Digital
We review the latest websites and apps
Exhibition
Listen: 140 years of Recorded Sound, British Library, London
Jonathan Knott lends an ear to the history of preserving live sound
The Listen: 140 years of Recorded Sound exhibition at London’s British Library – which is accompanied by a series of events and runs until 18 May – is part of the Heritage Lottery Fund-supported Save our Sounds programme. Through this initiative, the library aims to preserve the nation’s sound heritage by digitising existing archives and enabling better collection of born-digital material.
The display outlines the broad history of recorded sound and radio broadcasting, from the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877, to later key developments such as the establishment of the BBC’s experimental Radiophonic Workshop in 1958, and Jamaican dub reggae in the 1970s. Visitors can use headphones to listen to a wide range of recordings and watch videos, as well as view physical objects and read a timeline on the wall.
The excitement of working with a new technology is palpable in the crackle and hiss of the earliest sounds made available, including the first recording of an animal, which was of a caged bird. A German pioneer recorded a white-rumped shama on a phonograph wax cylinder in 1889.
Another of the exhibition’s strengths is that it shows how seemingly trivial sounds can really bring the past to life. On a 1950s recording from a scheme to allow members of the armed forces to send messages home to their families, a serviceman laments being away for Christmas before saying: “Never mind. 1951 should see me coming up the stair asking what’s for tea. You had better not say fish paste, because I think I would wrap up then.”
Alongside the main displays, booths allow visitors to listen to a selection of 100 recordings from the library’s archive. The diverse material includes James Joyce reading from his novel Ulysses, a Yorkshire woman discussing breadmaking in 1955, drummers from Burundi, and the mating call of a haddock.
The exhibition makes clear the importance of recorded and broadcast sound, and of its preservation. But it seems the library has missed an opportunity for wider engagement by not also making the archive selection accessible online for visitors unable to attend the exhibition.
Website
Museums and Galleries Edinburgh
This site brings together information on 13 cultural and heritage venues run by the City of Edinburgh Council.
Each venue has its own page with clear information on opening times, admission costs, location, facilities and access. And you can flip between information on collection highlights and current exhibitions and events.
The great strength of the site is that it allows users to consider these cultural venues as a whole. The roster of venues can be viewed on a grid and a map, and the “What’s On” section enables users to look at programming across all of them.
Drop-down menus near the top offer further options, such as the ability to see which exhibitions, venues and events are open on a certain date, and to search the site using broad topics such as culture, history, family activities or “hidden gems”.
I found some minor usability issues to do with how the menus displayed. But overall, by being considerably more modern, approachable and useful than the museum section of many council websites, the site makes a strong case for local authority museum services to be given the freedom to create their own digital identities.
App
ArtPassport
This free iOS app, produced by the online exhibitions guide GalleriesNow, allows users to experience exhibitions virtually, through 360° photography.
At the time of writing, you could view five current shows in London and Paris, as well as the archives of many past exhibitions in these cities and also New York and Seoul. Artists represented include Paul McCarthy, Joseph Beuys and Yayoi Kusama.
The exhibitions can be experienced in 360° using a phone or a VR headset (users are also able to pan around the same material on a computer screen, via the GalleriesNow website). Users can usually switch between several places within each exhibition, but movement is limited to rotation and zooming (not moving forwards and backwards). The 360° material is accompanied by written information on the exhibition and gallery, and there are links to view individual artwork images.
The app isn’t a substitute for seeing the shows themselves, but it allows users to gain a flavour of the many exhibitions they might not otherwise be able to see, as well as a broad picture of trends within galleries.
Listen: 140 years of Recorded Sound, British Library, London
Jonathan Knott lends an ear to the history of preserving live sound
The Listen: 140 years of Recorded Sound exhibition at London’s British Library – which is accompanied by a series of events and runs until 18 May – is part of the Heritage Lottery Fund-supported Save our Sounds programme. Through this initiative, the library aims to preserve the nation’s sound heritage by digitising existing archives and enabling better collection of born-digital material.
The display outlines the broad history of recorded sound and radio broadcasting, from the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877, to later key developments such as the establishment of the BBC’s experimental Radiophonic Workshop in 1958, and Jamaican dub reggae in the 1970s. Visitors can use headphones to listen to a wide range of recordings and watch videos, as well as view physical objects and read a timeline on the wall.
The excitement of working with a new technology is palpable in the crackle and hiss of the earliest sounds made available, including the first recording of an animal, which was of a caged bird. A German pioneer recorded a white-rumped shama on a phonograph wax cylinder in 1889.
Another of the exhibition’s strengths is that it shows how seemingly trivial sounds can really bring the past to life. On a 1950s recording from a scheme to allow members of the armed forces to send messages home to their families, a serviceman laments being away for Christmas before saying: “Never mind. 1951 should see me coming up the stair asking what’s for tea. You had better not say fish paste, because I think I would wrap up then.”
Alongside the main displays, booths allow visitors to listen to a selection of 100 recordings from the library’s archive. The diverse material includes James Joyce reading from his novel Ulysses, a Yorkshire woman discussing breadmaking in 1955, drummers from Burundi, and the mating call of a haddock.
The exhibition makes clear the importance of recorded and broadcast sound, and of its preservation. But it seems the library has missed an opportunity for wider engagement by not also making the archive selection accessible online for visitors unable to attend the exhibition.
Website
Museums and Galleries Edinburgh
This site brings together information on 13 cultural and heritage venues run by the City of Edinburgh Council.
Each venue has its own page with clear information on opening times, admission costs, location, facilities and access. And you can flip between information on collection highlights and current exhibitions and events.
The great strength of the site is that it allows users to consider these cultural venues as a whole. The roster of venues can be viewed on a grid and a map, and the “What’s On” section enables users to look at programming across all of them.
Drop-down menus near the top offer further options, such as the ability to see which exhibitions, venues and events are open on a certain date, and to search the site using broad topics such as culture, history, family activities or “hidden gems”.
I found some minor usability issues to do with how the menus displayed. But overall, by being considerably more modern, approachable and useful than the museum section of many council websites, the site makes a strong case for local authority museum services to be given the freedom to create their own digital identities.
App
ArtPassport
This free iOS app, produced by the online exhibitions guide GalleriesNow, allows users to experience exhibitions virtually, through 360° photography.
At the time of writing, you could view five current shows in London and Paris, as well as the archives of many past exhibitions in these cities and also New York and Seoul. Artists represented include Paul McCarthy, Joseph Beuys and Yayoi Kusama.
The exhibitions can be experienced in 360° using a phone or a VR headset (users are also able to pan around the same material on a computer screen, via the GalleriesNow website). Users can usually switch between several places within each exhibition, but movement is limited to rotation and zooming (not moving forwards and backwards). The 360° material is accompanied by written information on the exhibition and gallery, and there are links to view individual artwork images.
The app isn’t a substitute for seeing the shows themselves, but it allows users to gain a flavour of the many exhibitions they might not otherwise be able to see, as well as a broad picture of trends within galleries.