Presentations
ARSC Conference, Washington DC
May 29, 2009
On Friday May 29, at the Association for Recorded Sound Collections in Washington DC, Patrick Feaster and David Giovannoni announced significant new developments in our understanding of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s pioneering work on sound recording. Listen to audio from both of their presentations below.
Adventures In Archeophony
Last year the First Sounds collaborative recovered airborne sounds recorded 17 years before Edison invented the phonograph. Reflecting on the impact and meaning of this discovery, David Giovannoni discusses ongoing efforts to identify and conserve, access and study mankind’s very first recordings of its own voice.
New Directions In Phonautographic History
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville gained widespread attention in March 2008 when sounds he recorded in the mid-nineteenth century were finally played back – a striking proof of concept. Since then, new findings have made it possible to reconstruct the course of Scott’s sound-recording experiments in unprecedented detail, fundamentally reshaping our understanding of what he recorded when, how, and why. Patrick Feaster traces Scott’s ideas and efforts between 1853 and 1861 in light of recent archival discoveries, for the first time setting forth a history informed by the study of all his known phonautograms.
Play Patrick's presentation (40 minutes)