studioplusthree were commissioned to design this exhibition for the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney) in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust (London), “This is a Voice” explores the qualities of the human voice- its form, weight and body. The exhibition allows visitors to contemplate the power of voice before and beyond words, and to examine the human voice in an immersive way.

Visitors can experience how the human voice locates us socially, geographically and psychologically, and learn how the voice is utterly flexible and can be altered with treatment and training. Designed as an acoustic journey, it allows visitors to delve inside vocal tracts, restless minds and speech devices to discover how meaning and emotions are conveyed through the patterns of rhythm, stress and intonation.

Originally presented at the Wellcome Trust in the UK in 2016 by Plaid Design, the exhibition features a number of contemporary artists, vocalists and installations exploring the nature of the human voice. Our scope was to develop the original Wellcome Trust concept into an approach specifically for MAAS, working with a number of Australian artists commissioned for the exhibition to develop new installations and artworks. The exhibition was additionally supplemented by the inclusion of medical, scientific and technological content from the MAAS collection and indigenous historical and contemporary cultural material.

Blending theatre, video, visuals and sound, the exhibition brings together a wide range of works by contemporary artists and vocalists, punctuated by paintings, manuscripts, medical illustrations, ethnographic objects and anthropological research.