director’s Eye View 4
Director’s Eye View 5
Director’s Eye View 6
Director’s Eye View 7 (along with Dr Lara Torres, who took many of these photos!)
Director’s Eye View 8 (the final group, who snuck in after closing time, much to the ire of V&A security)
Eric de Visscher posing with the Museum of Portable Sound information display at the end of a highly successful evening!
Appearing at V&A Friday Late: Sonic Boom, 22 February
Our Director and Chief Curator will be appearing twice at the upcoming Sonic Boom Friday late at the V&A museum in London on 22 February!
First, Director Kannenberg will be participating in a panel discussion, ‘How Do You Listen In Museums?’ alongside V&A visiting researcher Eric de Visscher and V&A Senior Curator for Contemporary Design Corinna Gardner.
Following the talk, the Museum of Portable Sound will be available to be visited in one of the V&A’s galleries for the remainder of the evening. We will provide headphones for up to five people to listen to the museum simultaneously!
What is the Museum of Portable Sound?
Find out in only two minutes thanks to this handy little infomercial now available at our YouTube Channel!
Coming soon: The Record that Went to Space
We are thrilled to announce that this autumn, thanks to the cooperation of Ozma Records, we will present SOUNDS OF EARTH: THE RECORD THAT WENT TO SPACE. This special exhibition will consist of the twelve minute long montage of field recordings that was intended to represent what Earth sounds like in the event that extra terrestrials might someday find either of the Voyager space probes.
Launched in 1977 by NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to this day these craft, now outside out solar system, each carry with them a Golden Record – an LP containing this montage as well as greetings in dozens of languages and music from around the Earth.
Compiled by the likes of Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Jimmy Iovine, this montage of sounds is a fascinating document of what sounds a select group of humans thought best represented our planet.
This autumn, you’ll be able to hear this dazzling historic recording when you visit the Museum of Portable Sound. Stay tuned for information on the official exhibition opening date and other events by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and by signing up for our mailing list.
New Exhibition Trailer: Portable Sound in Cinema 1979-2000
Watch the trailer for our latest temporary exhibition – and our first ever video exhibition – a survey of portable sound technology on display in late 20th century cinema! Find out more about the exhibition and book your own visit!
OUT NOW: The 4′33″ Museum book & audio box set!
We’re pleased to announce the release of a new printed book and digital audio box set, The 4′33” Museum! This deluxe printed book and digital audio set includes nearly 4 hours of sounds from 50 different museums around the world, and the book contains full-colour photographs, notes, and an essay on collecting. Our Director and Chief Curator John Kannenberg has been collecting these recordings for more than a decade, and we’re proud to be able to bring this stunning collection to you as part of our new publishing branch, Museum of Portable Sound Press.
Buy The 4’33” Museum at johnkannenberg.com!
The Museum of Portable Sound 