Discover the 'Sounds of the Sea' at the Manx Museum

New temporary display now open to the public

A new exhibition is inviting visitors to dive beneath the surface of Manx waters.

‘Hear Us: Sounds of the Sea’ features immersive audio, video, and graphics created as part of a project to make underwater recordings around the Isle of Man.

It includes a former Shell sea captain, art students, researchers focused on plastic pollution and one of the world’s leading sound recordists, Chris Watson, who is known for his award-winning work with David Attenborough.

Led by Dr Alan Dunn, of Leeds Beckett University, and Dr Helen Tookey, of Liverpool John Moores University, the project team has been visiting the Island since 2021.

The project is inspired by the 1950s’ short stories of Wirral-born writer Malcolm Lowry.  

Written while Lowry was living in a hand-built shack, on the shoreline at Dollarton near Vancouver in Canada, Lowry drew on his own memories of visiting the Isle of Man as a boy on family holidays and also on the stories of a Manx boat-builder, Jimmy Craige, who lived nearby.

The temporary exhibition is on display in the Natural History Corridor at the Manx Museum between 9.30am and 4.30pm.  

Sounds from the project, and podcasts and compositions created from them, can be found on the project website.

The research was funded by two grants from the Arts & Humanities Research Council as part of the United Kingdom Research Institute.