Participants are mostly professional graphic designers or are currently studying the subject matter. This is an anti-commercial workshop, insisting that we do without goals, quit communications, and stop searching for meanings. We limit audio and visual materials within this room, and ask participants to listen to whatever they hear.
Properly speaking, participants are not making vision design for sounds they hear, but for their act of listening. They hear the details of this room, but more than that, in the act of listening, they re-create the room. Not only do they hear the sound object, but also they hear the movement of themselves as objects.
In the process of listening, the subject detaches from the self, both of which move towards dissolution. One not only listens to sounds of surroundings, but also to one's self and to realities affected by the self.
In the process of listening, environment is no longer a separate object isolated from the subject. A room is more than a pure architecture, that is, a space to be measured. The sounds of and in a room are not objects like fruits or vases on display, waiting to be captured.
These participants have not yet learnt to be professional listeners, who often hold their breath, act quietly and pretend not to exist. They have not had the chance to try participating in the sound event, using their activities to affect realities captured by the recorder. They are in-between the two self-conscious states.
Track 7 is recorded while been half-asleep. Recorder is placed by the head of the bed, without monitoring.
In the workshop, we talked about spectacle and garbage heap.
The desire for a wonderful new world contributes to the prosperity of cosmetic and advertising industries. Every day, People are promised the other shore.
This enclosed room is our shell. What we hear is the self without meanings or goals. We are more vulnerable to vibrations than these architectures. These architectures never initiate sounds, like us.
credits
released October 1, 2011
Track 1-6: afternoon, August 22, 2011. One room on the third floor of W+K Shanghai at No.1035 Changle Road Shanghai. Participants listen to live sounds randomly selected by Yan Jun via recorder. Recording device: Edirol R09 portable recorder. Contact Microphones are used throughout with the exception of track 5.
Track 7: early morning, August 20, 2011. Room 7007 Motel 168. No. 1085 Wuding Xilu, Shanghai. Recorded by Yan Jun with Edirol R09.
Pictures for Track 1-6: According to what they hear, participants name sounds and make vision design. This session is led by Ruan Qianrui.
01, graphic design: James Chu
02, graphic design: Wang Cong
03, graphic design: Tan Yunfan
04, graphic design: Ryan Hu
05, graphic design: Young
06, graphic design: Zhang Xiaochen
translation from Chinese into English: Adel Wang Jing
Sub Jam is a label and organization based in Beijing. Since 2000, it had working on underground music, film and literature. Now focus on improvised music and experimental sound practice.
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