University of Sussex Culture & society impacts

Research & Enterprise

Enriching public appreciation of the

role of sound in society

Professor David Hendys 2013 BBC subtle conversations of Africas talking

Radio 4 series and accompanying drums, the babble of civic life from the
book Noise: A Human History of streets of Ancient Rome to the modern
Sound and Listening engendered metropolis, the roar of Dickens
an enthusiastic and widespread conquering engines of the industrial
public response, stimulating revolution, the din of civil unrest,
discussion and appreciation of the revolution and war, and the impact of
role of sound and listening in social 24-hour media.
history and contemporary life. Drawing on influences from
It has also led to commissioned archaeology, ethnography, musicology
musical works, and the recordings and mainstream social history, and
have been given to the British using primary written sources, rare
Library to become a national archival recordings and original field
cultural resource. recordings, Hendys research took
an immersive approach to exploring
Overview the role of sound in the making of
It would appear that we live in an the modern mind. Structured around
increasingly noisy world, bombarded by 30 historical case studies, this work
the chatter of 21st-century life. Often, provides a new understanding of
we try and shut out the din, craving how past events and processes were
quiet and hearkening back to a distant experienced subjectively by ordinary
past that we assume was altogether people and how sound and listening
quieter. But was it? In his 30-part BBC have played a role in all aspects of
Radio 4 series and accompanying human life.
book, David Hendy (Professor of Media The Radio 4 series was originally
and Communication at the University broadcast in March/April 2013 and
of Sussex) challenges the notion of a is now permanently available for
quiet past by telling the extraordinary download on iTunes and Audible.com.
story of the sounds that we have made Original field recordings made for the
since the dawn of humanity. In a story series have been given to the British
that goes beyond words or music, Library, and Hendys accompanying
he explores the diverse role of sound book was published in 2013.
across 100,000 years of human
history and what it communicates in Achieving impact
all its forms.
This popular piece of research has
Beginning with early echoes from stimulated and enriched public In Noise: A Human History of
Palaeolithic caves, through the rise of discussion and understanding of the Sound and Listening, David Hendy
shamanism, to church bells ringing importance of sound as an aspect of explores the diverse role of sound
out religions extraordinary hold on our history and contemporary social across 100,000 years of human
medieval Europe, Noise explores the relations. Noise generated significant history from Africas talking drums
evolving soundscape of religion and commentaries in major national and to the babble of civic life in the
ritual. It reveals the complex and modern metropolis.

www.sussex.ac.uk/research
international newspapers and from
influential bloggers, and prompted
interactions with the general public,
from feedback from radio listeners to
comments on social media sites such
as Twitter.
Hendys work has reached a wide
audience through its original radio
broadcast, re-broadcast of excerpts
both in the UK and internationally,
and through online listening and
downloads. In a typical week in the
first quarter of 2013, programmes
in the Radio 4 slot in which Noise
appeared had approximately
2.4 million adult listeners (9.8 per
cent of the available national
audience). Programmes from the
series were listened to online at the
BBC website 312,000 times and
downloaded as podcasts 41,000
times during the first two weeks.
An interview and extended feature
on Noise was broadcast on The
Takeaway, a nationally syndicated
public radio show based at WNYC,
the biggest non-commercial radio
station in New York. Following this,
New Yorkers were invited to describe
their own experiences and the Mayors
Environment Committee invited to
respond: the station noted that it had
received an overwhelming response
to our segment on the effects of urban
noise. Hendy has subsequently been
interviewed twice for WNYC about the
history of sound, as well as by the
BBC World Service, BBC Five Live, and
Raidi Teilifs ireann.
The accompanying book (Profile
Books: London, 2013) was available
in high-street bookshops, through
newspapers and via iTunes, selling
approximately 4,000 copies in the
first two months. A US edition was
published in October 2013 by Harper
Collins, with rights also being sold to
Korea, Turkey and Estonia. Prominent
articles by Professor Hendy were
published in the Wall Street Journal
and Huffington Post, to coincide with
publication. Various blogs have been
written on how the series cast new
light on the relationship between
music and silence in music therapy,
the relationship between music and
Islam, on urban cycling policy, and
even on animal consciousness.
Noise has also been the feature of
several talks at public arts festivals
including the Bath Literature Festival
(March 2013) and Bristol Festival of
Ideas (July 2013) and most recently as partnership with the British Library
part of the Brighton University Insights Sound Archive.
Public Lectures series (January 2014).
March 2014
The second major impact of this
research has been the way it has
inspired new artistic endeavours and
created national cultural resources.
The field-recordings and sound
archives featured in the programme
have been used in the creation of
new musical works. Jo Acheson of
the Hidden Orchestra received a
commission to compose 30 different
signature tunes for the series and
Matthew Herbert, Head of the New
Radiophonic Workshop, received a
commission to create a 14-minute
musical work following the overall
narrative structure of Noise. August
2013 saw the world premiere of
Festival City, a portrait of Edinburgh
in music and sound by American
composer Tod Machover, who drew
upon recordings and research from
Noise to inform his work.
The series has led directly to the
creation of new permanent holdings
by the British Library, accessible to
both the public and future researchers, Preparing to record by the Door of
since the field recordings, as well as No Return at Elmina Fort in Ghana,
episodes from the series, have been which was a key stop on the route
handed over to the Library. Finally, of the Atlantic slave trade.
Noise has contributed towards the
goal of two national institutions
the BBC and the British Library to
enhance, as the BBC puts it, the art
of listening.
Future impact
Noise continues to have a public
impact in the UK and abroad with
an invitation to write a blog for
Noise Action Week, campaigning for
better aural environments in British
cities, and a filmed interview for the
US-based documentary film In Pursuit
of Silence, to be released in 2015.
A book from the series has also Working with us
recently been published in Estonian,
with positive reviews published in
If you are interested in working with us,
various Estonian newspapers, and please contact:
Professor Hendy has been invited to
Dr Ian Carter
speak at the Perfect Silence Music Director of Research and Enterprise
and Arts Festival in Estonia, February Sussex House
2015. University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton BN1 9RH
Funding and partnership E research@sussex.ac.uk
T +44 (0)1273 877718
Professor Hendy was supported by the www.sussex.ac.uk/research
Leverhulme Trust during the making
of Noise. The series itself, including For further information about the research,
visit:
travel for field recording, was funded
Professor Hendy:
by the BBC through one of Radio 4s www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/131073
largest-scale commissions of 2013.
The series was also made in formal The Public Culture Hub:
www.sussex.ac.uk/mediaandfilm/
research/researchcentres/
publicculturehub