Reel 2 Real - Audio - Digitization

Profile Video

Between 2011 and 2013, Profile Video of East Oxford digitised several thousand hours of original ethnographic recordings from the sound collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum for the 'Reel to Real' project. The content of these recordings, which were mostly on reel to reels, audiocassettes, and DATs, included slit drum ceremonies from Vanuatu, Bayaka music from the rainforests of the Central African Republic, and children's games in the playgrounds of Europe and Kenya.

On 16th January 2013 Noel Lobley, ethnomusicologist and project researcher for 'Reel to Real', and Peter Hudston, research assitant for 'Reel to Real', spoke to Geoff Bridges, senior engineer at Profile video, about his experiences digitising these field recordings.

The images below show Profile's engineer, Duncan, working with some of the museum's reel to reel cassettes.

Resources

Sound Galleries

Musical torchlit trails at the Pitt Rivers Museum

On Friday November 23rd 2012, the galleries of the Pitt Rivers Museum were plunged into evening darkness and bathed in Bayaka music and sound from the Central African Republic. Visitors were given torches to explore the galleries that were transformed into a rich forest soundscape with sung fables, snatches of laughter, beautiful variations on harps and flutes, and the stunning polyphonic singing of Bayaka women. Hidden surprises included mini projections from the rainforests and a visualiser designed by Nathaniel Mann, the PRM's Embedded Composer in Residence. The evening was filmed By Mike Day of Intrepid Cinema as part of the Reel to Real project, and complemented the Oxford City-wide Christmas Light Night organised by Oxford Inspires. A four hour playlist of Bayaka music from the PRM's sound collections, originally recorded by Louis Sarno, was curated on the evening by Nathaniel Mann and Dr Noel Lobley. The event was streamed online, and was watched live in the Central African Republic by Louis Sarno and some of the Bayaka community.