RT Journal Article
T1 Staging listening: new methods for engaging audiences with sound in museums
A1 James Mansell
A1 Annie Jamieson
A1 Alexander  De Little
YR 2022
VO 
IS Spring 2022
K1 Audiences
K1 audio
K1 BBC Radiophonic Workshop
K1 echo
K1 exhibition prototyping
K1 Listening
K1 National Science and Media Museum
K1 sound
K1 sound archives
K1 sound postcards
K1 sound technology
AB This article reports on the experimental methodology and key findings of the AHRC-funded impact and engagement project Sonic Futures: Collecting, Curating and Engaging with Sound at the National Science and Media Museum (2020–21). The project undertook a series of listening-based public engagement activities – described here as staging listening – to identify new ways of engaging listening audiences with sound technology objects in museums. These activities led to the creation of three new interactive sounding exhibit prototypes created jointly with audiences. Because the project took place during periods of lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the UK in 2020–21, the exhibit prototypes were created digitally and tested via online interaction. The article argues that engaging with listening audiences can diversify and enrich museum listening scenarios, a term we use here to describe auditory situations which elicit different kinds of listening attention, interaction and learning. These listening scenarios produce divergent signatures of listening, a concept we develop here to describe the various kinds of learning and engagement we observed throughout the project.
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/221704
UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/staging-listening-new-methods-for-engaging-audiences-with-sound-in-museums/
WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30