A relaxed trip in Taipei metro 2, Hon-Shu-Lin, 9am

This morning I had the second chance to collect my 'relaxed journey' of Taipei metro. I normally feel good in the ride between Tamsui and Peito. However, because I was in a hurry to go to apply for Canadian visa, despite being in the 'relaxed path', I was not relaxed at all. In this case, should I record or not? In other words, I was not relaxed but the soundscape of the route was relaxed (Defined by whom? the public?). For the purpose of producing a 'relaxed journey', should I take my mood or the soundscape of the journey as the principle to define 'relaxation'?

I chose the former and I recorded on the way home.

A relaxed trip in Taipei metro, Hon-Shu-Lin, 17pm

I planned to record a piece of my auditory memories of Taiwan. It is a journey with Taipei metro that should be relaxed. Taipei metro is new, spatious and clean. It is also pretty quiet. It's very common to see passengers taking a nap during the trip.

When I take the London tube, its rediculous noise and everywhere rubish often remind me of the comfort of Taipei metro.

I was ready to record the sound of Taipei metro. After I got on the train, I heard a constant noise that badly broke my aimmed relaxation. 'Looking' around, I realised that it was the vibration of a ventilator's cover! Hey, this is not supposed to happen in my auditory memories of Taiwan! In Schafer's term, the noise of this loose cover has broken my 'sound romance'! After one minute, I could not bear with it and I turned the recorder off. I decided to find a 'proper' metro to record the 'relaxed journey'.

Recording auditory memories

To record a piece of auditory memory means to record an original sonic event that has finished. Even if the original sound source is still sounding and the event remains happening, since the surrounded people, weather and architecture have all changed, the sound we hear now is no longer the same as the original one. In this case, to record audio memories is to ask for a sounding object or a person to perform. What I record is the documentation of sounds' performance.

To record auditory memories, I, the recordist, perform to be a speaker or be silent.
To record auditory memories, the sound object or the person, performs to make sounds.

Recording auditory memories involves activities of performance. Is it a performance?

Cotton candy making, Bali, 3:30pm

When waiting for the street vendor making a cotton candy for us, all we can do is to look at the bamboo stick twisting with sugar webs emitted from the spinning machine. Unlike other street vending business, there is no specific sound made to attract the customers. The only sound it produces is the spinning machine. It's neither loud nor quiet but people do ignore its existence. When I play the sound back to my parents, they cannot tell what it is.

Unfortunately, because there was no customer making an order during the recording, listeners have difficulties to tell the sound source from the recording. I am thus puzzled: Before turning off the recording button, should I say to the vendor 'I would like to have a cotton candy please'? If I do so, the listeners would understand what the recording is about. However, what I record would become a performance rather than a cultural documentation. Should I consider issues of recording morality? Or should I give communication the priority? In fact, even if I try to keep myself silent during recording, it is a performance. There seems to be a dilemma between sounding and unsounding of a recordist.

A factory worker, Tamsui, 11am

When visiting a factory, I asked a worker what his favourite sound is in the factory (this is an old and boring question often seen in soundscape studies but still, very accessible and useful!). I wondered if it should be the bell of lunch break. He replied yes but then hesitated for a second. He said, 'oh, no. It should be the bell of going home.' He explained to me that the bell of lunch break is ok but when he thought about the routine dishes offered by the same restaurant, he lost the excitement.

The sensation of listening is connected by his appetite?! Interesting!

Peito market, Taipei, 12:30-1:30pm

I shopped with my mum in the Peito market. Yells of street vendors, conversations between the different vendors and us, sounds of chickens and traffic... I love this place so much since I was little. The market enables me to feel the warmth of my birthplace and the local people.

Metro escalator, Taipei train station, 12pm

Because of the recent escalator accident, Taipei metro starts to hire many staffs to remind passengers the awareness of safety. Standing at the end of escalators, they repeat: 'Grab the arm firmly, stand along the right-hand side, be careful when stepping in and out of the escalators...'. These staffs use amplified speaker cones to chant the reminders all day long. This is a new sound in Taipei. How long will the sound last? This new strategy of Taipei metro is rather political. I believe that the company is scared of be blamed by the public and politicians. Comparing to the escalators in London tube, Taipei metro has provided very excellent safety for the passengers!

Perhaps we should also consider a suggestion given by a reader of the Liberty Times. He believes that the accident was caused by the fancy but highly distracted audio-visual advertisements installed around the escalators.

New sounds keep generating. Reasons of generation are varied. The sounds out of politics sometimes really irritate me.

Eating in a hot pot restaurant, Tamsui, 7pm

For some reason, the automatic door of this restaurant makes the same 'din-dong~' sound as the convenient shop 7-11. Once I started to have this thought, the more door rings I hear, the more I felt strange at eating here-- how come I would eat a hot pot in 7-11?!

My bed, Tamsui, 7am

After returning from London, this is my first morning lying on the bed at home. I heard unfamiliar sound. It is like drilling into a wall. I woke up to find it. It was my father doing something I have never seen before-- he was grinding coffee beans with a machine.

I arrived home last night. Because the toilet and shower have changed to the new ones, many familiar sounds have gone.

I return to Taiwan to record nostalgic sounds, the familiar sounds of home, but many things have been changed. I also realise that there is a sound frequently exists in Taiwan but has been ignored. It is the rain sound which does not exist in my auditory memories of Taiwan while I was in London. And in fact, travelling all the way from London, it is the sound I really want to avoid in order to collect the targeted sounds!

Before landing at Thailand

When the flight is about to land, as usual, the pilot speaks to the passengers about welcome, weather etc. I wonder why all the pilots have mature and attractive voices. They all sound very 'pilot'!

Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Terminal 3, Zone 2, 18:30pm

I suddenly realise what the sounds of the London tube are. The reason I finally learn perhaps is because I am listening to them when the tube is running in an open space. The sounds are: 1) the high pitch of wind (because the train runs); 2) the low pitch of train running on the rail track; 3) The announcement broadcast by the tube driver; 4) the conversations and sounds made by the passengers.