by
Olivia McMichael
Trinity College prides itself on being an urban campus in the center of Hartford. However, the campus itself, especially during January, is quite quiet for a city school. Why is campus so quiet? The design of the campus separates itself from the Hartford community. There is a large fence on the east and a hill on the west, as well as no roads for cars through the campus. All of the classic soundmarks of a city are missing in the heart of campus (Schafer). Instead, the sounds of the quad resemble a quiet park, with birds, wind and some foot traffic. While looking out from the quad, you can see the Hartford skyline, but not be in earshot of the sounds from it. The construction of the campus emphasizes the idea of the “Trinity Bubble”, where the school separates itself from the residents of Hartford and does little to intertwine itself with the greater community.
In this sound essay, you can hear what a Trinity students hears, from common dorm room sounds, the main quad, to walking along the campus edge. There is a stark difference in sounds recorded on the historic long walk, and the sounds of Broad Street. On Broad, there are schools, traffic intersections and businesses, however the school’s metal fence blocks the sounds from entering the heart of campus. How will Trinity open itself up to the Hartford community in the future, rather than isolating itself atop a hill?
When recording for this audio essay, I became hyper-aware of the sounds around me. My first-time doing fieldwork, pop songs were playing in the background but became the main focus of the recording. Since then, I started paying attention to the sounds I normally tune out.
The final product of this assignment reminds me of the Sleep Dealer and the dystopian stories discussed in the Merla-Watson and Olguin reading. Something about silence in a city, in the right context, is depressing and empty- when a city should be filled with tons of noise from many cultures.
References
Schafer, R. M. (1994). The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Destiny Books.