Sounding Out Natural History

About the projects

Images engage more than one sense and can stimulate the viewer’s aural perception in multiple ways: sound may be suggested visually through gestures, open mouths and musical instruments or notation. This project explores the relationship between sound and image in the context of Dutch natural history of the 18th century. How did Dutch naturalists engage with sound in their work? In what ways were the sounds of animals and nature employed to make claims about Indigenous communities? How can we characterize a ‘colonial mode of listening’?

Aims of the project

By taking sound as its point of departure, this project advocates careful listening – through visual traces – to sounds that were marginalized or overlooked, while also confronting the violence embedded in the production of colonial depictions. The aim of this project is to reveal the sonic dimensions of natural historical archives at the Rijksmuseum, including the materials of Dutch army officer Robert Jacob Gordon and preacher Jan Brandes. It also provides further insight into how various early modern actors interpreted the sounds around them within the context of Dutch colonialism.

Related publications

Jan Brandes, Album van Jan Brandes, deel 1. NG-1985-1 (https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200414391).

Jan Brandes, Album van Jan Brandes, deel 2. NG-1985-2 (https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200414392).

Robert Jacob Gordon, The Gordon African Collection: Birds. RP-T-1914-17C (https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200672580).

Partners and Sponsors

Johan Huizinga Fund