{"id":187,"date":"2015-03-25T14:40:44","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T14:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/?p=187"},"modified":"2015-03-25T14:40:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T14:40:44","slug":"collection-highlight-sonic-memorial-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/2015\/collection-highlight-sonic-memorial-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Collection Highlight: Sonic Memorial Project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Radio<\/a>
Radio Row in the 1920s<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Sonic Memorial Project<\/a> is a collection of over nine hundred items that describe the\u00a0history of the World Trade Centers (WTC) and surrounding\u00a0neighborhood through archival audio, radio broadcasts, interviews, ambient sounds, voicemails, and music. Led by National Public Radio’s Lost and Found Sound<\/a>, the Sonic Memorial Project was a collaboration of\u00a0radio and new media producers, artists, historians, and people from around the world.<\/p>\n

The items in this collection vividly illustrate the history of the physical space the WTC inhabited. The area that later housed the WTC was first known as Radio Row when City Radio opened in 1921, and grew to encompass six blocks of downtown Manhattan.\u00a0Irving Simon<\/a>, a Radio Row store owner, describes the variety of objects available for sale in the area, which became the largest place\u00a0in the world known for selling radios and electronic equipment. In 1966, the stores were bulldozed to make way for the WTC. Mohawk ironworkers were hired to construct the towers and\u00a0Peter Stacey<\/a> and Kyle Beauvais<\/a>\u00a0describe\u00a0the dangers of the job.\u00a0In order to help the public understand the plans for the WTC, construction guides were posted at the site to answer questions and give tours. The guides\u00a0discuss what\u00a0an average workday<\/a>\u00a0was like\u00a0as well as the meaning<\/a> of their work in multiple interviews.<\/p>\n

In 1971 construction on both towers was complete. Voicemails and interviews within the Sonic Memorial Project describe how the WTC became a site of engagements and marriages.\u00a0Dr. Elizabeth Grill<\/a>\u00a0describes her proposal at the Windows on the World, a restaurant located on the top two floors of the North Tower. In 1996, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council allowed empty offices to be used as artist studios, and the artist-in-residence program attracted many artists to the WTC.\u00a0Don Bracken<\/a>\u00a0was one of those artists, and\u00a0describes his time working in his studio.<\/p>\n

In addition to telling stories of love and art at the WTC, the Sonic Memorial Project documents the events of September 11, 2001. The Project includes radio transmissions from New York’s Fire<\/a> and Police<\/a>\u00a0Departments, as well as accounts of the day. Robert Snyder<\/a>\u00a0recalls his morning commute and the “confetti” that confronted him when he got off the PATH train at Broadway. Ken Van Auken<\/a>, an employee at the WTC, left a voicemail for his wife\u00a0after the plane crashed into one of the towers. The Project\u00a0also includes recollections of the aftermath of 9\/11 and the various ways people\u00a0dealt with the tragedy. Marc Wilson<\/a> wrote a prose poem based on slips of paper he found at Ground Zero. Items in the collection also\u00a0discuss\u00a0the\u00a0Fresh Kills landfill, which\u00a0was a sorting place for one-third of the rubble from Ground Zero. Mayor Michael Bloomberg<\/a> spoke at the 2008 closing ceremony.<\/p>\n

Located within the\u00a0Audio Collection<\/a>,\u00a0the Sonic Memorial Project would be useful for anyone interested in the history of the physical space and the WTC itself, and those interested in the sounds of the WTC and surrounding neighborhood.\u00a0The original Sonic Memorial Project website<\/a>\u00a0has more information about the project\u00a0and the World Trade Center website<\/a>\u00a0provides a\u00a0comprehensive history of the WTC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sonic Memorial Project is a collection of over nine hundred items that describe the\u00a0history of the World Trade Centers (WTC) and surrounding\u00a0neighborhood through archival audio, radio broadcasts, interviews, ambient sounds, voicemails, and music. Led by National Public Radio’s Lost and Found Sound, the Sonic Memorial Project was a collaboration of\u00a0radio and new media producers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/911digitalarchive.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}