Pitt Rivers sound installation
From 6-8 November 2024, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford hosts a sound installation for our Migration Sounds project.
Situated on the first floor balcony, overlooking the incredible Pitt Rivers collection, you will find the Migration Sounds installation.
On one side of the space, you will hear field recordings of migration and, time-synced to match, on the other side you will hear the corresponding composition made from that recording. Listeners will be able to create their own sound mix by their physical positioning and proximity to the “city” or “memory” side of the installation.
A journey around the world through the sounds of migration – and through the amazing compositions our community of artists have been inspired to create from them. Human stories – brought to life in the way that only sound can.
We will be updating this page with photos, video and audio from the installation once it has concluded.
Below is a directory of the sounds you can hear, and the recordists and artists whose work is featured in the installation – you can also listen to the installation in full.
Directory of sounds
- San Francisco, USA
Juan Pablo, a 19-year-old from Brazil, explains the story of his migration to the USA and what he has learned about himself in the process.
Recorded by Wendy Baker
Reimagined by Finlay Ellis
- Portland, USA
Pro-immigrant chants at a post-election anti-Trump protest in November 2017.
Recorded by Benjamin Glas-Hochstettler
Reimagined by Kid Kin
- Louisville, USA
A Somali immigrant speaks at the Louisville Movement Against Trump rally, March 2017, set up to oppose Trump’s visit to Kentucky.
Recorded by Aaron Rosenblum
Reimagined by current flow Ω
- New York, USA
A soundwalk around the streets at the heart of Chinatown. With an estimated population of 90-100,000 people, New York’s Chinatown is home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere.
Recorded by Cities and Memory
Reimagined by Bill Stevens
- Hamilton, Canada
After relocating to Hamilton a little over a year ago, Nala was inspired to learn more about the indigenous birds in the area as a way to establish a deeper connection with the land.
Recorded by Nala Ismacil
Reimagined by Simon Holmes
- Zitacuaro, Mexico
The sound of thousands of monarch butterflies known for their long annual migration between Mexico and the United States, recorded as Christine, a migrant settled in Latin America, was mourning her grandmother, who had passed away in France, back “home”.
Recorded by Christine Renaudat
Reimagined by Elissa Goodrich
- Cartagena, Colombia
Christine’s daughter, aged 9, recites a fable in French – born in Colombia to a French mother, she has been home schooled in French. Reading and reciting poems was part of her distance learning programme.
Recorded by Christine Renaudat
Reimagined by Amanda Stuart
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
A violinist who migrated from the US to Argentina improvises a tango: “I felt deeply connected to tango 25 years ago and this pull on my heart inspired me to migrate halfway across the globe.”
Recorded by Christine Brebes
Reimagined by Emmy Tither
- Scarinish, Scotland
A ferry bound for Oban, with announcements also in Gaelic, made by a recordist who migrated to Scotland, writing “what can be heard really sums up the feelings of happiness and expectation I used to have coming to Scotland as a younger man.”
Recorded by Simon Holmes
Reimagined by Cristina Marras
- Oxford, England
A dinner party in a suburban house in Oxford, capturing conversations between guests originally from Chile, China, Italy, Czechia, the Netherlands and even more countries.
Recorded by Rob McNeil
Reimagined by Tom Thompson
- Oxford, England
The sound of a baby’s heartbeat, recorded at a regular scan appointment: “my baby’s heart beats in a place that is far from where I call home, and its rhythm is interpreted in a language that is foreign to my ears.”
Recorded by Nuni Jorgensen
Reimagined by Ruby Singh
- London, England
Prayers inside the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara Sikh temple in Southall, a modern Sikh temple with space for 3,000 worshippers which also organises regular community events.
Recorded by Cities and Memory
Reimagined by Jaspal Singh Bhogal
- London, England
The sounds of Maria’s Ukrainian housemate, Natasha, making borscht. Natasha is a refugee from the war in Ukraine and has lived with Maria for almost two years.
Recorded by Maria Margaronis
Reimagined by Luca Piovesan
- London, England
Brixton in London is also known as Little Jamaica, the heart of the Jamaican community in the city. In this recording, we can hear a steel drum group performing directly outside the tube station.
Recorded by Cities and Memory
Reimagined by Ale Borea
- Calais, France
A recording from passport control at the French/British border crossing, made by someone who travels frequently for work reasons.
Recorded by anonymous
Reimagined by Glacis
- Düren, Germany
An ethnic German woman who was born in Russia in 1932 meets the American boyfriend of her granddaughter. In the conversation you can hear Russian, German, English and Mennonite Low German.
Recorded by Xenia Penko
Reimagined by Amy Sterly
- Bremen, Germany
Protest against strict EU migration laws. Protesters are chanting “Um Europa keine Mauern – Bleiberecht für alle und auf Dauer!” (“No walls around Europe – permanent right to stay for everyone!”)
Recorded by Pedro Oliveira
Reimagined by Cecilia Pez
- Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia
Refugees from southern Africa travel by train to see opportunities in the big city. Due to the high unemployment rate in Tunisia, both Tunisians from various regions and refugees depend on slow trains for their daily commute to Tunis.
Recorded by Rafael Diogo
Reimagined by Anna Vienna Ho
- Villa del Conte, Italy
The “campana della sera” (evening bell) rang every evening at 9.00pm, a crucial part of life in the town for decades until it was recently replaced by a shorter melody. “Now the whole place no longer feels like my hometown.”
Recorded by Giulia Biasibetti
Reimagined by Rob Knight
- Sagrado, Italy
Immigrants, predominantly from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, among other nationalities, are intercepted on a train heading to Trieste Centrale, likely en route to seek asylum in Italy.
Recorded by Simon Šerc and Martina Testen
Reimagined by Kim[bal]
- Ljubljana, Slovenia
“While I was feeling gloomy, I stirred a soup in order to feel close to my parents, my hometown, and to feel at home again.”
Recorded by Görkem Özdemir
Reimagined by Laura Romero Valldecabres
- Ljubljana, Slovenia
“This is my response to a hard day dealing with the bureaucracy that can come with living as a migrant, as I was trying to soothe and calm myself with a musical instrument – a cura bağlama (or cura saz) – from my home country, Türkiye.”
Recorded by Görkem Özdemir
Reimagined by Flexagon
- Velika Kladuša, Bosnia Herzegovina
A “family squat” for migrants trapped in the country. There are 3-8 people sleeping in one room, carpets cover the floor, there are improvised and self-built chimneys to heat the room while it is snowing outside.
Recorded by Beat Theofried Alto Sandkühler
Reimagined by Alison Beattie
- Krakow, Poland
A Ukrainian migrant to Poland who left the country after Russia’s 2015 annexing of Crimea walks under a bridge at night: “The night was serene, yet my mind was occupied with questions: Where am I? What am I doing here? Why is this happening to me?”
Recorded by Andrii Shamanov
Reimagined by Judith Mann
- Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy
Asylum seekers, mostly from West Africa, on board the rescue ship Ocean Viking, December 2022. They had been rescued from a perilously overcrowded rubber boat, hundreds of kilometres from land, with very little food and water. After the first rest they’ve had in a long time, the rescuees celebrated having survived the journey, utilising the drums kept onboard.
Recorded by Frey Lindsay
Reimagined by Odyssey Ensemble
- Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy
Testimony from Joseph, an asylum seeker from Nigeria, onboard a charity rescue ship. Along with over a hundred other people, he was rescued from an unseaworthy rubber boat headed for Europe from Libya.
Recorded by Frey Lindsay
Reimagined by Cities and Memory
- Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy
Three boats rescuing around 130 people from an overloaded rubber boat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, at 2.00am on 27 December, 2022. The rescuees were attempting to reach Europe from Libya – where they had suffered extensive abuse. Among them were many children, and one infant just weeks old
Recorded by Frey Lindsay
Reimagined by Cristian Estrella
- Chios, Greece
An Afghan family living in the Vial migrant camp in Chios, who had fled Afghanistan because of direct threats to the father’s life from the Taliban, but conditions in the camp were so dire that they were thinking of going back.
Recorded by Maria Margaronis
Reimagined by Museleon
- Lesvos, Greece
This is a poem in Dari about the fire that devastated the Moria refugee camp in September 2020, leaving many thousands without shelter. It’s by a young Afghan called Zabi. “A candle needs fire, a meal needs fire, but we don’t need fire. We have been burning a long time… In this fire, we lost our hopes, we lost our tents, our new homes, here in this host country, in its camps, as we did in the country we fled.”
Recorded by Maria Margaronis
Reimagined by Ana Mora
- Eidomeni, Greece
In 2016, more than 14,000 people on the move from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere were living in a muddy, makeshift camp site at Eidomeni on the Greek-North Macedonian border, hoping to make their way north. This is the voice of Mohammed, from Syria.
Recorded by Maria Margaronis
Reimagined by Arozian with Samantha Hannan
- Kigali, Rwanda
A flight coming in to land at Kigali airport in early 2024. At the time the British government was attempting to dispatch asylum seekers attempting to come to the UK to Rwanda.
Recorded by Carlos Vargas-Silva
Reimagined by figurehead
- South Sinai, Egypt
Bedouins in South Sinai. Despite enduring discrimination, stigma, and stereotyping over the years, many modern Bedouins have adapted to a semi-nomadic or settled lifestyle. During the Israeli occupation between 1967 and 1982, Bedouins insisted on remaining on their land, earning them the label of traitors from much of the Egyptian public.
Recorded by Rafael Diogo
Reimagined by Andy Billington
- Nicosia, Cyprus
Recording of the ‘Free Palestine’ peaceful protest in the fall of 2023, which took place in the divided capital of Cyprus, Nicosia. This unprecedented moment in history glues the refugee crisis in previous years with the new wave due to the ongoing wars.
Recorded by Serge Bulat
Reimagined by Mark Baker
- Jerusalem, Israel
An old man playing his accordion in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem. The Armenian presence in Jerusalem dates back to the 4th century AD, coinciding with Armenia’s adoption of Christianity as its national religion.
Recorded by Rafael Diogo
Reimagined by Chris Sakellaridis
- Bethlehem, Palestine
A journey crossing from Palestine to Israel on an empty bus, which took about two hours and involved passing through several checkpoints. The recording was made several years before the current conflict.
Recorded by Rafael Diogo
Reimagined by Deep Dive Sound
- Tumanyan, Armenia
A woman arranging flowers on the balcony of her new apartment. She is surrounded by the rare sounds of the street in an emptying town within the ‘remoteness’ of Armenian highlands. While locals leave this place in search of jobs and better life opportunities, she arrived here striving for a safe harbour from state violence amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
Recorded by Maria Gunko
Reimagined by Bill McKenna
- Tehran, Iran
An Iranian who now lives in Montreal visits Tehran 19 years after leaving as a teenager, with the calls of restaurant owners by the river feeling like promises of home.
Recorded by Saadi Daftari
Reimagined by SINE
- Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Recording made at a flea market during a forced migration from Russia to Uzbekistan, through Kazakhstan. “I have been in a position of forced exile for over a month. If I were to describe my condition, the words would be shock, depression and complete confusion. But at the same time there is hope for the best.”
Recorded by Vladimir Bocharov
Reimagined by Arvik Torrenssen
- Tashkent, Uzbekistan
“For me, as a person who has lived in Siberia all my life, it is very unusual to hear drops in mid-December, when in my native Novosibirsk there are already metre-long snowdrifts and the temperature is within -20 degrees at that moment.”
Recorded by Vladimir Bocharov
Reimagined by Jeff Düngfelder
Recording made during a forced migration from Russia to Uzbekistan, through Kazakhstan. Waiting at the station to board the train to Tashkent, to reach an emergency residence for musicians and sound artists.
Recorded by Vladimir Bocharov
Reimagined by Nicolo Scolieri
- Kolkata, India
Revisiting a childhood home that is due to be demolished, experiencing the memories of childhood delivered through sound many years later.
Recorded by Sourya Sen
Reimagined by Maria Margaronis
- Xiamen, China
A group of elderly locals from Xiamen engaging in conversation. As modernization continues to progress, an increasing number of young people are leaving the city to pursue employment prospects elsewhere.
Recorded by Qianyi Alice Li
Reimagined by Cristina Italiani
- Makati, Philippines
A migrant who has lived in multiple different countries in recent years returns to the Philippines and contemplates what it means to live a life on the move.
Recorded by Elaine Lazaro
Reimagined by Christine Renaudat
- Woodend, Australia
Christmas Day celebrations, capturing the moment of a surprise reunion of a brother and sister after seven years apart, and the sounds of a family reunited.
Recorded by Rob McNeil
Reimagined by Chris Taylor
- Lower Hutt, New Zealand
A recording from the summer of 2023, during a visit to Aotearoa after ten years of living abroad. Their native language mixes with English words, enveloped by the melodious and excited kitchen appliances.
Recorded by Hee-Jin Kim
Reimagined by Grigor Ćorić
How to experience the installation
In this installation, on one side of the space you will hear the original field recordings, while on the opposite side you will hear the corresponding composition based on that recording.
You can create your own sound mix by moving around the space – your experience and perspective will change depending on where you are standing.
The recordings and compositions are time-synced, and change to a new location every 60-90 seconds. The installation loops every 53 minutes.The sounds take us on a journey from west to east around the world, from the west coast of the USA to New Zealand.
