interview w/ Yang Yeung curator of 'In Midair'

Sound Works Hong Kong

L'echo - Su Mei Tse

Since sound is invisible we may not notice it, but it surrounds us and affects us on an unconscious level. In a city with such a powerful and distinctive sound, many people have become impervious to sounds and noises. Sound contains no physical or material object beyond vibrations in the air. It relies on experience and requires sensitivity to perception. In Midair is a unique festival that centres upon this ethereal element that often goes unnoticed.

We had a few words with organizer and curator Yang Yeung:

With In Midair what do you hope to inspire about sound in Hong Kong?

I hope that In Midair first, refreshes our sensory experience, recalls those senses we use so often, but may have still forgotten, second, reminds us that listening isn’t about amplification; it doesn’t have to be about suffocating each other; listening could be about making peace with oneself, listening to oneself, listening to what one is listening, how one is listening; and third, that there are so many sound designs in our city, good ones and bad ones, and it’s sheer fun just to think about them and generate ideas from them.

Sound is often a very secondary element to sight or visual arts. What interests you about sound? How does sound inspire or communicate to you?

I don’t think sound is secondary, but as of now, the way our society has chosen to present itself, yes, sound has been sidelined. And yet it is not- sound is always used, but as if always just to ‘illustrate’ the visual. And there is this whole historical-political regime of how seeing is believing. Sound is as if one doesn’t have to care too much about it. It can take care of itself, as long as there is something. Let the cd play, let the background music play... I guess there is a lot more care that could be with sound.

Our home needs to care more about our sonic experience. Listen to all these public announcements- on the ferry (welcoming you on board), in the MTR, the background music played in shopping malls...all of them mediated by technology. I don’t have anything against sound technology itself, but I find myself asking, are we listening to technology or are we Listening? This kind of use of technology is alienating. There are other kinds, other ways of use, other artistic appropriations that are not. But this, yes.

Who are some of the artists involved in In Midair?

Some works I chose based on the way the artists approach their own work - Cedric (for his often tireless trials and errors, and the discipline he has always applied to even just what is known as improvisation), Anson (for her way of gathering ideas, going around, being open to her surroundings); Su-Mei (I just couldn’t forget her work since I first encountered it in the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003), Anthony and Kawai (for their systems relating to sound engineering, and the spatial qualities these seemingly very technical systems can create, that give us spatial experiences that everyone can connect to), Cheuk Wa (for his research-based approach to creating works- this one generated from many listening experiences he has had in the HK Island Central harbor front, and his research into the map of HK since the 19th century, which showed how the coastline has changed), and Robert (who composed this audio work that was his experience of Hong Kong 1997). And last but not least, Felix Hess - I don’t know how to describe it. I first encountered his works on paper. The way he writes is like someone slowly whispering to you an old-time story. Over and over again, whispering.

All the works share the commonalities of - first, listening as an introspective experience AND an experience of the external world simultaneously; listening as not only to content and meaning, but space and time.
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In Midair opens Saturday June 16th @ Kapok in Tin Hau and is exhibiting at various locations in the city. For more info: www.soundworkshongkong.net