‘How sound makes me feel’. Towards an Aural Diverse Practice of Sound Design in Museums

Abstract

As museums increasingly recognise the fundamental role of sound in shaping more inclusive experiences, there is a growing need for design practices that can engage with the plurality of ways people hear, perceive and respond to sound. Research on Aural Diversity highlighted the limitations of conventional sound design, which often assumes a standardised mode of listening. This article investigates how Human-Centred-Design (HCD) methods can be mobilised to capture the embodied, individual and situated nature of sonic experiences. Drawing on a participatory workshop conducted at the Science Museum in London, the article examines a sequence of activities designed to understand how existing acoustic conditions and sound installations were experienced by participants. Through soundwalking, drawing, reflective writing and collective discussion, the workshop progressively surfaced embodied sonic knowledge, revealing often-invisible sensory barriers within the galleries. Findings show how this framework can operate as an emerging design practice to explore, understand and articulate aural diversity from the earliest stages of the design process, offering museums a situated, adaptable, and reflexive method for engaging with the complexity of human hearing.