It's a box, and yet a whole world escapes from it. Barely bigger than a hand, often clad in ribbed plastic, a fake magnifying glass, or shiny metal, it fits in a pocket and could make the walls tremble. The transistor. Cult object or everyday companion, it is at the heart of the new series of exhibitions at the Cité des Sciences, aptly titled Background Machine — an unexpected and sensory cycle, running counter to grand technical narratives, which examines social changes through a forgotten technology. And to kick things off, what better than this modest, joyfully popular device that transformed radio into a pocket-sized medium?

The transistor is radio liberated from the living room, the lacquered cabinet, and the monotonous voices around the family set. With it, listening becomes intimate, mobile, electrifying. We take it to the beach, in the car, down the street, to the factory, to a demonstration, into our bedrooms. It vibrates with waves and emotions, with rock music and feverish debates, with late-night confidences and war bulletins. It is the voice of an era emancipating itself. Reconstructed soundscapes, emerging voices, songs that mark a generation. Here, the object becomes a narrative, and sound makes history. The issue is not museum-related but political: we rewind the advent of a new public space, another form of listening, in a poetic and civic reflection on how our machines tell the story of our lives.

Behind the technical miniaturizations lie major upheavals—in uses, freedoms, and dreams of equality. The transistor was a discreet player in these portable revolutions. And this exhibition reveals it with astonishing modernity. One box, one world.

CITY OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
Until November 2, 2025
30 avenue Corentin-Cariou, 75019 - Metro: Porte de la Villette (Line 7)
Tue. to Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun. until 7 p.m.
Price: €15 - Reduced price: €12 - Free for children under 2

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