A pop up exhibit at the University of Portsmouth Library which was open from 15 November 2023 through 15 February 2024
Thanks to all who attended the Curator’s Talk on Thursday, 8 February 2024 at 5:30pm! The talk was recorded, we will post a link to it soon. Stay tuned!
Exhibit Overview
What did smartphones replace?
Why are cassettes so popular?
Is there such a thing as ‘normal’ hearing?
What if museums exhibited sounds like other objects?
How are sounds used for fun?
THE MUSEUM OF PORTABLE SOUND (MOPS) is an independent institution based in Portsmouth dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting sounds as objects. MOPS focuses primarily on non-musical sound because, let’s face it, music is the most talked-about form of sound there is – and we feel there’s a whole world of sounds beyond music just as worthy of everyone’s attention.
SOUNDS BEYOND MUSIC was the first pop up exhibit in the history of MOPS, and contained 43 items drawn from the museum’s Physical Objects Collection, a secondary complement to our primary Permanent Collection of Sounds. MOPS began as a museum that is listened to rather than looked at, and we hope the subjects we covered here might inspire a curiosity to give attention to sounds in the world around you that you might otherwise ignore.
A Multisensory Experience
Every weekday from 9am to 1:30pm, visitors could sit back, relax, and listen live and in-person to the sound of the world’s first electric white noise machine – a totally mechanical, analog sound that has been helping people with extra-sensitive hearing sleep soundly since 1962.
The objects on display were divided into five thematic shelves:
- Can a Sound be an Object?
What if sounds were exhibited like physical objects? - Replaced by Smartphones
Remembering now-obsolete single-function sound objects - Aural Diversity
Inclusively acknowledging that everyone hears differently - #CassetteCulture
Why are we still fascinated by the Compact Cassette tape? - Playing With Sounds
Exploring the fun (and occasional childishness) of sound
The exhibit also included a series of four posters containing an introduction to our museum, a selection of 24 objects from our Permanent Collection of Sounds, and a special overview of our ongoing project ALPHABETS and the Sonic Building Blocks of Language – with an invitation to participate.
The Museum of Portable Sound 