Peace and Noise: The Sounds of the Landscape

16 November 2024 – 26 January 2025

Print bay display. Free entry.

Landscapes – as you’ve never heard them before…

Sound, as much as sight, informs and shapes the world we inhabit. It can move us, scare us and tell us about the environment or person that produces it. However, despite sound being present in all environments, it is not often considered within visual culture.

Peace and Noise  will introduce visitors to the elements of implied sound evident in historical landscapes from the Barber’s prints and drawings collection, encouraging the visitor to explore exciting, and previously unconsidered, multisensory avenues of interpretation.

The display brings together some of the most sonically interesting examples of British and Dutch landscape prints and watercolors from the Barber’s collection. From rural Dutch scenes of the 17th century, through Gainsborough’s drawings of the rolling English countryside and noisy, bustling Hogarth cityscapes, the display challenges the viewer to consider time, gender, place and power via the sounds and silences we can perceive in these scenes.

The display  is curated by Becky Owen-Keats, doctoral researcher in the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies at the University of Birmingham. Becky is currently completing her thesis, entitled  Sound and sight: the implied soundscapes of visual culture c1760 – c1830 .