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Have you ever wondered what a festival, love, or childhood might sound like when interpreted by AI? In celebration of International Museum Day on May 18, Academia Sinica Center for Digital Cultures presents its sixth annual program with a brand-new theme: “Sounds, Voices, and Beyond.” For the first time, this year’s event introduces an AI-powered audio guide system that allows users to explore the museum through sound. With a simple tap, visitors can randomly explore a vast archive of over 20,000 sound recordings, ranging from temple festivals and traditional mountain songs to the rich textures of nature. Some of these soundscapes are featured exclusively for this exhibition.
The launch reflects this year’s International Museum Day theme, “The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities.” Academia Sinica President James C. Liao notes that “AI not only drives scientific research forward but also redefines how we interpret and engage with cultural heritage.” “Sounds, Voices, and Beyond” is a prime example of how technology and the humanities converge.
In addition, on the “Sounds, Voices, and Beyond” page of the Open Museum, you can explore 12 outstanding digital exhibitions and platform projects jointly launched by Academia Sinica’s three major academic divisions and its partner institutions. These include topics such as bryophytes and lichens, accretion disks in astronomy, Shang bronzes, prehistoric civilizations of the western Sichuan region, Taiwan’s Cold War archives and historical materials, Taiwanese Austronesian culture, Han folk religion in Taiwan, and a reimagining of Confucius and the Six Arts through creative artworks.
The Open Museum platform encourages public and private institutions as well as individual collectors to share museum content freely. This year, three major content highlights make their debut: the National Taiwan Museum’s pollen microphotography collection, the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute’s historical newsreels and interviews from the Taiwan New Cinema movement, and the Indigenous agricultural and culinary traditions. Users can legally download over 2,000 early newsreels and microscopic specimen images and reuse images and sounds with proper attribution .
Through open data and emerging technologies, museums are extending their reach beyond traditional exhibits of sight and sound. With “Sounds, Voices, and Beyond,” sound is no longer a background element but a portal to memory, knowledge, and cultural explorations.

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