Sound Ways

The Sound Ways exhibition concentrates on the soundscape of the Middle Ages. The exhibition offers six aural images of medieval times. Its aim is to recount history, moments experienced in history and the feelings that they awaken. 'Sound Ways' plucks from the past things that are then brought out through characters of the times. They are a blacksmith, a fisherman's wife, a teacher and his pupils at the Cathedral School, a little maid of a merchant's house, a young herdsman and the Mother Superior of a Brigittine convent. Two men, two women and two children.

The characters in the exhibition are imaginary, but all of them can be connected to some place or other; one to a workshop on the edge of town, another to the island of Rymättylä, a third to the area of the Cathedral. The maid could have lived on the site of this museum as a servant in a grand stone house, and the herdsman looked after his neighbours' cattle in pasture land further away. Through the Mother Superior, we can look in on convent life in Naantali. The sea is also a uniting factor in all the exhibition's characters. Each one of them lives within walking distance of the shore.

Sound Ways takes place amongst the Aboa Vetus' permanent exhibition and the ruins of the Convent Quarter. All the soundscapes in the exhibition are situated in settings, where you can on entering experience the world of each character through your ears.

Throughout the history of the museums, their exhibitions have emphasised the importance of what you can see. In the ‘Sounds' exhibition, aural images are more important than visual ones. The soundscape embraces movement that indicates how life proceeded in those days.

Some of the captions in the exhibition are short descriptions of the lives of the characters, others are broader accounts of such things as the historical significance of hearing, listening and silence.