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Sonic Memorial Project archives sounds from the World Trade Center

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New York, NY - September 4, 2002 - Over the last year, NPR's Lost & Found Sound, WNYC, scores of independent radio producers, new media firms Picture Projects and dotsperinch, the Smithsonian Institution, the September 11 Digital Archive, and public radio listeners all over the country joined together to create THE SONIC MEMORIAL PROJECT: a cross-media documentary of the World Trade Center and the neighborhood surrounding it - before, during, and after September 11th.

THE SONIC MEMORIAL PROJECT team has collected the stories of the Mohawk ironworkers who built the World Trade Center and the "building stewardesses" who helped to promote the original World Trade Center construction site; the sounds of wind blowing through the World Trade Center's elevator shafts, piano music at Windows of the World, weddings, corporate conferences, voicemails from the last day of the buildings' existence; and more.

Some of these stories are now familiar to listeners of NPR's All Things Considered, which has aired SONIC MEMORIAL segments - richly layered radio documentaries mixed with found-sound fragments - throughout the year.

Other SONIC MEMORIAL sounds and stories will soon be familiar to visitors to the Smithsonian Institution's "September 11th: Bearing Witness to History" exhibition, which will feature five SONIC MEMORIAL audio-booths in which visitors will be able to hear numerous perspectives on the World Trade Center and contribute their own stories or audio memories.

And beginning today, the stories and sounds of the World Trade Center will also be available on the Web at SonicMemorial.org. The web site was produced by dotsperinch and Picture Projects, in collaboration with Lost and Found Sound.

Part interactive sound sculpture, part dynamic audio archive, the site's Sonic Browser interface is designed to encourage the visitor to explore the audio traces of the World Trade Center using sound as his or her compass. Logging on to SonicMemorial.org via the browser, the visitor will encounter a quiet murmur of ambient sounds - ranging from hip-hop to the stories of Ernie Scott, the piano player at The Greatest Bar in the World. Rolling the cursor over the screen, the visitor will be able to "tune in" to specific sounds. Moving away from a "sound center" will lower the volume of that sound and let other sounds emerge. Keeping the cursor stationary will let the sound play in full.

Please invite your readers to experience the SonicBrowser, to search through the database of SONIC MEMORIAL sounds and stories, and - most especially - to contribute their own stories at SonicMemorial.org or (toll-free) at 877-894-8500.

about lost & found sound

The brainchild of producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, a.k.a. The Kitchen Sisters, and Jay Allison, Lost & Found Sound chronicles 20th century history with richly layered radio documentaries mixed with found-sound fragments. Heard periodically on NPR's All Things Considered since 1999, the series won a 1999 George Peabody Award, a 2000 Webby in the Radio category, a Clarion award from Women in Communications, and a Silver Reel from the NFCB.

Lost & Found Sound, an ongoing cross-media collaboration, is spearheading THE SONIC MEMORIAL PROJECT.

about picture projects

Alison Cornyn and Sue Johnson founded new media documentary firm Picture Projects in 1995 to create an online space for voices traditionally overlooked by mainstream media.

The firm is known for new media documentaries including 360degrees.org: Perspectives on the U.S. Criminal Justice System (360degrees.org), akaKURDISTAN.com, and Farewell to Bosnia ( picture-projects.com/bosnia.html ).

about npr (national public radio)

Founded in 1967 as a result of the Public Broadcasting Act, NPR serves nearly 20 million listeners weekly via more than 680 NPR member stations. NPR hosted the SONIC MEMORIAL "sound and story contributions" phone line until recently, and broadcasts All Things Considered - which has aired SONIC MEMORIAL segments throughout the year.

about WNYC

New York's flagship public radio station, WNYC has repeatedly asked its listeners to contribute sounds to THE SONIC MEMORIAL PROJECT.

about the september 11 digital archive project

The September 11 Digital Archive is a collaboration of the American Social History Project at the City University of New York Graduate Center and the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. It will host SonicMemorial.org for years to come as part of its grant to collect and preserve digital documents from September 11th.

Funding for The Sonic Memorial Project has been provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and Creative Capital. Sponsored by NYFA.