Outreach Activities

Our 'Hearing Music' stand reaches out to over 5000 people!

The C4CI project team designed a stand for the University of Southampton Research Roadshow, which went to a range of different venues and festivals throughout 2012. Researchers and students from our team hit the road to tell people about the research we are undertaking as part of the AHRC funded ‘Compositions for Cochlear Implantees’ project.

The stand introduced the general public to a range of topics relating to ‘Hearing Music’ including:

•  How do we hear music?
• How does the ear work?
• What happens when we lose our hearing?
• How can we protect our hearing?
• What is a cochlear implant and how does music sound through one?

You can watch a short video about the Hearing Music stand on the Research Roadshow webpages!

The activities on the stand enabled people to discover the answers to these questions and more by literally looking into the ear, identifying parts of the auditory system, learning about cochlear implant technology, and listening to simulations of what listening to music with a hearing loss and through a cochlear implant sounds like. Our new 'Interactive Music Awareness Programme’ featured on the stand so that people could try out the software that we have been developing for cochlear implant users.

The stand was supported by Action on Hearing Loss, Advanced Bionics, Cochlear, Med-El, The Ear Foundation and The South of England Cochlear Implant Centre.

The 'Hearing Music' stand went to the following venues:

10th March: University of Southampton Science and Engineering Day

(~500 visitors to the stand)

27th March: Big Bang Science Fair at the Rose Bowl, Southampton

(~500 visitors to the stand)

25th April: Thomas Hardye School, Dorchester

(~500 visitors to the stand)

30th May: Intech Science Centre, Winchester

(~160 visitors to the stand)

12th-17th June: Cheltenham Science Festival Discovery Zone

(~1300 visitors to the stand)

6th-9th September: Bestival Festival, Isle of Wight

(2500+ visitors to the stand)

At Bestival the team were provided with a box of earplugs for listening to music and (in addition to communicating our research to festival goers) the team raised over £80 in donations for Action on Hearing Loss!

'Hearing Music' stand organisers, Rachel van Besouw and Ben Oliver were able to use some of the roadshow materials again for a 'TEAtime Lecture' at the University of Southampton; part of an exciting series of lectures aimed at A-level students.

10th October: TEAtime Lecture, University of Southampton

(~80 students)

Many thanks to all of our student volunteers and sponsors for supporting the stand.