Audible Archives turns to sound recordings in the CCA’s collection to reconsider architecture’s longstanding emphasis on visual representation. Bringing digitized audio into dialogue with silent artefacts, the exhibition examines sound as a medium for architectural research while addressing the difficulties of preserving and accessing recordings held on vinyl, tape, cassette and other formats.

Through a series of case studies, the exhibition situates audio technologies within architectural culture and production. Listening offers a way to examine how architects’ public identities are constructed through media, to encounter socially and ecologically engaged documentary practices, and to understand how broadcasting and information technologies influence the politics of space. Alongside these enquiries, the exhibition foregrounds the work of conservation and stewardship required to keep such material accessible.