A new drum and bass exhibition is coming to Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum. Sonic: Adventures in Audio will boast an interactive, 360-degree audiovisual experience, delving into the world of jungle and drum & bass and its history.
The exhibit “provides a chance to explore the impact of digital time-stretching technology (first made commercially available via the Akai S Series of samplers) towards the formation and shaping of musical genres such as jungle/drum and bass,” according to a press release.
“For me, the inclusion of a jungle/drum and bass exhibit in one of the Science Museum’s British institutions marks an important development in the role of museums and other heritage sites in the preservation and dissemination of jungle/drum and bass history,” said Sonic: Adventures in Audio designer Edward Wilson-Stephens.
A joystick and play button will allow visitors to interact with an amen break drum sample, time stretching it to speed up or slow down with the movement of the device. Additionally, six buttons can be used to play a bass line solo or along with the amen break, with the wobble speed modulated by the joystick’s positioning.
Wilson-Stephens continued: “Although there already exists excellent and necessary social history projects and exhibitions that bring this history to life, particularly in the context of preserving and disseminating Black history and the role of community spaces, the value of the technologies and musical processes that have contributed towards the formation and shaping of the music also need to be addressed.”
The Sonic: Adventures in Audio Exhibition will run from July 23rd-December 5th alongside a second exhibit, Boom: Experiments in Sound. The latter will feature important instruments in the history of electronic music, including the Fairlight CMI, Moog 900, and more. Learn more about the new Bradford National Science and Media Museum exhibitions at this link.
