The prolific and informative Epic Sound blog has pushed me on to this new project by the BBC. It’s a great concept and one that could really fit in with the whole spectrum of the BBC’s vast archive of media.
The general idea of it is to have sounds from all across the world, all plotted and archived for everyone to enjoy. It’s not just animals that can become extinct, but sounds too. It’s nice that the BBC have taken it upon themselves to archive all of this so they never get lost. The official BBC concept is this:
The eye is attracted by change, the new and the flashy. Our ears, by contrast, are seduced by the familiar. Yet, all the time, the sound of the world is changing. Precious sounds are dying while new ones enter our lives. So here at the BBC we want to build a sound map of the world – and save endangered sounds from extinction. And who better to help than avid audio consumers like you?
Though maybe not executed quite how I would of done it, but the Sound Explorer is quite nice. You sort of explore different objects in an urban landscape, so as you go up to them, you can hear their sounds. I’ve personally always been interested in ambiences and mixing these together – it’s where a lot of my own music ideas come from – so this was a nice little feature on the site.
Anyhow, cool project I think. Check out some of the links to various parts of it, and obviously have a good look around yourself.