Institution news
The Sounds of Science is an audio narrative which reveals the awe-inspiring story of how humans have changed the world over the last 10,000 years played live using nothing more than sound. The soundscape detailed science and engineering discoveries as diverse as the discovery of fire, paper manufacturing, the steam engine through to cloning and the development of mobile phones.
The project, which is sponsored by the Institution, is a joint collaboration between celebrated percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, composer Jill Jarman and world history author Christopher Lloyd. Performed for the first time as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival by Dame Evelyn Glennie, audience members included Institution Chief Executive, Stephen Tetlow, President Elect Jon Hilton and key Institution members and volunteers from the Scottish region.
Watch a video about the Sounds of Science premiere
Audience members variously described the piece on social media as “wonderful” “captivating” and “inspirational”, however the story of this project doesn’t end there. Not only will there be a second performance of the soundscape at the Hay Literary Festival on 5 June, the longer-term hope is for teachers and children to use the soundscape as a new and exciting way to learn how the history of science and engineering has shaped our lives through the vehicle of music. It will provide young people with different perspectives on music and science and inspire them to be inquisitive about science, technology and engineering.
Arts and sciences are segregated subjects in schools and in most universities, and Sounds of Science aims to illustrate the myriad of ways they are connected. For example, it is engineers who exploit the electromagnetic spectrum and digital technology in a recording studio, and by the scientists who discovered the theories of acoustics, as it is by brilliant composers and artists.
The Institution’s involvement in Sounds of Science is one of the innovative ways the Institution is looking to inspire the next generation of engineers and communicate the varied and creative nature of a career in science and engineering. Sounds of Science complements the recommendations made in the Institution’s latest report, Big Ideas: The future of engineering in schools, which proposes that a key way of tackling the engineering skills shortfall is to make engineering more visible throughout school by ensuring pupils are taught about the manufactured world as part of existing lessons from primary level upwards.
The Sounds of Science soundscape tracks key discoveries and inventions of the past, and the aim is that it will help inspire the next generation of discoveries and inventions.
Find out more about The Sounds of Science on the What on earth? website.