12-13th of June 2018, Tampere Finland. International Conference: Exhibiting Sounds of Changes. WORKLAB – International Association of Labour Museums – is organizing a conference with Sounds of Changes project. Call for Papers is now open! 

Worklab Conference 2018 will be organized in Finland. Tampere is a traditional industrial city, also known as a Manchester of Finland. Conference is hosted by The Finnish Labour Museum, located in a former cotton mill in very center of the city. There are several other  interesting attractions as well: wonderful and huge city museum Vapriikki which has won many museum prizes, cosy Amuri Museum of Workers’ housing and the only Lenin Museum in European Union with many more museums to visit.

This time we will focus on sounds. The Call for Papers is now open for everyone interested in the theme. Please, read the call, submit a paper and come to Tampere next summer!

International Conference: Exhibiting Sounds of Changes
Tampere, 12-13th of June 2018

CALL FOR PAPERS

In museums, we do have paintings, photographs and all sorts of items. They tell our visitors what things used to look like in the past. Few museums use sounds for their collections and exhibitions. However, museum exhibitions cannot only be experienced visually, but also by hearing. But, it is not only a question of bad planning and a lack of technology: we simply do not know enough about sounds as sources and as medium.

In 2013, six European museums started to record endangered and disappearing sounds of industrial society. The “Work with Sounds”-project (2013-2015) was soon followed by the “Sounds of Changes”-project (2017–2019), both were funded by Creative Europe programme. In these projects we have collected a great archive of historical sounds that can be used for free from www.workwithsounds.eu. All the sounds are licensed under Creative Commons and can be found in Europeana and Wikimedia.

The Sounds of Changes project, WORKLAB (International Association of Labour Museums) and The Finnish Labour Museum are organising a summer conference, 12th-13th of June 2018, in Tampere. The two-day conference will focus on sounds of industrial, social and technical culture. How can we present and preserve sounds in museums?

We encourage all museum professionals, researchers and exhibition designers to submit papers that relate to the wide themes of exhibitions, sounds and history. We welcome theoretical approaches as well as practical case studies, tools and best practices. Papers presented at the conference are invited to share innovative ideas, experiences of trying new things, successes, opportunities and failures dealing with one or some of the following topics:

• Using sound technology in exhibitions
• Visitors and sounds
• Soundscapes, silence and noise in museum exhibitions
• Historical sounds of everyday life
• Sounds in/as exhibition narratives
• Authenticity of museum sounds
• Sounds, hearing and inclusion
• Historical and recreated speech acts in exhibitions
• How to find the right sounds?

The Call for Papers is open until 31st of March 2018. If you would like to present your project please send your proposal (200-300 words) along with a brief professional profile (100-200 words) to: soundsofchanges(ät)tyovaenmuseo.fi.

The conference will take place at The Finnish Labour Museum in Tampere. Participation is without a fee; however travel, accommodation and daily living are at your expense. Tampere is a lively city located in southern Finland. It can be reached from Helsinki airport by a two-hour train connection. The programme will include paper presentations, keynote speeches and social activities in summery (and cool) Finland.

Updated info can be found on WORKLAB website and on project site www.workwithsounds.eu.

“Sounds of Changes” is a EU project funded by Creative Europe program (2017–2019). It is a joint effort of six museums: Swedish Air Force Museum (Sweden, project leader), Muzeum Inżynierii Miejskiej (Poland), LWL-Industriemuseum (Germany), Museum of Work (Sweden), Technical Museum of Slovenia and The Finnish Labour Museum. The Museums are collecting, interpreting and disseminating endangered sounds and soundscapes together. See more at www.workwithsounds.eu.

WORKLAB – The International Association of Labour Museums is a dynamic network founded in 1997. Today, this network has more than 30 member museums from four continents. WORKLAB museums represent a lively scale of museums interested in social, industrial and labour heritage. Network organizes conferences, projects and publications. WORKLAB meetings are open for everyone. See more at www.worklab.info.