Sounds in Need of Protection-Assignment 2(Norah)
Sounds in Need of Protection-Assignment 2
Norah(Jiaqing Jin)
I came up with several themes for this assignment, but in the end, it just didn't seem as meaningful and interesting as the one I originally wanted to do. Inspired by R. Murray Schafer’s book, I hope to find some of the dying sounds in Hong Kong that needed to be protected immediately. Although I am not so familiar with Hong Kong, I looked up a lot of information online to locate some old shops and historic places. I was fortunate to have heard these sounds in their original form and recorded them, because it is likely that decades from now, our descendants will only be able to hear these recordings or even recordings of recordings. These are not only sounds but also the trajectory of human life and culture. To record and protect these sounds is also to preserve the great human history.
All the recordings were produced by Sony PCM-D50 with binaural mic. The challenges I encountered while recording included the people and the environment. The owners of those shops are mostly elderly people and only speak Cantonese, so there were some difficulties in obtaining permission to record. And some didn’t welcome me because they were afraid of disturbing business. The biggest environmental disturbance was the wind. For each recording, I needed to avoid wind noise by constantly adjusting the position of the recorder. In conclusion, the result is a mixture of both satisfying and underwhelming sounds, but it was a meaningful trip for sure.
Another interesting thing, in the course of my research, I found a German website dedicated to recording some dying sounds in order to conserve them. Here is the URL: https://www.conservethesound.de/en/category/sound-en.
Introduction of the location: As I got off the bus at Sheung Wan, on my way to my third location, I suddenly saw something inconspicuous on the road, a telephone booth.
Context: I remembered that the last time I saw the telephone booth was in high school. I walked into the phone booth feeling like I was a strange person on this road. Being in a telephone booth isolated a portion of the city noise. The telephone looked to have been in existence for many years and showed signs of age. First, I picked up the receiver(0:03), and started to press the number keys(0:07). Finally, I also tried to let the thick phone line to make a sound(0:40).
Introduction of the location: Select 18 is located on 14 Tung Street, Sheung Wan. This antique shop contains a collection of old Hong Kong artifacts dating back decades. For example, decades of newspapers and matchboxes, aged fans and typewriters, etc. The items in the shop could even form a small history of the development of Hong Kong.
Context: Actually, I would have preferred to record the sound of a typewriter. But because the fan in the shop was on so high, I had to adjust my recording position several times to avoid the wind noise, and then realized that the typewriter was in a position where it was impossible to avoid it. So I turned to record the sound of an old-fashioned telephone. In order to record a cleaner sound, I placed the equipment on the cabinet at the back of the telephone. I recorded three different telephones(0:00, 0:30, and 1:00), but they all needed to be dialed by turning round every time for each number.
Introduction of the location: Lux Theater is located on 2J Bulkeley Street, 852 Kowloon. It is the only theatre in Hong Kong that still retains the traditional way of selling tickets on paper for over 50 years. In addition, it still remains the traditional theatre decoration style of the 1970s. The old-fashioned weight machine is placed at the entrance. As few people in Hong Kong had weight machines at home in the 1960s, many traditional theaters would have this machine at the door, and it can be said to be representative of theaters of that era. The audience could throw in a two-dollar coin to be weighed before entering and a small card would then be printed with the weight written on it. However, with the close down of the traditional theaters, the machine eventually disappeared. Fortunately, a collector was willing to keep this machine in Lux Theater, so that I could be able to experience it once.
Introduction of the location: It is located on 436A Shanghai Street, Yau Tsim Mong District. Almost all the curtains in the store are sewn by the owner herself with a sewing machine.
Context: I recorded the sound of the sewing machine when it was working. The background music came from the radio in the shop. In the second half of the recording, a customer came in and talked to the owner about what I was doing.
Introduction of the location: Located on 345 Shanghai Street, Lihe Scale Shop has a history of more than 80 years. It still insists on selling measuring instruments such as scales and abacuses, which are about to disappear.
Context: I recorded the sound of the abacus, which was easier to make a sound.
Introduction of the location: The old Shanghai-style barber stores in Hong Kong still have hair dryers and perms from the last century. Unfortunately, due to the decreasing number of customers, there are now very few such shops left in Hong Kong, and the first one I went to was closed during the covid. The staff in the store are all middle-aged and elderly, and the customers are all in that age group as well.
Context: I recorded the sound of the stereo playing inside the store. JBL 4425 studio monitor was the first large woofer of the company and was produced 40 years ago. The sound came from it was really soft and warm. But because the store was kind of small and there were many customers shopping for goods, there was some chatter in the recording.
Introduction of the location: It is a residence located on 425 Queen's Avenue West. The elevator of the building originated in the last century and requires manual operation of the gates.
Context: First I pressed the button to let the elevator down, and the elevator arrived rapidly(0:09). After pulling the outside gate(0:12), then I open the inside grille door(0:14)and entered the elevator. I pressed the button twice(0:25, 0:40)to let it work. And finally, I went out by managing the doors again(0:55). The fan in the elevator was on high. In the elevator, I turned the microphone down to avoid the wind noise, but I couldn't control some of the sharp noise and wind noise because it took me a lot of effort to push the door in and out.
Introduction of the location: The radio is from a small newsstand on Queen's Road West.
Context: This radio can also play tapes, so I pressed a few buttons to open the disk(0:14). I also tried to switch the channels(0:30). You can hear the noise of the radio, especially during the switching.
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