Project representing the UPV’s Gandia Campus in the AudibleLab finals.
The team consisting of Irene Clemente, Jesús Costa, and Dani Martínez, first-year students at the Bachelor’s Degree in Audiovisual Communication from the Gandia Campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) has won the local round of the contest AudibleLab, an innovation initiative in audio drama led by Chusé Fernández which promotes the creation of original productions at various Spanish universities.
In this issue, the UPV local phase featured the participation of three teams, whose proposals have showcased the talent and creativity of the students at the Gandia Campus. After evaluating the projects submitted, Letters from Mirad has been selected to represent the university in the final round of the competition.
The competition at the UPV was coordinated by the professors Raúl Terol and Juan Manuel Sanchis, who head the Sound Laboratory (LadSo) at the Gandia Campus, where they promote the development of projects focused on sound innovation and audio narratives.
Recognition for the work done
For the team members, being selected is a significant recognition of the work they’ve done throughout the school year. Irene Clemente explains that their first reaction was “overwhelming joy and pride,” though she particularly highlights the motivation this achievement has given them.
“We were a group of first-year students who barely knew each other at first, and there were many reasons not to enter the competition, but we decided to do it anyway. Winning has shown us that, even with little experience, you can achieve great things with hard work, enthusiasm, and determination. It’s motivation to keep taking risks and tackling new challenges in our professional careers.”
The project began to take shape practically at the start of the academic year. As Dani Martínez recalls, the idea emerged during the first few weeks of class, driven by the group’s creative curiosity and their desire to put the knowledge they had acquired in the classroom into practice. The discovery of AudibleLab allowed the project to evolve into an increasingly ambitious production, featuring rehearsals with the cast, careful sound design, and the search for its own unique identity.
“It has been a very rewarding experience; we’ve had time to work on the project at a leisurely pace and create a result we’re very proud of.”
A story that comes to life through sound
Letters from Mirad It is an audio adaptation of the play written by Ad de Bont in 1992. The story features Djuka and Fazila, two Bosnian citizens who recount their experiences before, during, and after the conflict that led to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. At the same time, Mirad, their nephew, shares his concerns from a refugee camp in the Netherlands through the letters he sends to his family.
Although this is a work of fiction, it is inspired by real accounts from that era and relies on the evocative power of sound to allow each listener to create their own experience.
Practical Training with Career Prospects
Students also highlight the educational value of initiatives such as AudibleLab. According to Jesús Costa, these types of competitions allow students to go beyond the strictly academic realm and tackle real-world professional challenges.
“They encourage us to create products that can go far beyond a single course or grade. Plus, we learn things that only come to light when you’re working on a real-world project. At the Gandia Campus, we’re fortunate to have excellent facilities and an environment that’s very conducive to this kind of collaborative work.”
Participation in AudibleLab is one of the initiatives that reinforces the UPV’s Gandia Campus’s commitment to hands-on education, offering students the opportunity to develop projects with professional applications starting in the early years of their university education.