This sound was recorded to go with BADDA 4380 in Sonic Wallpapers.

BADDA 4380, image © MoDA Museum and used with kind permission

This wallpaper design with its graphic star-bursts inspired a range of responses from ‘that looks like fireworks’ to ‘that reminds me of a child’s bedroom’. Joceline said that it reminded her of a 1950s cinema, and this gave me the idea that the piece could be structured around the sounds of my old super8 projector. It doesn’t sound exactly like an old cinema projector, but it’s as close as I could get on a tight budget! I made the actual piece the same length as a short roll of super8 film running through my projector, and decided to use this sound to suggest a movie running in the background, with other sounds coming in over the top. The sound of the Super-8 projector recedes and fades throughout the Sonic Wallpaper piece for BADDA 4380, and recording it was both fun and frustrating, as my projector has a horrible tendency to chew up old film and melt the celluloid. It’s an old EUMIG projector, and I can never remember what all the buttons mean.

I have one copy of the Sonic Wallpapers book to give to someone who would like to have a domestic listening experience for themselves! The book has all 18 wallpaper designs from the MoDA collection used in this project, and a CD in the back which contains all the sound pieces. There are introductions both by myself and Zoe Hendon who is the curator of MoDA, and notes on what people said, and what sounds were recorded, for each wallpaper included in the project.

To win a copy of the book, you just need to leave a comment on this post: -> http://thedomesticsoundscape.com/wordpress/?p=4655 about a wallpaper that you remember from your life, and one sound you recall from the room where that wallpaper was. If you cannot think of a wallpaper design and a sound, you could also leave one thought/response you have to this project. On 24th December, I will draw a number at random and post out a copy of the book to the winner!