You miss the sound of a modem. The sweet music of your cool sibling’s Panasonic video camera. Imagine not knowing what an unfolding map sounds like. Did you ever pay attention to the sound of the keys of the 1999 Mac tangerine iBook?  Visualise a library stamp. Now audiate it. If you spent a good part of your tender years borrowing books and paying fines for them you may find this to be an easy task. Do the same with one from the 1930s. Because you never held one you may find imagining its “music” more arduous a task. Thanks to an online museum you can hear one at play and picture yourself using it. Conserve the Sound tends to endangered sounds because everyday noises are vulnerable. Better yet, you can use the archive to hurl yourself back in time or explore it as a guide down someone else's memory lane. Perhaps even to listen to a Pigeon Race Timer.

“With Conserve the Sound, we’ve tried to create a collection of memories that everyone could relate to. The lifetime of many objects, especially in the digital world, is getting shorter and shorter. Of course the number of objects you are using in one lifetime is getting bigger. We often think of the term ‘throwaway society’ and want to spotlight the uniqueness of certain objects.”

This precious online sound vault is a project run by Daniel Chun and Jan Derksen, who believe in the value of holding space for the exploration of everyone’s individual sound memory. Conserve The Sound began its journey through tapping, winding  and buzzing in 2012. Chun and Derksen were initially compiling the archive at the Design Collection at their university and at Werkzeugmuseum Remscheid. Capturing the chimes of objects later took place in the basements and attics of friends and family,   as they searched for audible memory filled objects. The images and snippets of sounds available on the website are almost entirely captured by them, with a small amount being audience participation (99% vs. 1%.) If you wish to send or suggest sounds you have kept, uncovered or  rediscovered, you can do so by contacting Chun and Derksen directly and play your own part in the collective conservation of reverberations. As the museum itself is continually extended, welcoming suggestions and stories from the public, its makers also hope to offer collaborations with various brands, providing the opportunity for all objects to find a final resting place for their squeaking voices. 

The preciousness of Conserve the Sound as a museum lies in the obsolete objects. This invitation to listen to tactile memories encourages visitors them to spend hours on end revealing the sounds the curators and their community of noise enthusiasts are reminding you to remember not to forget. Exploring this archive is a  process of soft discovery. Adding to its charm are the gathered testimonials from members of the public. 

Is there a sound dear to your heart?

Is there a sound that brings back memories from your childhood?

Which disappearing sound should be preserved?

How important are sounds to you in your everyday life?

Have you sensed a transformation of sound over time?

Why should sound be preserved?

Petra Bandura, a librarian, reenacts the clack-clack-clack-clack of her kitchen oven as the visualises the fond memories of her grandmother heating her childhood home during cold winters. 

Pianist Ratko Delorko revisits the prized sound memory of the Bauer Normal-8 camera. “Vanished sounds tell us new things about old times.”

Dr. Urs Diederichs, a historian, walks us through the sound of a leather transmission belt “It made a slosh sound… It’s hard to explain. You have to hear it. And that sound has now vanished.”

Journalist and presenter Ingo Nommsen offers his musings on modern sounds. “I think it would be better for us if we learned to manage these many, unnatural sounds. Otherwise one day we’ll live in a cacophony of sounds that no one really wants to hear. Sound is a good anchor for stories. We think better when we can connect our stories and memories to personal experiences including acoustic ones.”

Prof. Karl Karst thinks “all sounds should be preserved. We usually just notice it when they’ve already vanished and it’s too late. If you ask me, record everything.”

Bianca Hauda, radio presenter, speaks of her father’s tape recorder. It has captured all her memories: her first babbling, her first poetry recital. “There was a small red dot you had to press down to record and it had to be pressed with some resistance. I like the memory of that sound, because so many stories are connected to it.” 

Theatre manager Bernhard Wilmer daydreams about the sucking sound of the levers his father had to operate as a locomotive engineer.

Sascha Engel,  filmmaker, choreographer and dancer, will never forget the sound of the machine stamping her ticket in the Munich buses.

Journalist Nora Young is adamant  the sounds of a personal sewing machine should be preserved.

Theresia Singer, radio drama producer and sound designer, shares her love for cassette players. “I love to insert a cassette and listen to its playback. It’s something to do with  the memories of my youth.”

Nowadays it feels as though we are drowning in a constant drip feed of unwanted audio information. Silence has become eerie and rare to us. Gentle birdsong connects to earth but hearing the Gaf View-Master connects us to a thinning version of ourselves or those who came before us. Via Conserve the Sound we reminisce, we poke our memory glands and revitalise our dwindling RAM.

“One of the main ideas behind CTS is to broaden your personal perception, to sharpen your senses, to look, hear and feel in a focused way. To see and hear the details in your daily life.”

Treat your open ears to everything on Conserve The Sound. Walk around your house and work your objects. Sing along to a whistling kettle, do a little dance to the sound of your bottle openers, unlock your door just for the hell of it. Rejoice in the mechanics of it all! The devil who took away the tactile home buttons on our phones is after the sweet sound of light switches, gas hobs and toilet chains too.

Audio and visuals courtesy of Conserve the Sound

ConserveTheSound.de

Words: Alexia Marmara