The Arts Tower has been bugged with audio and visual devices as part of the ‘This Building Leaks’ project.
The art exhibition involves video cameras and recording devices being placed around the tower within the School of Architecture.
The conversations of passers-by are ‘leaked’ out of the building and can be listened to via the project’s website, which has been advertised across campus on the Arts Tower’s windows.
By clicking on different parts of the picture of the Arts Tower you can listen into what is happening in various areas of the department.
There is also a camera placed inside the paternoster which goes up through each of the floors in the building, and solves the mystery of where it goes after the bottom floor.
The project is the brainchild of MArch Architecture students Alastair Parvin, Adam Towle and Lukas Barry.
They said that they wanted to create something that would exhibit the building and felt that showing everyday life inside the Arts Tower was the most appropriate way to do it.
Adam Towle said that the exhibition is a way of celebrating the iconic building and saying goodbye to the School of Architecture’s home before the department moves out during the planned renovations.
“We just wanted to show the school and the [Arts] Tower off in an original and unique way,” he said.
“This Building Leaks is an exhibition not by Sheffield School of Architecture but of Sheffield School of Architecture. We wanted to present the school in an honest fashion.”
Some students have expressed discomfort at the presence of recording devices in the building.
Sophie Kennerley, a third year Architecture student, said: “It’s invasive. They didn’t ask us for permission to be here and we don’t have a choice about it”.
Prue Chiles, Director of the Bureau of Design Research, said: “We support all actions by students that are creative, productive and enquiring and this project is questioning the way we communicate and impart information.
“We have no objection to the recording devices in principal,” she said.
Anyone who is unhappy with the devices are invited to email the creators on their website.
Meanwhile, plans to refurbish the cladding on the building have been modified after concerns that the original proposals would cause damage to the glass and frames.
Recladding will now take place on the upper floors of the building, which will result in the building returning more closely to its original appearance.