Explore the sounds of UCC

A UCC student has found a novel way to explore the college!

Damian Drohan, a masters student in digital arts and humanities, has created the online digital map featuring over 100 recordings of areas dotted around the famous grounds.

From the post-lecture chatter outside the Boole Theatre to footsteps echoing through the college’s iconic stone hallways, to the peaceful trickling of water at the riverfront, Damian said the map was designed to “give an impression of what UCC sounds like over a number of months”.

“I started recording sounds in the city more than a year ago, but I realised fairly quickly that it would need to be a longer term project,” he said.

“So I chose UCC as I am a student there, and because it offered a lot of variety in its sounds in a fairly geographically manageable space.”

In addition to idle exam chatter in some of the college’s public areas, users of the map will also be able to hear trilling birdsong, branches trailing in the water, a leaf blower in the president’s garden and even the beeping of construction machinery near the Windle building.

“The project is laid out so that somebody can pick a point on a map and explore different areas on the campus,” Damian explained.

“A lot of people might prefer sounds of birdsong to construction or traffic for example, but the project is trying to give an impression of how the campus sounds.

“I remember one of the days during one of the open days, there was a group of students singing along to live music that was happening outside the Student Centre.

“There were some very atmospheric recordings too, like have footsteps reverberating along the stone corridors, along with the occasional bang of a door, almost like some kind of mystery movie.”

While he admitted some editing was needed, Damian said he recorded using a number of different methods with relative ease on campus.

“With any recording, it’s part planning and part luck. You can get a lot of natural sounds in some areas, things like people walking by, children laughing etc.

“If you listen to some of the birdsong, you forget about everything and get almost buried in the sounds.

“There are so many different courses that you have students constantly wandering around with cameras, making short films, taking scientific measurements etc, so there was never a problem.”

View Damian’s digital UCC soundscape at uccsoundscape.sound4youreyes.org/neatline/fullscreen/ucc-soundscape.