wi watt'heure #35
Be Water
soundpocket, Fiona Lee et l’écho des luttes à Hong Kong

Par Elena Biserna & Carole Rieussec

« Be water » (Soyez de l’eau) a été le mot d’ordre des mouvements à Hong Kong commencés au printemps 2019 suite à l’imposition de l’« extradition bill » qui permet d’extrader en Chine toute personne qui aurait contrevenu à la loi  décrétant, de fait, la fin de l’indépendance juridique du territoire. Les hongkongais·es ont repris ce célèbre dicton de Bruce Lee – « be water » – comme stratégie de lutte pour être fluides, occuper tous les espaces, affluer en masse et se disperser, s'adapter à toute situation, se réinventer continuellement, fabriquer des tactiques toujours renouvelées sur le terrain comme sur les réseaux. Les artistes ont activement participé à cette vague massive de protestations et contribué à bâtir ses imaginaires ainsi qu’à transmettre et partager l’expérience hongkongaise par delà les frontières. 

wi watt’heure #35 amplifie l’écho de cette vague en se mettant à l’écoute des artistes qui s’y sont engagées via l’écoute, l’enregistrement et la production sonore. Nous invitons Fiona Lee – une artiste travaillant entre la performance et l’installation qui, dès le début du mouvement, a publié ses field recordings des manifestations sur les réseaux – et Mandy Chan et Vanessa Lai pour soundpocket – une organisation indépendante dédiée à l’art sonore à Hong Kong et travaillant sur la collection d’enregistrements via sa bibliothèque sonore. 

Nous discutons des mouvements sociaux hongkongais des dernières années, de leur évolution, de leur engagement en tant qu’artistes et travailleuses de la culture. Entre réflexions et récits personnels, elles nous parlent des slogans, des différentes tactiques vocales introduites par les manifestant·es, du rôle des chansons et des flash mob « Sing with you » dans la propagation de la lutte dans la vie quotidienne. On s’immerge dans les field recordings de Fiona Lee, une archive sonore de plus d’une année de mobilisation, et dans les sons d’autres artistes qui ont également participé au mouvement. 

Avec les voix de Fiona Lee, Mandy Chan et Vanessa Lai pour soundpocket 
Des field recordings par Fiona Lee dispersés tout le long de l’entretien 
Un extrait de l’installation Sound Lennon Wall par RC Team
Et des extraits de l’album Day After (Soundpocket, 2016).

Image: Lennon Wall, Hong Kong. Courtesy soundpocket

wi watt'heure #35. Be Water. soundpocket, Fiona Lee et l’écho des luttes à Hong Kong

210829 soft & hard

‘Open Wave-Receiver’ is an audio how-to guide from Shortwave Collective. In this piece, we share instructions on how to construct self-powered radio receivers, from the print version of our forthcoming 'how-to-guide' for Make Magazine. The work collages sounds of ourcollective, engaged in the processes of making and listening (includingrecordings made during a residency at Buinho Creative Hub, Portugal), as well as the sounds of our materials, our experimentation and workshopping, and finally, the signals received by the Open Wave-Receivers.

Open Wave-Receiver

Recorded Live at Electrowerkz | Apr22, 2022

TRACKLIST
Crystal Moon - Lotus
Jonquera - Bénédictin
Jung DJ - Untitled 20
Between Interval - Eden In Shadows
Toki Fuko - What will enlightenment give me
Mittelstandskinder Ohne Strom - Gone
Poperttelli - 2000CC
TassiloVanhoefen - Fatique Moche
Hol Baumann - Radio Bombay
TassiloVanhoefen - Albach Hida Financial
Del.Duc - Prométhée (Low Break Mix)
Marco Shuttle - Tombak Healer
David Toop, Jon Hassell - Slow Loris Versus Poison Snail
Shortparis - The noise of the great Tom
Coil - Theme
Bob Holroyd - Adrift in Kerala
Mind~Flux - Space Blues
Between Interval - The Tides of Time
AES DANA - Memory Shell - Mindgames Festival Live version
Pillow Queens - Salvation
The Dude Of Stratosphear - Ricochet
Warp Technique - Nightbreak
The Infinity Project - Morfioso
Nathan Micay - He Has The Key
Volor Flex - Day's End
Robert Leiner - Visions of the Past
Olorun - Unexpected Pearls (Simone Bauer Rework)
Amorph - Mystic Revolution

https://www.outsavvy.com/event/8384/riposte-queer-techno-art-rave

[Ambient] Tripped Out in the Sex Room

170 DnB ..sliding into.. 160 Techno

The sounds of a protest rally held at the Hong Kong Cultural Center in Tsim Sha Tsui on  18 September 1996.  

I cannot speak Cantonese but managed to learn that the protest was regarding the Diaoyu Islands sovereignty dispute (between China, Japan and Taiwan), as well as to mark the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

Map: http://g.co/maps/cztfp

Protest Rally in Kowloon, Hong Kong, 1996

As Fiona Lee’s debut release, the album was recorded during the early days of her auditory journey between 2011 and 2016. The arrangement of the 7 pieces display the interaction of field recordings with electronic music. Audience could learn about how she listens in daily life, performances and sound installations. “Walking in a daze” refers to the state of her listening habits. By mixing soft noise and field recordings, the album expresses emotions and feelings on different spaces and personal memories.

Walking in a daze

02 Catch The Wings Of The Meteros

Excerpt of live performance at Volksroom, Brussels 03.02.20

Auditory Fantasy

The movement we fought for loops like the tide. May we be some kind of micro organism that evolves in the face of obstacles, that perseveres through an enhancement of flexibilities? A loop gives rise to other loops, moving back and forth. How far could we go beyond the agony of distances and the fear that one feels in the wave? In this piece, the sonic experience summarises my feelings in the face of the local and global issues of the last year.

Artist Biography

Born in Hong Kong, artist Fiona Lee observes the act of listening as practice where she feels the movement of every single moment. Her works are derived from the intersection between installation and improvisation and she integrates her performances with built-up electronics and DIY sound objects in order to create new experiences of space with musicians and audiences.  Lee’s installations and performance have featured at a number of art festivals, including Playfreely festival (Singapore, 2019), Intersection In Mid Air (Hong Kong, 2019), ART CAMP TANGO 2017 (Japan), ifva Carnival 2016 (Hong Kong), Around Sound Art Festival 2014 (Japan), Transi(en)t Manila Project Glocal 2014 (Philippines), Asian Meeting Festival 2016 (Japan) and Kill the Silence Festival (Hong Kong).

Fiona Lee: in a loop, how far we could go beyond

Hong Kong Protest, Reimagined for Cities and Memory

Joel Stern (Liquid Architecture) joins Francis Parker (MUMA) for an open-ended conversation on the work of Samson Young focussing on the artist's conceptual approaches to questions of sound, listening, technology, history and material culture.

Image: Samson Young, The World Falls Apart into Facts, 2019. Installation view, Samson Young: Real Music, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2020. Photo: Andrew Curtis

02 Catch The Wings Of The Meteros

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