Museum of Endangered Sounds

Background Noise

Sound, like smell, has a curious ability to unlock memories that seem to have been waiting quietly out of sight. Many of these noises were once little more than background clutter: a modem connecting, a disk drive spinning, a printer warming up. Few people paid them much attention at the time. Yet years later, a few seconds of familiar static or mechanical whirring can bring an entire period rushing back. Sometimes the details that seemed least important at the time are the ones that carry entire periods of our lives with them.