RT Journal Article T1 Chamber of noise horrors A1 James Mansell YR 2017 VO 7 IS Spring 2017 K1 Sound K1 noise K1 museums K1 technology K1 exhibition history K1 Science Museum AB This article examines the 1935 Science Museum temporary exhibition on Noise Abatement, situating it in the sound historical context of inter-war Britain, and making an argument that the ‘way of hearing’ it advanced was part of an attempt to shape auditory perception in the interests of a class-bound culture of acoustic civilization. Further, the article uses this exhibition to mount an argument that museum scholars should consider sound not simply as a medium of engagement, but also as a politically interested and socially active field. NO In taking this approach the article deliberately leaves aside several important questions relating to the practicalities of using sound in museum spaces, including issues of hearing ability/disability. NO Newspaper clipping, ‘Noise: By Lord Elton, In an Interview’, The Sunday Chronicle, 23 June 1935, National Archives, FD1/4048 NO Letter from Sir Henry Richards to Pelham, 9 October 1934, Science Museum, Nominal file 5134 NO File note, Proposed “Anti-Noise” Exhibition, Science Museum, Nominal file 5134 NO Typescript of a radio broadcast made by Lord Horder on behalf of the Anti-Noise League, 20 January 1935, Museum of English Rural Life, SR CPRE C/1/150/1 NO British Medical Journal, 10 August 1929, pp 267–268 NO Exhibit list, Science Museum, Nominal file 5134 NO Letter from R F Millard to members of the Anti-Noise League, 14 March 1935, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 NO Loan questionnaire, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 NO Daily Telegraph, 31 May 1935, p 21 NO Typeset description of demonstration house prepared by the buildings sub-committee of the Noise Abatement Exhibition, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 NO Typeset description of demonstration house prepared by the buildings sub-committee of the Noise Abatement Exhibition, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 NO Typeset description of demonstration house prepared by the buildings sub-committee of the Noise Abatement Exhibition, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 NO Description of silent lift exhibit, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 NO Minutes of the third meeting of the Buildings Sub-Committee of the Noise Abatement Exhibition, 6 February 1935, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 NO Draft of article ‘Noise and Housing’ by Hope Bagenal, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 NO ‘Noise: By Lord Elton, In an Interview’ PB The Science Museum Group SN 2054-5770 LA eng DO 10.15180/170704 UL http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/browse/issue-07/chamber-of-noise-horrors/ CR Anti-Noise League, 1935a, Noise Abatement Exhibition (London: Anti-Noise League) CR Anti-Noise League, 1935b, Silencing a Noisy World: Being a Brief Report of the Conference on the Abatement of Noise (London: Anti-Noise League) CR Bagenal, H, 1938, ‘Planning Against Noise’, in Flats: Municipal and Private Enterprise (London: Ascot Gas Water Heaters Ltd), pp 17–18 CR Bartlett, F, 1934, The Problem of Noise (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) CR Bennett, T, 2011, ‘Civic Seeing: Museums and the Organization of Vision’, in Sharon Macdonald (ed), A Companion to Museum Studies (Oxford: Blackwell), pp 263–281 CR Bijsterveld, K, 2008, Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press) CR Binter, J T S, 2014, ‘Unruly Voices in the Museum: Multisensory Engagement with Disquieting Histories’, The Senses and Society, 9/3, pp 342–360, DOI 10.2752/174589314X14023847039674 CR Boon, T, 2014, ‘Music for Spaces: Music for Space – An Argument for Sound as a Component of Museum Experience’, Journal of Sonic Studies, 8 https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/108934/108935 (accessed 31 December 2016)    CR Bubaris, N, 2014, ‘Sound in Museums – Museums in Sound’, Museum Management and Curatorship, 29/4, pp 391–402, DOI 10.1080/09647775.2014.934049 CR British Library: Sounds of Our Shores, http://www.bl.uk/sounds-of-our-shores/about (accessed 15 January 2017) CR Glover, C W, 1938, Civil Defence: A Practical Manual Presenting with Working Drawings the Methods Required for Adequate Protection Against Air Attack (London: Chapman and Hall) CR Goldsmith, M, 2012, Discord: The Story of Noise (Oxford: Oxford University Press) CR Graham, H, 2016, ‘The “Co” in Co-Production: Museums, Community Participation and Science and Technology Studies’, Science Museum Group Journal, 5, DOI 10.15180; 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