Safe and Sound

Eva Hallama (2023): “’Safe and Sound’: Collecting, Analysing and Participatory Archiving of Audio Letters”
International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) Annual Conference
Istanbul University in Istanbul, Türkiye
September 11–15, 2023

Abstract:

Assuring the family that one is “safe and sound” has also been possible in the form of a spoken letter since the beginning of the 20th century. Nevertheless, the audio letter as a very early and – latest since the invention of the compact cassette – highly widespread form of communication is relatively unexplored. Voice letters on sound carriers like wax cylinders, discs, tape and cassette formats can hardly be found in public archives and – on the account of a lack of knowledge about the historical substances and their conservation – are severely threatened with loss. The latter is due to the decay of material but also the absence of public awareness and of the significance of these private objects for our cultural memory. Migration, flight or wars also account for the loss of much valuable material. Within the Heritage Science Austria project SONIME we are “saving sounds” by building up a reference collection of restored, digitised, findable and accessible self recorded audio letters sent as a consequence of migration from the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the 1980s, when digital media took over. The collection, material and historical analysis is done in collaboration of the Österreichische Mediathek with the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv and will consist of audio letters from existing collections and newly acquired ones from private individuals. The presentation will focus on audio letters sent between Turkey and Austria and on the participatory process of our collection. That means the reflection on the perspective of donors, with whom we work out, how they want their personal items to be stored, documented and remembered in the future.