Sound Postcard

Sound postcards, invented in 1903, incorporate a vinyl-style recording onto a traditional postcard. I wanted to explore this process, having memories of flexi discs coming with music magazines in my youth and since then the joy and act of putting the needle on a record.

When I first started to explore this idea, it was a response to changes in the rural environment. With more than 160 post offices closed in the last couple of years, disturbing news of a possible 200 this year and some regional bus routes being discontinued, there are increasingly fewer locations and occasions where people can meet. The disappearance of these social hubs that have been a lifeline, is isolating for so many people and is, in effect, another type of lockdown that was being enforced long before the Pandemic.

Exploring other older ways of making and connecting was the reason behind this publication. The card since publication has travelled the world and been transmitted on various art radio stations. The poignancy of the bells ringing out of order and out of place.

So is it a postcard? Yes. One side is laid out like a regular postcard with space for a message, address and stamp. The other side, as well as an image, is a fonoscope (like a record) which has the imprint of a 90 second recording of what used to be a daily occurrence: the local church bells. Intended to be played on a record player at 45rpm, the sound aesthetic changes and is not comparable to its digital representation.

If you are interested or would like to know more, please get in contact.

Thank you to Sharon O’Grady, Kernan Andrews, Irene Murphy, Mick O’Shea,

Sorcha Costello, Nicola Murphy, Roland Smethurst, Antonis Kalamoutsos, Helen Horgan,

Erika King, Alan Meaney & Anna Glynn.

To family, friends and

fellow listeners.

Made With The Kind Support of Galway County Council