People

Isobel Clouter is a Curator in the World and Traditional Music Section at the British Library. She is currently the Principal Investigator on a major research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust and BEIS, True Echoes.

Isobel’s general interests lie in acoustic and visual ethnography, and the potential and significance of audio as a primary source for research. Isobel delivers innovative engagement and reconnection projects providing access to recordings preserved at the British Library. Her work engages with international academics, cultural institutions and cultural heritage communities to document and enable greater representation of indigenous knowledge in UK heritage collections through participatory research. Her current research focuses on the impact of reconnecting digital collections of audiovisual cultural heritage material from the British Library in the country of origin.

Her role within the True Echoes project is to direct the research, enabling and co-ordinating the work of the British Library researchers with Oceanic partners and local researchers. She is responsible for the delivery of the main work objectives: to create visibility for Oceanic knowledge; to engage and undertake co-research with Oceanic cultures; to research and narrate the role of audio in historic ethnographic research; and to transcend language barriers to narrate cultural histories by using audiovisual material.