What I Hear: Blog 2

Media 160 Spring 2018:

I spent an hour from 12:30 to 1:30 PM in the afternoon of Saturday, March 17^th taking a soundwalk on the campus of Columbia University located at 116th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. This is a primarily residential neighborhood at the northwest point of Manhattan, dominated by the University both on its campus and extended buildings beyond its gates. Upon arriving at the campus, the first thing I heard were the conversations of several groupings of young adults and students walking by in pairs and small groups, chatting freely in the public arena. Their voices were animated, joyous, perhaps reflecting the weekend status and the holiday spirit (it was, after all, St. Patrick’s Day), so there was a boisterous, cheerful, unhurried tone amongst these people that felt distinct from what I would anticipate when classes are ordinarily in session during a weekday.

In this somewhat pastoral setting, it was most striking that few individuals seemed to be looking at their smartphones, but instead were engaged in socializing or lost in private thoughts while walking on campus. One person could be heard noisily talking above the loud, grating sound of her wheelie tote being dragged along the cobblestone pathway. The wheels nearly drowned out her conversation with her friend, vying for audio attention against their chatter and the other outside sounds of street cars and buses.

It was a cold, windy afternoon, and the sound of flags being whipped by the wind and brittle tree branches rattling made the temperature feel even colder outdoors. The constant sound of birds chirping offset this chilliness, as I imagined they were singing praise for whatever sun was available at that hour. I also heard two solitary children playing by themselves: one was kicking a ball against a wall, the other rode a scooter. Two dogs playfully barked at each other, happy to have companionship, unlike the solitary sounds of the children playing on their own.

The loudest, most jarring and disturbing sounds came from a construction crew working a shift by the University library staircases, located prominently at the center left of the campus. I could distinguish noises from a motor engine running, a chainsaw, and bricks being stacked together with cement. These sounds permeated my experience during the soundwalk, so that they seemed to stay with me even as I walked further away from the construction site: I had expected the noises to recede into background rather than foreground sound. It was a constant distraction of noise that did not feel integral with the pastoral, weekend setting. However, it did not seem to slow down others’ private conversations or other human activity occurring around me. Another irritating sound noted was the frequent soaring of airplanes in the sky above. Heading to or from the nearby airports in Queens and Long Island, their engines were often close enough to be extremely piercing and intrusive. Activity and motion was reflected constantly by sound and audio sensations.