Dr James Mansell is leading a strand of the Being Human Festival 2016 (17-25 November) called ‘Sound and Fury: Listening to the Second World War’. In collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive and the British Vintage Wireless and TV Museum (BVWTVM), Mansell is working with Aleks Kolkowski (British Library Composer in Residence) and Paul Wilson (British Library Curator of Radio) to transform a chapter of his book The Age of Noise in Britain into two newly-created sound installations to bring the sound worlds of wartime Britain back to life for public audiences. An installation will be installed in behind-the-scenes rooms at Senate House, London, home of the wartime Ministry of Information and will be on show every day throughout the Festival.
17 - 25 November 2016, Senate House London
Composer Aleks Kolkowski, in collaboration with historian James Mansell, has created a site-specific installation in the former Ministry of Information in Senate House, University of London that will be on display throughout the Being Human festival. Explore this historic building – including rooms not normally accessible to the public – while interacting with vintage sound technologies loaned by the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum and the unheard collections of the British Library Sound Archive. Come and see the ‘Babble Machine’, and experience the Second World War as you’ve never heard it before!
Free admission: no booking required
25 November (9.30 am - 5.00 pm: installation) and (6.00 pm - 8.00 pm: talk)
Join us in listening to the hope and fear generated by the Second World War. The British Library’s Foyle Room will be transformed into an all-enveloping audio-visual installation. Radio and gramophone sets from the period loaned by the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum will crackle back into life with the haunting sounds of a nation at war. The British Library Archives composer-in-residence Aleks Kolkowski and curator of radio Paul Wilson will be joined by historians James Mansell and Carolyn Birdsall to present a special edition of the installation with illustrated talks. Throughout the festival there will also be a display of Second World War sounds and vintage technology at Senate House relating to the building’s time as home of the government’s Ministry of Information.
Free admission: booking required
University Park Nottingham, NG7 2RD
Contact us