Whispers of the Past

‘Whispers of the Past’ presents a collection of 10 stories drawn from archive oral history recordings of men and women who worked at the Chatham Dockyard before it became a museum. We hear personal accounts, moving stories, descriptions, memories and anecdotes that become vivid and alive again through the voices of those who experienced them. The soundwalk is presented at the Chatham Historic Dockyard, a maritime heritage site, through the free downloadable Echoes app. As visitors move across the site they trigger sounds and memories on their mobile devices creating new resonances with this iconic location. This collection of 10 short stories was commissioned by SparkedEcho as part of the Electric Medway Festival taking place between 21-30 August 2021. This work was a commissioned by Sparked Echo as part of the Electric Medway Festival between 21-30 August 2021, and has since been adopted as a permanent exhibition item by the Chatham Dockyard Museum. The success of this output in the ears of the museum curators, has led to a series of subsequent invitations to make commissions and collaborations across the museum site. Thus, the original project has helped to inform and change the opinions of the curatorial staff to consider the power of sound as a valuable element in their exhibition strategy