Volume Without Sparks, Part Two

Description

Rupert Till contributes to an Australian radio programme about sound without electricity.

Since day dot we've been hunting for ways to improve on shouting, from the earliest human communication to the smartphone. Our drive to turn up the volume has helped shape a noisy, plugged-in world where it can be hard to remember the analogue building blocks of modern technology.

Volume without Sparks, by radio maker and RN sound engineer, Timothy Nicastri, is a how-to radio manual for amplifying sound without electricity. Nicastri works backwards from a smartphone speaker to the days of ancient Greek theatre and Stonehenge, landing on phenomenon such as sound powered telephones and the human microphone, along the way. 

Volume without Sparks is a two-part program that begins on our sister show Radiotonicand ends here on Soundproof, ultimately arriving at the question: are volume and sparks inseparable? The program was made for ABC Radio’s Tony Barrell fellowship, which honours the curious spirit of one of the ABC’s great program makers.