Unlocking Our Sound Heritage

Throughout 2018~19, I've been working with the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) team at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), on their project to digitise, catalogue and preserve sounds in their collection.

As part of my New Museum School placement, I’ve been involved in curatorial, learning and outreach programmes that open up this audio heritage for new audiences:

~ The Huntley Archives: Unlocking the Huntley Legacy‍

^{The archive of pioneering Black activists, Jessica and Eric Huntley, was the LMA’s first major deposit from the African~Caribbean community. I supported the digitisation and cataloguing of a series of their interviews, compiling clips for FHALMA’s annual Huntley Conference, where I also recorded a new interview with Eric Huntley. I shared a selection of these clips in my article for London’s Sound Heritage, and my New Museum School podcast, Unlocking the Huntley Legacy.}

~ The Cultural Co~operation Archives: Memory Archives

^{The archive of Culture&, formerly Cultural Co~operation, holds over 30 years of their history of programming music festivals celebrating global cultural heritage. I worked on cataloguing the collection, including cassettes, CDs, photographs and interviews, digitising a selection of African diaspora music for the Memory Archives event ~ presented as facsimile tapes and records to play at interactive listening stations. The clips were later included in a reminiscence playlist for the Memory Archives Sensory Boxes, sent to Black elders living in care homes during the pandemic.} 

~ The Whitechapel Bell Foundry Archives: When I Grow Rich

^{This archive of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, Britain’s oldest manufacturing company, includes recordings of bell tuning and ringing across London and the world. While cataloguing this collection, I discovered that the foundry cast bells for several churches in the famous ‘Oranges and Lemons’ rhyme, including the original bells of St Leonard’s Shoreditch. I collaborated with UOSH sound engineer and producer, Robin the Fog, to create a multi~sensory artwork for the church, including an immersive soundtrack of bell peals celebrating its connection to the foundry.}

I will be reflecting on these projects in my talk, ‘How Sound Archives can support Learning and Engagement’, for Sound Archives Unspooled,‍ an event with the LMA and Archives and Records Association on 28^th June.

~

_{Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is part of the British Library's Save Our Sounds programme, which preserves and provides access to thousands of the UK's rare and unique sound recordings.}