April - June
Around sound art festival 2009

Around is about listening. It is almost a contradiction in terms to call a group of listening activities a festival, for festival connotes the joyful sounding of crowds in celebration. Around would like to propose a different kind of celebration – one that requires retreat. Retreat is the experience of a time of non-participation. “A time when what mattered was receiving, in all simplicity and in all honesty…a time when there was no need to express oneself, to prove something, to be one’s noisy intrusive self.” (Yasmina Reza, “Thirty Seconds of Silence”)

The name of Around is an extension of soundpocket. They both emphasize comportment and bearing, what lies around and makes them possible. The Chinese title of Around is ting zai (Putonghua) and ting joi (Cantonese). It means both “listen at” or “listen in”, and “listen to be”. When used as part of a phrase, ting joi designates the place and time of listening, for instance, “ting joi Lamma” means to listen in Lamma, and “ting joi 2009” means to listen in 2009. The broader meaning of “to be” is the human horizon against which all listening activities are experienced and understood. We invite you to listen to the many meanings the name whispers to you.

Artists of Around are chosen not because they are sound artists – in fact, many have never named themselves as such. Rather it is because they have or are making works in which sound is a determining rather than illustrative element or an unintentional effect, and where sound offers an interpretation of the world, not only a medium through which messages pass through.

Miki Yui works on the imagination of an island that is listened to. Jerome Joy explores the immersive qualities of sonic environments and how they change perception. Jason Lim works with tension. Donna Ong is interested in materiality and fluidity. Akio Suzuki is on a constant quest to reveal the relation between sound and space. All these works enter conversations with space as physical and imaginary places that tell stories about our world.

Other artists work with time. Simone Merli’s work* brings the moon close to our terrestrial habit of living. Kawai Shiu and Hong Kong New Music Ensemble collaborate in literally playing and walking out a composition, revealing the acoustic qualities of traditional musical instruments in an open space. Yan Jun’s soundwalk deals with accidental encounters and abandonment. All these works imbue a fresh sense of shared time to forgotten or unnoticed places.

There are also artists who conjure up other relations that sound is a vital part of. Mike Cooper improvises with cross-cultural sentiments. John Lee keeps looking for the sound to inhabit in. Kacey Wong works on low-tech sound sculptures. Jaffa Lam attends to the publicness and privacy in the activity of listening. Beatrix Pang is interested in interactivity and surprises.

Speakers for public talks in Around approach sound in different ways. Su Hei listens to sound in writings, Kawai Shiu tells stories of sounds in myths, and Patrick Shek recalls the evolution of acoustics and audio systems design in the history of Hong Kong’s public concert halls. Friends of the Earth attends to light pollution in our city, a concern arising from values Around shares. Workshops led by Anthony Yeung offer a listening experience of our immediate environment mediated by microphones and headphones. aco books presents a mini exhibition of books on cultures of listening. hulahoop gallery hosts an exhibition of sounding toys by open call. You will also find suggestions of other things to do during Around, regarding listening to others, listening to the wind.

This programme book is organized by the places where all of the above take place. The works presented may or may not have a title, largely because they are in-the-making. No rush – titles benefit from growing from the inside out.

I have also given priority to giving a sense of the artist as person, by including excerpts of some email conversations we have had over the past half a year or so. These conversations are informative on the artists’ approaches, concerns and interests, but more importantly, they tended to slip into my mailbox as warmers in the darkness of night. I thought not sharing them with you would have been an awful waste.

This approach I have chosen is different from the approach of articulating the significance of the artists’ works in this festival in relation to their past works (an emphasis on authorship), and in relation to art history (an emphasis on the institutional). In the process of conceiving this festival, I wasn’t looking for works that would suit some theme - Around is not a theme; it is a state of being, a manner of comportment. I am not after the school of thought that uses an artist’s life to “explain” her work. I see artists as the ones with whom we live, just as those many others with whom we live. This otherness in general remains a fundamental condition for the open ear.

Listening is about gathering and dispersal at the same time. Gently, take away your earphones. Put your palms around the back of your earflaps. Let’s start listening.

“When you are sensitive, the world opens.” - Felix Hess

I present to you all the contributory elements – the sky, the wind, the land, the places, the people. As long as we take care of them, sound will take care of itself.

Yeung Yang
March 8, 2009

*Simone Merli did not participate in the festival due to unforeseeable circumstances.

〈聽在〉是關於聆聽的。以“節日”的“節”爲一系列聆聽活動命名好像有點矛盾，因爲“節”像是較熱鬧和歡天喜地的情景。〈聽在〉則想提出另一種慶祝的狀態 － 退。退，是一種非參與的狀態。「這時候, 重要的是最簡單和坦誠的接收, 這時候沒有需要表達自己, 證明甚麽, 和做那個强加於人的自我。」

〈聽在〉這名字是《聲音掏腰包》的延續, 它同樣地强調一種方位, 以及還繞它、讓它可能的種種。〈聽在〉，也可解作處於某時某地的聆聽, 例如聽在南丫, 抽像一點；也可以說聽在音樂, 有如沐浴於音樂中；或者聽在2009年.“在”字本身也有存在的意思,也是所有聆聽經驗之可能存在的領域。

我們邀請你聆聽這名字向你細語, 說出不同意義。

我們請來多位參展藝術家不是因爲他們是聲音藝術家, 其實有多位是從來沒有這樣自稱的。但他們參與這次活動的作品, 聲音卻是決定性的, 這不是單讓聲音通過, 或者可有可無的效果。這些作品是帶著很不一樣的聆聽經驗。

凖備〈聽在〉時, 跟參展的藝術家和藝術工作者有過很有意思的討論，有還繞作品的, 有關生活的, 有藝術工作本身的。我用了這些對話作爲這本小册子的編輯骨幹, 希望讓讀者感覺到人情味, 這做法有別於兩種較常見的做法: 即是其一的著重通過分析藝術家過去的作品, 陳述是展作品跟她的創作路向的關係，這是傾向視藝術家爲作者的做法。另外一種著重作品在現有藝術史的傳承與創新，這是傾向把作品跟某些已被當權的建制定論的藝術史掛鈎的做法。我較感興趣的, 是要分享我跟她們在短短的，由不認識到好奇，以至信任的過程。如果這只有我一個人知道, 未免有點浪費。這樣不是要用藝術家的個人經歷解釋藝術作品, 而是要强調她們就在我們中間, 我們就在她們中間, 這能與異者共處的關係, 正正是能打開耳朵的先決條件。

聆聽的關鍵在於聚與散。慢慢地, 拿開你的耳機, 把手放在耳背, 開始聽罷。
2007年曾到香港的聲音藝術家Felix Hess說過：「只要你敏銳，世界是打開的。」

感激天（時），地（利），人（和）。
聽在，自在。

楊陽
二零零九年三月八日

*Simone Merli 因特發事故未能參與本藝術節

Jérôme Joy - sound performance

performance by Akio Suzuki

performance by Jason Lim

Kawai Shiu & HKNME - concert

installation by Donna Ong and YC Teo

installation by Phoebe Hui

concert by Mike Cooper

Around sound art festival 2009 closed on June 15, 2009.
Our warmest thank you to all participating artists and speakers:
Mike Cooper, Hahn Chu (Friends of the Earth), Phoebe Hui, Jerome Joy, Jaffa Lam, John Lee, Jason Lim, Donna Ong & YC Teo, Beatrix Pang & Siufung, Kacey Wong, Kawai Shiu & Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Patrick Shek, Su Hei, Akio Suzuki, Yan Jun, Anthony Yeung, Miki Yui.
Around sound art festival would not have been possible without the generous support of the following sponsors, co-organizers, and volunteers:
Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Le French May and the Consulate General of France, our sole beverage sponsor San Miguel, our media partner Alive Not Dead,
Hong Kong Electric, Mr Bobby Li, Rainbow Seafood Restaurant, Dawei Charitable Foundation,
Asia One for the excellent printing quality of our programme book,
Osage Gallery for supporting Donna Ong and YC Teo’s collaborative work for Around;
Hong Kong Institute of Acoustics for exchanging web links with soundpocket on the occasion of Around;
Hong Kong Electric volunteers team ;
Green Lamma Group ;
young docents of HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity ;
Para/Site Art Space for lending soundpocket headphones and CD players,
SEE Network, Hong Kong Architecture Centre, The Bookshop by MCCM, aco books, Friends of the Earth, kapok, hulahoop.
Special thanks to Lee Chun Fung and his friends, and Wendy Li, for being around.

© 2010 soundpocket. all rights reserved.