In the year 600 people were still trying to imagine a way of writing down music, let alone sounds; and any single sound could not be replayed until well over a thousand years later, with the advent of Edison's phonograph.
But one of Edison's original ideals for the phonograph was the preservation of sounds, the preservation of speech... a collecting device that created 'records' in the truest sense of the word: for example of people, events, speeches, activities.
Not much later, Emile Berliner's disc-playing device was quickly seized upon as an opportunity to sell products to people - to create consumers, rather than to create producers of sound, and music. A multi-million pound industry soared, but perhaps the simple act of creation was lost to the individual.
Phonography, a modern term for the practice of field recording (recording sound outside of a studio), is a creative act which literally translates as: writing sound; it represents a way of reclaiming the products of ones' life, experiences, interactions and observations.
