Audioscripts

Pale Blue Dot Collective was commissioned by Bodleian Libraries and Fusion Arts in Oxford to create a sound piece to accompany the Sensational Books exhibition at the Bodleian Libraries, which explores the experience of the book beyond reading. The exhibition opening has been delayed by the pandemic.

The resulting sound piece, Audioscripts, is a sonic investigation into the physical sensation of reading a book and an exploration of how our minds transport us into the pages of its contents. Using a variety of microphones including stereo mics, a condenser mic and hand-made contact mics, we have recorded the physicality of these important books to create three sonic interpretations.

We were particularly inspired by Ernst Haeckels ‘Creatures of the Deep’, ‘Birds of America’ by John James Audubon and the illuminated manuscripts included in the exhibition.

The sound comes from a combination of new recordings and sounds from our archive, recorded in Windwhistle and Horomaka/ Banks Peninsula in Aotearoa New Zealand and Margate, Minster, Oxford with vocal recordings by Gillian Hurst in Bristol.

Sensational Books Exhibition
27 May - 4 December 2022

Designed not only to celebrate the sensory appeal of reading physical books but also to explore the accessibility of reading today to those who are sensory impaired, the exhibition features books and items from the Bodleian’s collections that invite a sensory response across the five senses of sight, sound, taste, smell, touch and beyond.

As e-books continue to grow in use, this exhibition celebrates the material book and the ways in which readers have enjoyed them. Alongside the five senses, this exhibition asks visitors to experience proprioception, the name given at the start of the twentieth century to the sense of self-movement and body-perception.

The exhibition features an extraordinary selection of medieval, pre-modern, modern, and contemporary books, drawn from a range of cultures and in a variety of formats. The exhibition will also feature, for the first time at the Bodleian Libraries, an audio guide that has been made in partnership with people who are visually impaired. This has been led by a group of local people who will give you an insight into how books can be experienced when a sense is changed.

Sensational Books is co-curated by Kathryn Rudy, Professor of Art History at the University of St Andrews and Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford.