Guest blog post from Robert Sommerlad, a musician and Science Museum research assistant.
One of the museum’s many wonderful volunteers recently took a trip to Brighton in order to find out more about an object featured in our Oramics to Electronica: Revealing Histories of Electronic Music exhibition. In an exhibition filled with many bizarre objects and unlikely musical instruments, the circuit bent Speak & Spell toy is certainly one of the most unusual and interesting items.
This brightly coloured jumble of knobs, switches and buttons was created by Andy Wheddon, an electronic musician, record label owner and member of the group of electronic music experts that helped curate the exhibition. He kindly agree to be interviewed about the instrument for the latest Science Museum podcast. Find out more about the modified Speak & Spell, it’s unusual origins and what it can tell us about electronic music and the work of Daphne Oram in the podcast below!
Click here to listen to the podcast