OBSERVATORY STATION

Observatory Station by Miyu Hosoi collects and disperses sounds from across the Barbican site, blending them with a curated sonic archive sourced from field recordists across the world.

Cities and Memory is working closely with Miyu to source global recordings for this amazing commission from our community of field recordists all over the world.

Feel the Sound is a bold new multi-sensory exhibition experience from the Barbican exploring our personal relationship to sound and embracing a world of listening that goes beyond the audio. Following this premiere run, Feel the Sound will embark on an international tour, including to MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives, Tokyo in late 2026.

The Observatory Station sounds submitted will also be hosted on the Cities and Memory website for people around the world to listen to.

This work manages audio sources by dividing the world map into 144 areas (12×12). The algorithm is designed based on three axes — invented by humans to understand the world — namely “time,” “location,” and “language.” For example, one audio source selected from each of the 12 areas along the same latitude might be played simultaneously through 12 speakers. Or, sounds recorded at 7 a.m., or those that include the word “sea” in their descriptions, may be played. The triggers behind playback are periodically announced via the speakers.

Twelve independent speakers were created to symbolize each area. All audio sources are played in mono (one of the left or right stereo tracks is used). While the artist’s recordings, like yours, are in stereo and we understand the desire for stereo playback, the work must be as compact as possible to support a five-year world tour.

You can submit your own recording to become part of the installation at any time throughout the exhibition period.

Simply visit this link, upload your recording and all of the appropriate accompanying information: https://bit.ly/observatorystation

You must submit recordings via this form – unfortunately audio files not submitted via this Google Form cannot be used.

Recordings will be reviewed by Miyu and her team and added to the installation throughout the exhibition.

Submissions with incomplete or incorrect data cannot be accepted.

Notification will be sent only if the submission is selected.

We are looking for “sonic observations” – sound recordings that paint a picture of what a specific place looks and feels like to be in – this could be your home, the city in which you live, or a destination you’ve visited that has particularly struck you, whether that is urban, rural or anywhere in between.

We would like to hear sonic observations that communicate the uniqueness of that place at that specific time – how does this place sound (and feel) different from anywhere else, and at that time in particular?

These recordings that tell stories through time as well as through place – what are the characteristic sounds where you are at 4.00am as well as 4.00pm? The selected recordings will be the sonic observations that best allow listeners to understand the character of a place, or the stories behind it.

Observatory Station is a chance for recordists around the world to collaborate in a mass contributory sonic callout and become part of this incredible installation at the Barbican.

Yes, you can. However, due to system limitations, we can only send a notification of selection once per email address. If multiple audio files are registered under the same email address, we will not be able to inform you which specific file was selected.

Recordings will be reviewed by Miyu and her team for suitability and those that fit the criteria will be added regularly to the installation throughout the exhibition.

Please note that updates to the work occur irregularly. During the world tour of Feel the Sound organised by the Barbican Centre, updates are planned before each exhibition.

Recordings will need to be supplied as mono or stereo WAV files (ideally at 48kHz), and should be between 2 and 20 minutes long at most. We won’t be able to use binaural or ambisonic sound files.

All recordings will need to be supplied with a precise location, a timecode with the date and exact time of the recording, and a brief description of what we can hear in the recording and how it portrays the character of your chosen location.

Submissions with incomplete or incorrect data cannot be accepted.

Field recordings can be from anywhere in the world, and recorded at any time of the  day, but we are looking for a range of recordings from each of the 12 latitudinal zones indicated in the diagram, and across the following time slots (in your local time zone):

• 0001-0200
• 0201-0400
• 0401-0600
• 0601-0800
• 0801-1000
• 1001-1200
• 1201-1400
• 1401-1600
• 1601-1800
• 1801-2000
• 2001-2200
• 2201-0000

Recordings can be brand new, or can be taken from your archives, as long as all the relevant time, location and description information is provided along with the sound file.

You can submit multiple recordings for consideration if you’d like to.

You can also choose whether you’d like your recording to be included as a submission to the wider Cities and Memory project too for artists to reimagine and recompose over the months ahead.

All recordists retain full copyright for their submitted sounds and can continue to use them however they wish.

Recordings are supplied for this project on a non-exclusive licence for the sounds to be used as part of the Observatory Station installation both at the Barbican and in any future iterations or updates to the project by Miyu Hosoi and/or the Barbican.

Additionally, if recordists indicate they are happy for their recording to be used as part of Cities and Memory, it will be added to our sound database for artists to work with, and be added to our sound map, podcast etc. in due course.