Discover UNESCO World Heritage Sites with Your Ears
Lapping water around gondolas in Venice, the creaking of the Eiffel Tower, birdsong in New Zealand... British sound artist Stuart Fowkes has created a vast library of acoustic ambiences from UNESCO-listed sites. Since April 18, it has been available for free online, reports The Times.
The world is full of books, magazines, television shows, and social media posts featuring images of heritage sites. But in this visually obsessed age, it might be helpful to remember that while the human race is blessed with eyes, it also has ears.
What we hear can be as memorable as what we see. Landscapes, buildings, professions, ceremonies, sporting events – all of these can be identified by a distinctive sound signature, just as much as by a photo on your mobile phone.
This is the idea behind Sonic Heritage, a collection of 270 recordings from UNESCO World Heritage sites and examples of “intangible heritage” (such as folk dances and traditional arts), which has just been inaugurated. It is difficult to express in words just how evocative these sonic tableaux are – whether it is the lapping of water around Venetian gondolas, the tolling of the mighty 15-tonne bell in Tallinn Cathedral, Estonia, the impressive resonance inside the Taj Mahal , the croaking of the famous ravens in the Tower of London , the seismic vibrations captured by a
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