Using Science to Preserve History: Carl Haber, audio preservationist and MacArthur Genius Grant awardee in conversation with Doug McConnell

Join us as we host MacArthur Genius Grant awardee and renowned audio preservationist Carl Haber along with Doug McConnell, formerly of Bay Area Backroads, for a discussion on using science to preserve our history. Carl is an experimental physicist developing new technologies for preservation of inaccessible and deteriorating sound recordings. A vast amount of the world's cultural heritage has been captured on fragile or obsolete recording media such as wax cylinders; shellac, lacquer, and metal discs; and tinfoil. Collections of experimental, musical, ethnographic, and historic content in libraries and museums around the world can no longer be regularly accessed by the public and are in danger of being lost forever. Using insights from his work on imaging subatomic particle tracks in high-energy physics experiments, Haber and colleagues developed IRENE (Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.), a non-contact method for extracting high-quality sound from degrading or even broken analog recordings on two- or three-dimensional media. The method has been used to successfully play several recordings for the first time, including an 1860 phonautogram, the oldest known sound recording of a human voice, and the only known recording of Alexander Graham Bell's voice. Currently working to enable mass digitization by making the technology more affordable, portable, and flexible, Carl Haber is poised to revolutionize the preservation of rare, damaged, and deteriorating sound recordings of immense value to our cultural heritage.

Location: Theater Building