Dianne Ballon
Sound Artist

Lost and Found: Sounds of the Maine Coast by Dianne Ballon

Gallery entrance. Wall size graphic of a nautical bell buoy and the exhibit title: Lost and Found: Sounds of the Maine Coast by Dianne Ballon

Maine Maritime Museum
February - December 2024

The Sound Recordings
Included among my field recordings of working harbors, boatyards, foghorns and the sounding navigational buoys of Casco Bay, are the historical, circa 1900-- bells, whistles and early foghorns that I recorded from the museum's collection. 

Recording the Minott Shipyard Bell

Recording the Minott Shipyard Bell

Dianne Ballon with headphones and microphone recording outside on the museum grounds as Catherine Cyr rings the large metal Fiddler's Reach Fog Bell a distance away.

Recording the Fiddler's Reach Fog Bell as Curator Catherine Cyr rings the bell.

In the adventure of finding the early hand-cranked wooden box foghorns and literally, all the bells and whistles, I forgot that they may be too fragile to make a sound.  Once the objects were evaluated, I scheduled several trips to record them.  

The wooden box foghorns were placed at the bow of a ship and used in foggy conditions.  Pushing the lever back and forth fills the bellows inside the box with air, and blows the horn.

A case with early wooden box foghorns, circa 1900 and a metal 2-piece cylinder foghorn.

Top: Three L.D. Lothrop wooden box foghorns.  Bottom from left to right: Two-piece cylinder foghorn, Little Giant Foghorn (a big name for a little object/sound) and the Norwegian Rotary Foghorn and bellows.

Images copyright Dianne Ballon and Maine Maritime Museum.

                                                             

Down East Magazine

All the Bells and Whistles

The Natural Curiosity Project Podcast

Foghorns, Bell Buoys and Dianne Ballon

Radio Maine with Dr. Lisa Belisle

Sound Artist Dianne Ballon featured on Radio Maine:

Finding Art in the Sound of Maine

United States Lighthouse Society Podcast

Sound Artist Dianne Ballon and Maine Maritime Museum Curator Catherine Cyr 
featured on the United States Lighthouse Society Podcast:

Maine Maritime Museum and Sounds of the Maine Coast

 

Listening Station with a case containing circa 1900, ship bells and whistles.
Handset listening station with a visual graphic of each sound wave recording.
Dianne Ballon seated, with headphones on and recorder recording the wooden box foghorn. Curator Catherine Cyr pushing the lever on the foghorn to create the sound. Microphone on stand pointing at the foghorn..
Foghorn at Portland Head Light

Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Minott Shipyard Bell

The sound of the Minott Shipyard Bell, circa 1854, formerly in Phippsburg, Maine.

Little Giant Foghorn

The sound of the Little Giant Foghorn, circa 1800.
A big name for a little sound.

Incoming Tide at Schoodic Point

Acadia National Park, Maine.