The Memory Machine: Sound and Memory at the British Museum

The Memory Machine is a context, people and site specific  interactive sound installation.  It has been developed as a  collaboration between two composers, Cathy Lane and Nye  Parry who share an interest in sound, oral history, and  memory. The Memory Machine is an ongoing project,  which, at the time of writing, is part of the British  Museum’s 250th anniversary exhibition entitled The  Museum of the Mind; Art and Memory in World Cultures.  Visitors contribute to the Memory Machine by leaving a  memory via a telephone situated in the main part of the  exhibition. These memories become part of an ever  changing soundscape which mixes the personal memories  supplied by the visitors with archive material . As they play  back the memories are fragmented and transformed with  different kinds of musical and sound manipulation  processes and the result is heard in multi channel playback  at the entrance and exit to the exhibition. This memory mix  may stimulate and unlock other personal memories which  will either be fed back into the Memory Machine or  stimulate a mental space for reverie and remembering,  stimulated by power of sound.
The paper discusses the background and ideas behind the  Memory Machine  within the context of the composers’  work. The development of the project in collaboration with  the British Museum is described and an evaluation of some  of the issues around the public exhibition of the piece is  given as well as a full technical description of the different  elements of the installation.