Staging Sound in the Museum: The Ears-on Experience of History
Symposium Friday February 3, 2012
Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, Hilversum
in cooperation with Maastricht University & Amsterdam Museum
Fee: €20 (including lunch and afternoon drinks)
Registration: symposium@beeldengeluid.nl
This one day symposium focuses on the “ears-on” experience of history in the museum. Which historical topics are most suited for a sonic approach? How can sound be staged in such a way that it makes history more easily accessible than through visual means—and which pitfalls should be prevented? Which technical tools are available beyond the audio guide and sound shower? And which possibilities for sound as an entrance into history do we have outdoors, in the form of sound walks and cell phone apps for instance?
Our symposium focuses on sound in the history museum, sonic tools for the history, and sound beyond the history museum. Its is a day for museum staff members, radio makers, historians, scholars working on sound studies, and a more general audience interested in sound and history.
Among our speakers are Johanna Lehto-Vahtera (Museum of History and Contemporary Art, Turku, Finland) on “Soundway”, an exhibition without objects about medieval Turku, James Bryan & James Vyner (Soundmap.com) about historical soundwalks, Arnoud Traa and others on the Vanished Sounds 2.0 project, and Holger Schulze (Berlin University of the Arts) about experiencing audio guides.
The day will be opened by Andreas Fickers (Maastricht University) who will discuss new approaches to exhibiting history with help of sound. In addition, several representatives of companies will introduce their audio museum tools, and Annemarie de Wildt (Amsterdam Museum) will mediate a discussion between them and the audience.
Staging Sound in the Museum has been organized by Karin Bijsterveld and Andreas Fickers (Soundscapes of the Urban Past project, Maastricht University), Bas Agterberg (Beeld en Geluid) and Annemarie de Wildt (curator Amsterdam Museum), and is funded by NWO, the Dutch Science Foundation. Language of the day will be English.
Program Schedule
Theme 1: Sound in the history museum
10:30-11:15 Andreas Fickers (Maastricht University) :
In Search of the Sonic Aura: Challenging the WYSIWYG Approach in Historical Exhibition Making
11:15-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:15 Johanna Lehto-Vahtera (Museum of History and Contemporary Art Turku,
Finland) : Soundways: Exhibitions without Objects
12:15-13:30 Lunch
Theme 2: Sonic tools for the history museum
13:30-14:00 Presentations on sonic tools for the museum :
Robert Genereuz, Sennheiser Electronics (www.guideport.com/sennheiser/guideport_eng.nsf/root/g_n-museum-exhibition-audio-equipment.html)
Heinz Rosenberg, Holosonics (pending) (www.holosonics.com)
14.00-14.30 Discussion on best practices in using sonic tools in the museum between
companies’ representatives and the audience
Moderator: Drs. Annemarie de Wildt (Amsterdam Museum)
14:45-15:00 Tea Break
Theme 3: Sound beyond the history museum
15:00-15:30 James Bryan & James Vyner (Soundmap.com):
Bringing History to Life through Audio Tours
15:30-16:00 Arnoud Traa et al. (Beeld en Geluid – Vanished Sounds 2.0):
Historical Sound outside the Walled Garden: Crowd Sourced Sound
Archives in the Public Domain
16:00-16:30 Holger Schulze (Berlin University of the Arts): Experiencing Audio
Guides: Between Aural Architecture, Hörspiel & Soundwalks
after 16:30 Drinks