silence

here's a short anecdote i was going to add in a post somewhere, but forgot..

when i first met Gary at White Noise i remember i would always go there and be the only one there for hours. i remember asking him "so all you do is sit here all day and listen to music..? that's pretty nice." making a comment on what an easy job he has.

he slightly mistook my comment and said, paraphrased "No, sometimes when there are no customers, i turn off the music and just sit and think." i remember really liking what he said. something Cagean and Zen about it. when there is music constantly playing it leaves no room for one to think. perhaps i can admit to using it as an escapist distraction from my thoughts.

ART iT

ART iT is Japan's first Bilingual (English and Japanese) Art quarterly magazine. Picked one up when I was in Japan.

This issue winter/spring 2006 happens to be on Art in China. The issue features 12 Chinese contemporary artists, and article on the Shanghai art scene and much more. Previous issues covered topics of "is graffiti art?", Korean art and media arts.

ART iT



bio:
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ART iT is a visually oriented, fully bilingual (Japanese and English) quarterly magazine introducing the latest trends in the contemporary art scenes of Japan and the rest of Asia. ART iT features extensive interviews with and dialogues between leading artists, in-depth articles on current art-related topics, and detailed information on exhibitions at top museums and galleries throughout Asia. The launch of ART iT marks the birth of a truly innovative Japanese magazine.
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FM3 boxing match

pics by G Chuk

@ White Noise HK, March 25th 06





boomkat video and interview on FM3

We had a rather amusing discussion on FM3 prior to the show. Their main criticism remains that they are capitalizing so much on a single idea - the Buddha Machine. Previously they remained unknown for their ambient electronic music and now they’ve hit it huge with this one idea, they seem to be riding the wave to its fullest. The Buddha Machine has still yet to hit Japan. Certain people were weary of their performance since they knew they were just going to play the Buddha Machine. They have, however, adapted their performance to a “boxing match”, improvising with a number of the machines in an intense game. Videos of a match can be seen at the link above.

quote from luke : "what next? they're going to put breakbeats in it and have the Buddha BOOMBOX?!?"

Kapok!

blast from the imaginary - displaced American psychedelic fantasy
pictures/drawings/posters installation from the Providence scene

"Sleepover Psychedelia": April 1st - May 5th

featuring artwork from artists: Brian Chippendale (Fort Thunder/Lightning Bolt), Thomas Galloway, Matt Lock, Devon Varmega, Brent Wadden

At the new KaPok Gallery Space and store
Opening April 1st, 7pm
g/f 9 Dragon Rd, Tin Hau, Hong Kong

curators: Samantha Culp, Adrian Wong




ka-pok blog

surreal and picture-esque moments

Photo escapades across town..w/ Nicolas. Industrial recycle zone and remnants of forgotten modern fishing villages.




junkyard dogs

yesterday's recycling



it's nice to finally have someone completely ignore us on an exploration or shoot. this man and his forklift drove around this outdoor warehouse carrying and stacking enormous blocks of recycled material, not caring if we had a way of getting down from on top or not.



still waters, airplanes and boats. as dusk fell white tube neon lights flickered on, on each boat. on shore was rubble and construction of new condos.

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Two nights before my leave.
Surreal hotel wanderings – filmic moments – time space and placid environment



Explorations with corporate art worker Jehan.

Our goal was to sit and experience every floor of this hotel just outside the elevators. The surreal thing was there were no windows, no people coming or going, and every floor was arranged the same, but slightly different (same decorations/design but maybe different placement of chairs and lamps and different giant floor number sign). Every moment melted into a bizarre feeling of deja-vu, but not, eternity and reality. We only managed three floors. Sterile, clean, and strangely still as smoke circles up. We own. Mafia style.

----


It seems in Hong Kong people don't exploit their freedom the same way as in other parts of the world. People are obedient, complacent and well... boring. People simply do as expected. Everyone’s simple desire is to go to school, work and get married. And that’s normal. There is no push to be unique or individual and in a lot of ways the society is more egalitarian (which is nice esp. coming from a subculture that constantly thrives to be unique, competitive and annoying). Rather than a concern for fame (lime light success), beauty and fortune, people simply want success on their own terms – a career in law, business, accounting, medicine, a good marriage and no family or health problems. Everyone (other than the triads, which is Asia’s form of crime) walks between the lines. In some ways it makes Asia and Hong Kong especially interesting to explore - Explore and discover spaces that havn’t already been marked by graffiti kids, which is virtually everywhere since graffiti culture doesn’t exist in the city. Spaces are left unexplored. It is not in the cultures mentality to do ‘unusual’ or unexpected things. Nor is it expected by authority or the general public.

In some ways it makes HK an exciting place to excavate and be the first to develop an arts culture. You get to be the one breaking open the kids’ minds and seeing what they do with it. There needs to be some sort of modern revolution for people here - A 60’s revolution.

Triads/Crime

Triads are Asia’s form of crime. It seems somehow an accepted form of crime – something that lies much deeper in the system than individual murders or petty crimes.

Someone told me that Hong Kong is one of the cities with the highest suicide rate. Apparently a man threw themselves over the rail on the 7th floor in Time Square shopping mall on a very busy Sunday (if anyone knows Causeway Bay on a weekend – it’s crazy). The guy got into serious debt and went for it. It seems people are so wrapped up in life and money that they kill themselves rather than finding fulfillment in other ways. People kill themselves more than each other. Which is worse? I’m not sure.

Double Stacked – City and Transportation

Kind of like the cookies...

Since Asian cities are so densely populated, the city starts to be built upwards. People are stacked on top of the other, creating a multi-layered society - one with an intricate underground, bustling street level and winding above-ground level.

Since Hong Kong is built on a small mountainous island, the city is virtually built into the side of it, with roads breaching around, winding up and curving down. Huge 40 story tall buildings can be seen at mid-level eye-to-eye with people within. An outdoor escalator (covered of course) even runs up the mid-levels in Central.

Hong Kong has a history of stacking things. One notable trait, much like San Francisco’s street cars is Hong Kong’s double-decker trams. Hong Kong has kept most of this classic mode of transportation running through the city as a cheap, but a bit slow and crammed option. At 2$HKD less than 25cents a trip, short rides across town are easy.

Quickly modernizing HK has developed numerous modes of transportation to move its high population around the city. The newly developed MTR subway system (about 10yrs old compared to North America where many systems are over 40 years old) is highly efficient and technologically advanced, the red taxis (decent at price), the mini buses (developed apparently because of regular transportation strikes) that run through hard to get to areas around the mountain or in Kowloon, and the modern re-interpretation of the double-decker trans – the double-decker buses.

These buses, however, are not regular buses. They are large roaring dual-level coach buses that run on complicated routes and schedules all around town. These beasts barge through town at high speeds looking as if it could mow down everyone in its path, leaving survivors in its dusty/smoggy path. It was a bit strange to see such a phenomenon (and in such numbers) in a tight inner city. They are however, highly functional and efficient. Just watch out when standing on the side of the road. They leave in an unpleasant breeze.


to come:

The Octapus card. super handy invention and payment system. Transportation systems are always interesting..


[this was an unposted post returned to from the earlier half of my trip – too much to say – not enough time to write.]

Asia sound exploration 2

Drifting: with MFA Creative Media student Nicolas from France.

Drifting I've done unintentionally throughout my past in numerous situations.

In high school bored in suburbia: driving aimlessly into interesting industrial outskirts. Partially inspired by Infiltration magazine. and later influence discovery of Situationists, which put theory to what we were doing.

Gafitti: Accompanying friends in their ventures - Aimless wandering, quality time and life - Exploration of interesting urban areas, rooftops, train tracks and bridges.


Now: Sound walks - exploring sounds of urban spaces. The new sounds, the city noise, the hum of architecture and industry. Deciphering meaning from sound, above and below city lines, and discovering new spaces.

Asia is really not accustomed to people exploring and pushing traditional uses of spaces and things. People follow rules strictly and expect everyone else to do so as well - for the greater good of the people. People don't litter, don't jaywalk, and do simply as they are told by the signs and intercom warnings surrounding you telling you - no littering, do not enter, wash your hands!, don't flush objects down the toilet, watch your belongings, no hawking... When someone is seen breaking such commonly known rules, you are shunned by the public. Perhaps the society functions better that way. Large cities are surprisingly clean and efficient. People follow rules so strictly that often security does not know how to react when people do break them.

In North America and other places, uses of places and things are often put to the extreme by curious youth. Thus the police are always hard on their backs. People are also not understanding of the activities of “art students” in Hong Kong. Some places if you are seen exploring strange places or doing something not expected, people will ignore you if you aren’t doing anything bad. People can be understanding and kind if you simply want to record the sounds for a minute within a paid area. But in Hong Kong it is utterly unacceptable. The “art student” excuse does not fly even if activities are utterly harmless.

Asia noise experiment 1

(rewind/rewrite)

Karaoke Noise

After the Cao Fei's opening, Thai food, and drinks at a quiet spot in SOHO, we had the choice of either going home or finding something else to do.

For such a big city, Hong Kong really doesn't have much going on in terms of nightlife and culture. People don't go out much. Seems like all they do is work. Bar/club district Lan Kwai Fong is full of Western-washed Chinese, foreigners and expats. It is not in the Chinese culture to drink a lot, party and socialize in a club context. Chinese people enjoy food - Lots and lots of food and talking loudly… or yelling.

So is there a Chinese youth culture? What do Chinese young people do for fun? Is there such thing as Chinese youth culture like the ever so vibrant Harajuku kids etc? Cao Fei explores this in her work, but COSplayers also originally began as a Japanese trend.

One distinct modern Asian phenomenon and youth passed-time is Karaoke. This is not talking small trashy Brasseries with old local drunks singing their favorite French country western song; this is talking serious karaoke - Private booths, ultra reverberated mics, flashy TV screens, Asian pop songs..

I don’t think any of us were really there for the Karaoke. We just wanted something to do and experience at least once. Wilson, Enoch (the locals), Luke (Providence, RI) and me all went to kick the shit – the real deal at Causeway Bay.

Art & Play

Put 4 art kids in a room with 4 mics, and pa and what is there to come?
Karaoke noise. Feedback, ultra-reverb haunting vocals, noise beat pulses, in contrast to Pop star Kary’s heartfelt wailing in the background.

Video to come.

Play: is about exploring. Exploring materials, mediums, boundaries of the world given to you. It is about discover and finding all possibilities within freedom.

hero-of-the-town

Beijing's apparent "hero" of the town in the music and art scene is experimental/electronic duo FM3 - A group most known for their production of the Budda Machine. Criticised for it's commerical value and craze amongst hipsters (and fm3's growing commercial interest as a result), the budda machine is a device appropriated from tape boxes sold outside of Buddist temples with monk chanting loops. FM3 took these box inventions and put their own loops inside for your own use and easy listening. These boxes have sold nearly 10,000 around the world at about 25$US.

FM3 will be performing at White Noise Records in Hong Kong March 25 2006 with New Fairfield Parks and Recreation - $80HK

budda machine diagram



FM3 also had an appearance at last years Montreal's Mutek festival.

China Muzak

Amongst the minority that listens to music and follows pop-culture, and amongst the minority of that minority that don't listen to Asian pop, American imitation bands or even more the minority that don't listen to old skool Chinese punk rock or *nu-metal(!?)/raunchy metal or jam bands, the Chinese underground is surprisingly experimental and avant-garde.

"CHINESE ROCKS"(CHINA　Punk　-　from the Discorder - Vancouver indie webrag)

Unlike in North America where the independent music scene has been strongly driven by various genres of post-punk, indie rock for the past few years, China seems to either be wallowing in old-school punk rock (Rancid style） or forging ahead into experimental electronic, improv/experimental, minimal/ambient, noise, as well as folk.


It seems China skipped an entire step that the rest of the world seems to be embracing. There are still people here producing indie pop rock, but it is mostly a mish-mash minority influence from expats.

Reconfiguration Records – experimental, electronic
2pi - noise/experimental
Sub Jam / Kwanyin - experimental /electronic / sound art
Shan-Shui Records (Landscape in English..) - electronic
River Music - folk/rock
Modern Sky - rock/pop big indie label kinda like China's Subpop
Mam – old rock label from the 80’s
Scream Records - metal

thanks to Jon from MidiFestival for showing me some things about Beijing. As well as the friendly people at Sugar Jar - record store who battled through broken english to show me music.

Expat Culture:

Modern culture (music and art industry) in Asian cities are developed and dominated by expats. Often industry heads are expatriates from the West or western educated locals.

As expats settle, expats create a community similar to their own back home. As a result, bars, clubs, taverns, sprout up in districts providing a place for socializing and entertainment for these businessmen on their evenings and weekends. Expats influence a lot of local culture introducing music trends and bar/club culture. But since expats come from all over the world, they create a rather sporadic and disjunctive local community that seems to lack a distinct cohesiveness and quality. Businessmen are often not pros in culture. They will virtually soak up anything that is thrown at them even if it is a cheap rip-off of London parties. Most clubs and bars are filled with globally-minded locals and expatriates’ trying to make it seem like it’s the rest of the world.





* aside: China has a bizarre fascination with nu-metal I have yet to understand

in the moment.

i swear i will put some real content here again soon.. not just pictures and names to entertain.

no time to reflect these days.

Beijing

Beijing makes me feel that China really does have 20-30 years before it's global take over. It's a baffling and fascinating city. Amongst low crumbling traditional housing are bars, dj clubs and thrift stores.