Echoes of The Past Ring True in Sound Museum

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Art and heritage

It is not merely a Dadaist-inspired art project, but its origins lie in that direction. "We can't really say that Rolf Julius had a direct influence on our idea. But indirectly, we wouldn't doubt it," said 27-year-old Elwood, a creative technologist in Boston, Massachusetts.

The response from the public has been incredibly positive. They receive hundreds of emails every day from around the world. "We read every email," enthused Ledesma.

"People thank Brendan for creating the site, or they'll share stories about sounds that reminded them of a specific memory."

These days, televisions don't make static noise. Connecting to the internet gives no sound. Even automobile engines barely are hushed compared with their predecessors. And, as such, sounds once frequently heard in childhood, and since believed lost forever, can be very close to our heart, evoking the memories of a time since passed. 

All three agree that the dial-up modem is one of their favourites. "At the time, we hated hearing that terrible screech. We took it for granted. But now whenever we hear it in the museum, we laugh at how annoyed we used to be."

Their parents still own a VCR, and two of them own typewriters. "The noise is very nostalgic," they agree.

The trio has a huge list of sounds to add to the site. "But after graduation, we all moved to different cities and started new jobs, so it's been a little difficult. But no worries, we have a lot of cool updates in store," Elwood assured Al Jazeera. 

Viewers often give suggestions and sometimes mail them "home-recorded sounds" to add them to the archive. "Our favourite email came from a teacher who was featuring the Museum of Endangered Sounds in their high school play," Ledesma told Al Jazeera.

The creators, who often miss toys and games such as Speak & Spell, Tetris and MindMaze from their childhood, do not forget to update Chilcutt's Twitter and Facebook whenever they add new sounds to the site.

"Other than that, we've just been fortunate that there are curious people out there," Elwood said.