On Wednesday 20 October 2021, Imperial War Museums (IWM) London opened its new Second World War and The Holocaust Galleries, bringing unseen objects, untold stories and unheard voices together to help visitors to understand the most devastating conflict and genocide in modern history.

One Story, Many Voices is an innovative digital installation project which brings together a group of celebrated writers, local communities and members of IWM’s Second World War and Holocaust Partnership Programme (SWWHPP) with expertise in binaural sound recording provided by StoryFutures Academy.

StoryFutures Academy is the UK’s National Centre for Immersive Storytelling led by the National Film and Television School and Royal Holloway, University of London. Funded by the government’s industrial strategy challenge fund and part of UK Research and Innovation’s Audience of the Future Challenge. Together they imagined and created immersive sound worlds with diverse voices reflecting on war and conflict and its impact on our lives today.

Professor Adam Ganz, of Royal Holloway’s Department of Media Arts and Head of the StoryFutures Academy Writers Room, said: “It was a great honour to work with the IWM, their Second World War and The Holocaust Programme Partners and a group of talented writers from all over the country to find and tell stories which evoke this momentous past.

“We are delighted that their work will be heard by visitors to the new Imperial War Museums' Galleries and will then travel around the country so they will be heard in the communities where these stories are part of the collective memory.”