A Sonic Palimpsest: Revisiting Chatham Historic Dockyards

Work on the AHRC-funded research project ‘A Sonic Palimpsest: Revisiting Chatham Historic Dockyards’ begins this month.

Led by Dr Aki Pasoulas, with Dr Andrew Knight-Hill from the University of Greenwich as the Co-Investigator and Dr Brona Martin as Research Associate, the project will explore historic soundscapes of the Chatham Dockyard through restoring old archived sound material and recreating soundscapes of the past. The soundscapes will be developed from historical documentation, restored archive materials and personal recollections of former employees describing life in the working yard.

The project seeks to investigate the role of sound in heritage contexts and the experience of sound in influencing our ongoing experience of objects and places. It will explore how members of the public might connect with historical sites, and location identity through sound. This investigation will be approached through the development of site-sensitive music compositions and installations with empirical data collection of audience experience providing critical feedback on theory and practice.

We are partnering with the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, the University of Greenwich and local schools. The project will deliver a series of outputs, including electronic sound archives of historical significance, music compositions and installations, a heritage soundmap, publications and presentations at international conferences.