McMaster Campus - Dual Natures

Listen to audio recordings of unique places around McMaster University, as a student would explore these special places on a tour.

“Step into the McMaster Student Center’s soundscape, where architecture, movement, and accessibility converge in everyday life. Listen for the hum of foot traffic, clicks of automatic doors, and overlapping conversations—each a clue to how people navigate this space. Walk carefully, be mindful of physical obstacles, and keep your device volume balanced so you don’t miss real-world cues.”

Just as students carry their classrooms with them across campus through mobile practices and technology, this sound walk will be taking you across various spaces, exposing you to different locations where extending learning beyond the traditional classroom is possible. Throughout this soundwalk, you will be discovering diverse study spots, with unique atmospheres, where students find themselves focused and productive.

Our project explores the theme of everyday mobility on campus, telling the story of a student’s day from arriving by bus to studying, eating, and heading home. Listeners move through the bus stop, library path, quiet study area, MUSC food court, and crosswalks, hearing buses, footsteps, pages turning, food preparation, cashier sounds, and traffic to experience the campus through sound.

The sound walk from McMaster bus stop to Starbucks in Student Center.

For the first assignment of multimedia 3C03. I will introduce Basic sanitary facilities, especially restrooms near the student center of MCMASTER. Sometimes no rest for a restroom because some washrooms only have one toilet. So, for this reason, we should know two or three washrooms in an emergency. If in another situation. My project helps people who are a visitor, and it’s his first time go to the student center of MCMASTER but coincidentally or not he wants to go to the washroom. My project will be useful to him. In my project, I will introduce three washrooms and rated on five points, facilities, cleanliness, smell, size of space, privacy. Users can find the right toilet for them through my introduction. The day of the test washroom assessment guidelines is Saturday, just a few people in the student center

These recordings are about a fiction story of the only survivor in the world; she back to her university for recalling the memories. (For MMEDIA 3C03)

Thank you for joining our cause, agent. Things on campus aren't as they seem. Follow the GPS coordinates on your phone, and listen to our instructions. Things may not make sense now, but they will in time. (Start at the south entrance of the Student Centre)

Our Sound Walk proposal presents the campus's common soundscapes in diverse ways. This route extends from Whidden Hall to the Health Sciences Center, focusing on environment, body, and artistry: the melodious notes of a piano intertwined with the creak of automatic doors, footsteps ascending stairs, the hum of elevators, and the whoosh of sliding doors. These sounds reveal the multifaceted ways in which different bodies on campus gain or face limitations in their freedom of movement. A second dimension—the roar of engines, screeching brakes, and announcements at the corner bus stop—links campus mobility to the broader urban pulse. These paths remind Sound Walk participants that soundscapes are not only about access rights but also weave into everyday experience.By foregrounding sound as art, the walk also demonstrates how listening practices reveal the dynamic interplay between environment and human mobility. In doing so, it aligns with course discussions about the aesthetic, bodily, and environmental dimensions of movement while grounding them in McMaster’s lived campus experience.