Citizen Archivist Project - Soundscape SG by NLB and NAS

 

https://www.nas.gov.sg/citizenarchivist/

I just found out about an initiative launched by the National Library Board (NLB) in August 2021 (based on this Straits Times article) to mark the 55th National Day. The project invites the public to contribute sound recordings of everyday life today before they disappear. 

According to the article,

"Capturing snippets of Singapore's soundscape

You can contribute sound recordings that are unique to Singapore and Singaporeans in these five areas:

1. Local accents and dialects (e.g. the language spoken by a specific region or social group);
2. Wildlife and nature (e.g. sounds of plants, animals and landscapes like parks and trails);
3. Sounds of the heartlands (e.g. sounds at home, wet markets, hawker centres, void decks, etc.);
4. Sounds at the workplace (e.g. sounds in workplaces of various industries);
5. Festivals and celebrations (e.g. sounds of festivals celebrated in Singapore).

Visit www.nas.gov.sg/citizenarchivist/SoundScape, select the theme (e.g. local accents and dialects) of the sound recording you wish to upload, then click on the map to indicate where it was recorded in Singapore. You will then need to input details such as the title and description of the recording.

All sound recordings will be assessed for suitability before they are uploaded on the National Archives of Singapore's Citizen Archivist portal. This aural repository will form an invaluable part of Singapore's shared heritage. Sounds, like pictures, can be worth a thousand words too."

SoundscapeSG - a crowd-sourcing initiative that aims to build a sound map of Singapore - is one of the initiatives with National Archives Singapore's citizen archivist efforts. A specific set of media curated for this project is the 'Ambisonic 360' set. I believe that these media objects could be used as materials for a language lesson in school or even for Social Studies or National Education related ones. The auditory experience actually made me try a new online audio recording app called Reverb and I recorded a snippet of the noise pollution I have to deal with these past few days (or maybe weeks). 

I also think that the 360 images combined with the audio recordings could be used in an interesting trigger activity or even team-bonding exercise, especially with many of such activities going online through teleconferencing. Check out the soundscapes below!

Pulau Ubin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQrmAHOTClE

Tanglin Halt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJlmBKcLaZ0

Catholic Church: https://youtu.be/mGAm9_VsTAg

Mass Rapid Transit (MRT): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL-JBGAUssA

Bukit Brown: https://youtu.be/5-6Rfxv1KlI

East Coast Park: https://youtu.be/9B0grDJyIys

Tekka Market: https://youtu.be/svl6BwWeOl8

Tibetan Buddhist Temple: https://youtu.be/9lo8L8E6nTo

Note that the audio themselves are good materials for use with visually impaired students too (think accessibility) as they have been tagged based on the different scenes and landmarks in Singapore.

PS: Did you know that the NLB has a blog on Medium? Check it out!