Sounds Beyond Music
In an exciting first for both the University Library, we are delighted to present our first official museum exhibit, courtesy of the Museum of Portable Sound (MOPS), "Sounds beyond music". MOPS has just turned eight years old at the time of the Sounds Beyond Music exhibition and its lead curator John Kannenberg has brought together a fascinating collection of objects d'art, past technologies, and artefacts from the natural world. Grounded in artistic and academic enquiry, the display poses an array of thought provoking questions on the nature of sound itself, human diversity in how we relate to sounds as organisms and through culture and reflects on how product design for recording and transmitting sound has developed and changed over the past century.
Visit the Museum of Portable Sound's exhibition website.
Download the free MOPS exhibition catalogue.
Watch a video exploring the Sounds beyond music exhibition [transcript].
Watch a video exploring the Museum of Portable Sound [transcript].
Aural diversity - an exploration of human diversity in how we experience sound
Playing with sounds - an exploration of the playful sound of toys down through the ages
For those who don't remember the 1980s, the magnetic tape that stored the information in tape cassettes would frequently become loose and at risk of damage, so people became adept at gently winding loose loops of tape back onto the spools using a pencil or ballpoint pen - a skill of great practical value for just a few years
Donated by a collector in Mumbai, these Indian classical music titles from the 2000s are an example of how cassettes remained the dominant recording format in the Global South well into the age of the MP3
From the late 19th century to the late 20th century, sound playback technology moved on but slowly - technology and product design has only accelerated over time
Sound making toys for children of all ages
Some objects are so strongly associated with certain sounds that they can make that many people begin to experience that sound from the moment they see the object, raising questions about how we experience sound, sound-producing objects, and whether sound itself might be seen to be an object we relate to in our inner world
From the whoopee cushion to the hand buzzer, noise and sounds have often been an integral part of toy design
Accompanying poster display showcasing the content of the Museum of Portable Sound experience