BBC Centenary: Recordings of melting Arctic ice part of new Strand immersive audio installation

Melting Arctic ice, coded foreign intelligence messages and pioneering female broadcasters will be among sounds aired as part of a new audio installation to mark the BBC’s centenary.

A new public space at the Strand Aldwych will play host to an immersive project sharing archive clips of early radio broadcasts and pre-industrial recordings of central London.

The VoiceLine, by Somerset House Studios, and artist Nick Ryan, will open on December 7 and be in place for three months, as the first commission in the newly redeveloped site.

It marks the opening of the new public space in the heart of Westminster and celebrates 100 years of the BBC operating.

39 speakers will traverse the 170m space, close to Marconi House where the BBC first broadcast in 1922, and visitors will experience voice, sound, music, and audio storytelling.

Artist and sound designer Nick Ryan said: “The VoiceLine celebrates the histories of radio and listening that began on Strand 100 years ago and changed the world.

“I hope the unique sound instrument I’ve created will identify Strand once again as an iconic destination for listening.”

Robert Seatter, BBC head of history said: “Working from 100 years of BBC audio, Nick has conjured myriad new worlds, collapsing time and space in surprising, utterly insightful ways.

“The BBC is delighted to mark its centenary with this rich, thrilling work, taking inspiration from the birth of radio and celebrating the transformative power of audio in all our lives.”

Visitors to the project will hear recordings ranging from:

• Memories of Bush House, the home of the BBC World Service;
• Recordings of cities around the world and the forests of Canada; 
• Visions of the future gathered from King’s College London students;
• Recreations of the Strand’s pre-industrial traffic;
• Sound experiments from The BBC Radiophonic Workshop;
• And mysterious utterances of ‘Number Stations’ coded intelligence messages.

Between 8am and 8pm, bespoke audio works will create an evolving pathway of sound.

The installation has been brought to life through a unique partnership with the BBC, during its centenary year, and will engage the public with early radio innovations of radio, the famous voices of the news and nation, and the multitude tongues of the BBC World Service.

Nick Ryan said: “Over the next 100 years the sound of cities will change beyond recognition and perhaps for the first time we are able to choose how our public spaces should sound.

“Novel sound technologies enable us to transform a thoroughfare that for the last 300 hundred years has been known only for the disruptive sound of vehicles into a continuously evolving auditory world with immersive sounds of voices, nature and music.”

More than 350m long - four times longer than Leicester Square - the Strand Aldwych space includes social seating, workstations, collective dining, an activity lawn and garden room.

Ruth Duston, chief executive of the Northbank Business Improvement District (BID), said the seein the project come to life had been “incredibly rewarding”.

And she said the aim of the partnership project was to “ultimately create a space that is welcoming, accessible and I hope, beloved by all”.

Jonathan Reekie, Somerset House Trust director, and joint project board chairman, said: “We have been delighted to play a leading part with many other local public and private stakeholders in this special partnership to create a new public space for London.

“It is a space that will draw from the past and help us shape the future of our great city.

“This intervention vastly improves air quality and will reveal to locals, Londoners and visitors, a vibrant and under-appreciated corner of London.”

Geoff Barraclough, from Westminster City Council, said: “In this exciting new Westminster destination, surrounded by much beautiful architecture and deep-rooted history, we are seeing the opening of a space for contemporary public culture in central London.

“An important vision for Strand Aldwych was to carve out space for accessible, free art and allow creative ideas from world-leading neighbouring institutions to spill into public space.

"The VoiceLine will be the first of many creative ventures to act as a draw for visitors from the city and beyond to enjoy the Northbank and explore the many other delights nearby.”