Upclose with Yeung Yang
Yeung Yang is a curator dedicated to using “sound art” to help us experience and connect to our surroundings. Her sound art group Soundpocket is hosting Around Sound Festival. she talks to Pandie Ho about how sounds are different through her ears.
HK Magazine: How did you develop an interest in sounds?
Yeung Yang: In 2003 I saw “L’écho,” an award-winning artwork by Luxembourg artist Tse Su-mei. It’s a video of her playing cello in a deep green valley. It’s really amazing and moving—you feel that you’re part of the whole scene. Before that I knew nothing about sound art at all. I decided that I would bring sound art into Hong Kong so other people will be influenced, just as I was.
HK: Why did you start Soundpocket?
YY: I chatted with everyone, from sound engineers to classical musicians, about how the radio plays poor music nowadays. There’s a lot of rubbish in terms of sound—I wouldn’t even call it noise, because noise is a legitimate category in sound art. We decided that Hong Kong could do much better, as people here are concerned with local history. There is a whole side of history that can and should be listened to, and not just seen or built or conserved in a physical sense.
HK: Which sound do you think captures Hong Kong best?
YY: I wouldn’t say it is representative, but the “doot” of Octopus cards dominates the everyday soundscape. But I miss the sounds of the coins going through the slots on public vehicles.
HK: Any difficulties of organizing sound art events in Hong Kong?
YY: The density of the environment and congestion in Hong Kong makes it very hard to get people to listen to things. For example, my friend from the US came to visit Hong Kong and was near Victoria Harbor during the light show. He didn’t know the show existed and was frightened by the fireworks as they sounded like bombs. Every skyscraper amplifies the sounds and the city becomes a sound box—you can’t determine where the sound comes from and how far away it is. I think we have to do something about it because it takes away something very vital from us as human beings.
HK: How is the idea of “listening” in sound art different from our daily concept of hearing things?
YY: We treat “listening” very much as a process. For example, sound artist Akio Suzuki performed a piece on the beach last year. The listeners were immersed in a natural environment, which already came with a rich layer of sounds. No musical instruments were used; the only other sound came from bottles that Suzuki placed in the sea to clink against each other. In sound art, the conditions and parameters are different from listening in a music concert because in a concert, you are concentrating on listening to the orchestra, but not absorbing the space. They wouldn’t want you to listen to the air-conditioning in the concert halls.
“Around Sound Art Festival & Retreat” will be held on Aug 20 to Sep 9.