Listening to the Commons: The Sounds of Debate and the Experience of Women in Parliament c. 1800

在20世纪初妇女被授予选举权和议员资格之前，她们在下议院中有存在吗？《倾听下议院》通过创造性的数字声学技术、虚拟现实和建筑考古学将政治史带入对话，解释在1918年下议院正式获得选举权之前很久，女性是如何参与下议院辩论的。通过‘投票100’，议会通过一系列重要的活动和展览带头庆祝100周年。倾听下议院将通过改编由AHRC圣斯蒂芬教堂项目建造的历史下议院的3D视觉模型来为投票100做出贡献，以恢复1800年左右妇女通过旧下议院天花板上的通风机聆听辩论的声音场景。1548年至1834年间，下议院在威斯敏斯特宫改建的圣斯蒂芬皇家礼拜堂举行会议。在18世纪和19世纪初，下议院见证了定义现代英国的激烈辩论：废除奴隶贸易，死刑的伦理，将选举权扩大到工人阶级男子的改革法案。妇女们经常在公共旁听席上观看下议院的辩论，但在1778年，由于一些议员的抱怨，她们被驱逐了。女性的回应是占据了下议院天花板上方的空间，通过梯子进入，那里仍然可以看到中世纪圣斯蒂芬教堂的建筑。幸存的图画显示，妇女们通过呼吸机观看和聆听。我们的后续活动聚焦于这个鲜为人知但意义重大的空间。声学和虚拟现实技术创造了一个令人兴奋的新机会，可以开发历史悠久的下议院的3D模型，作为圣斯蒂芬教堂项目的一部分，以模拟下议院的音景。倾听公地的声音将扩大这个现有的3D模型，以纳入历史声音。在一个成功的约克大学研究启动基金试点项目的基础上，我们将建立呼吸机空间的模型，并产生听觉效果(相当于可视化的音频)，使我们能够恢复女性聆听下议院辩论的体验。我们将通过这个隐藏的空间来探索女性此时与议会接触的重要叙事。将我们的结果转化为虚拟现实体验，将提供一个具有历史和政治重要性的新的高调例子，展示艺术和人文研究如何通过建立在创意经济中的技术与新的文化和遗产合作伙伴受众沟通。3D视觉和声学模型、可听化和VR表示将被纳入在威斯敏斯特音乐厅(2018年7月至10月)举行的“Vote 100”展览。展览参观者将从女性评论下议院全是男性的世界的角度来体验辩论，消除了20世纪之前女性在议会政治中缺席的神话。制作的数字音频和VR内容将可供访问和共享，以进一步扩大展览和传播这项工作的范围。听取公共意见将约克的三个专业中心--历史系、系电子音频实验室和数字创意实验室-与“投票100”团队合作，这一后续倡议发展了约克大学和议会之间由圣斯蒂芬项目建立的已经很牢固的关系。结合创新的数字技术，突出妇女参与政治的深厚历史，我们与议会‘100票’项目的后续合作将令人信服地展示AHRC资助的研究在创意经济中的影响，以吸引新的受众，使现代人能够以新的方式听到新的历史。

Did women have a presence in the House of Commons before they were granted the right to vote and stand as MPs in the early twentieth century? 'Listening to the Commons' brings political history into dialogue with creative digital acoustic technology, virtual reality and buildings archaeology to explain how women participated in Commons debates long before they were formally enfranchised in 1918. Through 'Vote 100', Parliament is spearheading this 100th anniversary with a major series of events and exhibitions. Listening to the Commons will contribute to Vote 100 by adapting a 3D visual model of the historic Commons chamber constructed by the AHRC 'St Stephen's Chapel' project, to recover the soundscape of debate as experienced by women listening through a ventilator in the old House of Commons ceiling around 1800.Between 1548 and 1834 the House of Commons met in the converted royal chapel of St Stephen in the Palace of Westminster. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Commons witnessed intense debates which came to define modern Britain: the abolition of the slave trade, the ethics of capital punishment, the Reform Bill extending the franchise to working-class men. Women had often watched Commons debates from the public galleries, but in 1778 they were ejected following complaints from some MPs. Women responded by occupying the space above the Commons ceiling, accessed by a ladder, where the architecture of the medieval St Stephen's chapel was still visible. Surviving drawings show women watching and listening through the ventilator. Our follow-on activity focuses on this little-known but highly significant space.Acoustic and virtual reality technologies create an exciting new opportunity to develop the 3D model of the historic Commons chamber, created as part of the St Stephen's Chapel project, to model the soundscape of the Commons. Listening to the Commons will scale up this existing 3D model for the incorporation of historic sound. Building on a successful University of York Research Priming Fund pilot project to test out this idea, we will model the ventilator space and produce auralisations (the audio equivalent of visualisation) to enable us to recover the experience of women listening to Commons debates. We will explore the important narrative of women's engagement with Parliament at this time through this hidden space. Translating our results for a virtual reality experience will deliver a novel, historically and politically important, high profile example of how arts and humanities research can communicate with new cultural and heritage partner audiences via technology founded in the creative economy.The 3D visual and acoustic model, auralisations, and VR representation will be incorporated in the 'Vote 100' exhibition in Westminster Hall (July-Oct 2018). Exhibition visitors will experience debate from the perspective of women commenting on the all-male world of the House of Commons, dispelling the myth that women were absent from parliamentary politics before the twentieth century. The digital audio and VR content produced will be made accessible and shareable to provide further outreach for this exhibition and dissemination of this work.Listening to the Commons brings together three centres of expertise at York - the Dept of History, Dept. of Electronics Audio Lab, and the Digital Creativity Labs - into collaboration with the 'Vote 100' team, and this follow-on initiative develops the already strong relationship between the University of York and Parliament established by the St Stephen's project. Combining innovative digital technologies to highlight the deep history of women's participation in politics, our follow-on collaboration with Parliament's 'Vote 100' project will make a compelling demonstration of the impact of AHRC-funded research in the creative economy to engage new audiences and enable modern people to hear new histories told in new ways.