Documenting Sound Archives through Creative Features
- Submitting institution
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University of Sunderland
- Unit of assessment
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output identifier
- 1093
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- Radio broadcasts
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2019
- URL
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-
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- 28 - History
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘Listening to the past’ via archives and radio has had an enduring attraction for scholars and popular audiences alike (Liddington, 2006). Cartwright’s submission consists of two programmes: The Shape of Things that Came (TX 4/3/17) and Charles Parker: Radio Pioneer (TX 6/4/2019) made for the BBC Radio Archive on 4. Billed as “Brilliant stories told using archive from the BBC and beyond”, it regularly attracts 300-400,000 listeners (Damazer, 2009).
The programmes are researched, written, and produced by Cartwright whose 40-year career includes making radio documentary features for the BBC through his company, Soundscape Productions.
In this MURAL he talks about his research for the programmes, based on two major archives. He explains the long and detailed process of archival listening and choice of clips to tell the central story of each programme.
The Charles Parker programme explores the innovative and controversial producer, reviewing his work from the Radio Ballads to his sacking in 1972. Cartwright explains how his role as a Trustee of the Charles Parker Archive Trust aided his understanding of archive use and how organising the annual ‘Charles Parker Day’ has helped to increase the public understanding of Parker’s work, including with ‘new storytellers’, entrants to the radio industry for whom he has negotiated a slot on Radio 4 for their work tell ‘the extraordinary stories of ordinary people in their own words’.
For ‘The Shape of Things that Came’ programme, Cartwright explains the process of using sound archives to navigate a journey through Wells' future history novel which purported to be a history of the years 1929 to 2106, comparing audio archives and contemporary news bulletins. He explains his choice of archive materials to appeal to modern audiences, including Wells predicting another world war, the internet, and a utopian world government.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -