Excerpt

“With phonography, we are dealing with a music that is not yet definite, pre-determined, but that is only possible, through our perception of an undetermined environment, and ponctual, as it happens only when it matches its coincidental emotion. Then, it is not possible to mistake music with its products, knowledges and phenomenons : the technique and the langage, the concert and the home-listening are replaced into their musical possibilities, maybe as well as the reality itself, wherein compressors sings to the attentive ears.”

“The music of the outside” (translated excerpt), in Esse#59 (Québec)

From http://www.palimeursault.net/ep.html

HELMUT SCHÄFER

Noise as a language‘So the point is that so much words existing, and we get better and better to use them for hiding the truth. You can use sound in the same way, stimulating some nice and warm feeling in middle of chaos, but from time to time we all should stimulate strictness, clearness, intensity, directness, set free some anger to bring up the basic truth of our present. Noise can be seen as the chance to go into the back of things, as a therapy which is able to confront ourselves with others lesser good looking sides of life without getting frustrated by this. See it as a source of very special energies, it gives power to see more clear and swim against.’http://www.yanjun.org/blog/?p=321

John Cage talking about Sound and listening

Kiyoshi Mizutani

About my work
In my work, most of all my interest is in the existence of sound materials. Some of them give the sound well, the other is not. Anyway the materials exist. So, can we say that it gives the sound always after the existence? Or should we recognize the existence comes after the perception? If so, there is the existence which is got after the perception.

What is the perception? If we perceive something, it means we create the new relation with it. If the fact of perception is one of the parts of the whole relation, it means the perception is included in the whole relation. In this point, I think soundscape theory is important. This theory catches the sound in social or natural relations. So sound is recognized as a signal, a message, or environment. We are conscious of the number of sound, a kind, an order, length, an interval and also strength, a direction, distance, etc. Perhaps good sample is a song of birds. Their song is very interesting, and tells something. And in many cases, bird sings also recognizing our existence.

About field recording
Field recording is like taking a photograph. We ourselves go there, and we do not work on an object, but devote in observation. The object itself does not have the function which gives us a certain impression. We are going to discover a certain law or a premise among the juxtaposed object. And we will concentrate on them, in order to read a unknown message. This is not for constructing the so-called worldview. There is the function which exists before forming worldview. Then, consciousness brings various fields to light by making the perception on the spot into a referring point. For example, field of ecological environment, folkloric environment, or metaphysical field. However, They are not necessarily one. It is possible for it to be free

—- Kiyoshi Mizutani 水谷聖 (ex-Merzbow)

some saying from

“我認為，為聲音藝術劃出並限定一個明確的界線並不恰當。我甚至覺得，無法將它從諸如音樂，裝置藝術，表演藝術甚或電影等等其它藝術領域中分隔開 來。我希望在此提出一個要素，這是聲音藝術所具有的，基本且獨特的實踐內容：聆聽經驗。但我所說的”經驗”並非在”實驗室的操作”這樣的意義層面上，而是 屬於聽者的自身經驗。因為在成為一個作品的生產者之前，聲音藝術工作者們都是聽者。而聆聽經驗便是，當我們進入一個由某種聲音現象所帶來的，獨特時間性與 空間性之中。因此聲音藝術作品在一段特定時間內，改變了我們的聽覺感知。即使是那些最令人迷惑和最抽象的聲音集合，都能讓我們以另一種方式聆聽這世界。聲 音藝術作品從此改變了我們聆聽的方式。”

“我把引文界定為”聆聽小插曲”：它是一個故事，是我對一個生活場所的聆聽經驗。所有對這些聲音事件所作出的敘述都是一種將聲音”據為己有”的過程：我透過 命名的方式來擁有它們。一顆在柏油路面彈跳的皮球，它的乒啪聲產生碰撞並在空氣的分子間擴散，聲波敲擊著樓房的牆面，直到我的耳膜。孩子們的叫嚷循的也是 一樣的路徑。我的兩隻耳朵將空氣的振動轉變為神經叢的導流。而神經叢帶來的訊息是混合的，但接下來會經過篩選與分析：它們會被再次聚集，並與過去經歷的， 各種已被記住的聽覺經驗做比較。一旦某一聲源經過了確認後，從耳朵傳來的其它訊息將再進一步被抽取出來進行辨明。透過這個過程，聽覺自己維持自身的存在。 這個感知過程使我們得以建構出一個對聲音環境的心理再現。在認知科學的領域中，我們將它稱為”聽覺場景”
(Auditory Scenes) ，這個與聆聽者個人相關的再現系統，涉及了聽者的生理機制和本體認知。它提供聽者在一個充滿聲響的世界裡演變發展的可能。這個認知學的方式，主要聚焦在聽 覺所交付給腦部的訊息處理支配程序上，而且明確地給我們一個與世界的可信連結，但並不包含群體性的與社會性的聽覺問題在內。然而我想在此強調的重點是，經 由聲音，我們創造與再現了世界：”聲音場景” (希臘文”skênê”意即”帳蓬”，在古代劇場空間上搭起的建物) 乃是自環境中的聲音傳遞現象所形成的一種圖表狀態。當我們聆聽一個環境，或許其實正是去想像，並從環繞著我們的聲響事件中，去創造出一個劇場。“

” “Umwelt”(德文)，意即由各類不同物種的動物們所依存的(人類也在其中)，種種純粹主觀的世界。他反對存在著一個被所有生物居住著並在其間演化的，”唯一的世界”這樣的假定。他認為每種動物主體(包含人類)都生活於一個經由它自己的感知過程所創造出的氣泡中…… 每一個主體透過事物的某些特質，像蜘蛛吐絲般地織出它與事物間的關係，並將之混合編織出一個支撐它自身存在的網絡。主體與客體形成了互補。一個主體(例如 壁虱)是完美地適應於它的Umwelt的，那是由它在事物上所建構出的全體關係網所形成的，其中一切對它而言都是具有意義的 (光，呼吸的氣味，動物的體溫…)。”

” 因此，若我要談”台灣的聲音風景”，那光是知道”我在台灣所聽到的”(例如本文一開始的引文例子)是不夠的，而應該也要對知道”在台灣，人們是如何聽的” 提出”你聽到了甚麼”這類問題，還有”這個聲音意味著甚麼？”甚至”這個你們都沒提到的聲音，是有甚麼意思嗎？”並且發明一個方法，使它能突顯出一地的使 用者在聆聽上明顯的特點。舉例來說，讓他們聽聽在此地收錄的聲音，或者也許可以交付給他們收錄此地聲音的工作。錄音，不也是一種獨特的聆聽狀態，一種能留 下痕跡的聆聽方法嗎？”

“我希望在近幾年大為被廣泛應用的英語”Field recording”(田野錄音)和”Phonography”(留聲術)間做出區別。第一個詞暗指在沒有錄音者的主動介入下，所取得的原始聲音材料。留 聲術和田野錄音相反，在這裡，錄音者會從他所有的聲音材料中經過反覆聆聽，刪除，挑選出一段來。因此留聲術的實踐結果對他而言指的是選擇過後的，一段預計 要被播放出的聲音。留聲術是一種實踐，一種面對圍繞著我們的聲音時的立場選擇，而”田野錄音”則僅是一個技術性工具與一個地域(可以是自然主義者或是個民 族學者)間相遇的成果。”

” 從事留聲術的人總在尋覓適當的，理想的或獨一無二的時刻與地點。他們有時自稱為”獵音者”，裝備著麥克風與錄音機，此人靠近，圍捕，抓取並驕傲地展著。錄 音中不可否認的技術品質在這種情況下很快被拋到腦後：其實是收音情境當下的瞬逝性，才授與了這些錄下的聲音高度的價值。一個錄音者知道選擇絕佳的時機，這 歸功於他有種預感的能力。在這裡所顯示出的便是收音術的價值所在：傳遞出日常生活中絕無僅有的難得時刻。

現在讓我們走得更遠一些。透過麥克風-耳 機所形成的聽覺經驗翻轉了我們對聲音的關係，它轉變了我們的Umwelt。如此一再地使用下，聽覺被更新了，而且經由麥克風所聽到的微小聲音，也從此拓寬 了我們的聽覺經驗。從耳機裡聽到的聲音是有距離的，但它既使我們脫離聲音的原有環境來聽，也使我們更靠近這種感官經驗本身。而從這長久以來的錄音實踐經驗 中，誕生了述說著”場所聆聽”的種種聲音創作。”

“所以我覺得還是要再提醒一次：留聲術並不是在某一時間某一地點內放置一個電子聲音器材，去把現實轉譯成資料。在任何情況下，收音實踐都不能被縮簡為是你所 使用器材的”錄音品質”問題 (更不會是價格問題)。它所牽涉的是一種實踐，錄音者在那之中，以他的某種裝備，和他所在的環境發展出的一段獨特的關係。而其工作成果，也就會是種主觀性 的視角，且這是由錄音者所選取的角度所帶來的一個感官經驗。收音實踐並非只是傳遞聲音，它也是在傳遞”聽”。一本旅行手記並無法形成關於一地的社會學式或 地理學式的分析，同樣地，在一個場所中所作的收音並不能構成一種屬於此地的客觀的音景。但它描畫著聽者的聽覺經驗，透過一些聲音載體來使這一個場所的聲音 再次復活起來。並且，當我們(或他自己)面對著喇叭，從中提引出某種個人式的，新的聆聽經驗。”

from Yannick Dauby@ http://kalerne.net

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very very very important ideas and thinking for me. Need to digging it over and over again.

some materials

Ridge of Undulation – Toshiya Tsunoda

Extract from field recording archive #2: The air vibration inside a hollow – Toshiya Tsunoda

常態構圖/normality envision – PEI

Suspended Spectacles (懸浮景觀 ) – 鍾敏杰 / 林志英

—-

Toshiya Tsunoda’s work often makes me turning into my attention to the twisted soundscape under the process through objects. This help me to rethinking what is composing or composition and the relationship between sound and space. I hope my activities will include something like this and keep going on and on with different perspective of sound.

“Normality Envision” trying to digging out the normality of Taipei soundscape. Indeed, this is the work often makes me thinking about the normality or the usual soundscape (of course, for some people maybe very different). I think this work more or less, in my personal feelings connecting to Barthes’ saying about punctum. This is a very personal observation.

“Suspended Spectacles”, for me, it doesn’t have a very good presentation. What I mean is I want to know the intention behind or some background. Personally, I always trying to have a practice to dropping down some basic info for others know and some basic writing to let people know what I am doing —- not just doing recording.

Added Reading

added reading about the projects/activities of British Sound Artist in China.