When
the still camera was invented, it was at first black and white.
Then when colour came, it let the people see the world in
ways never before imagined. It was possible to take
photos throughout the entire day, and play them back in a
certain way. For example, when taking pictures of the
skyline, each frozen frame was shown back as a time-lapse
or frozen moment in time, revealing hundreds of beautiful
shades of amber, indigo and violet, as the sun moved through
the day, from sunrise to sunset, shining through the ever
changing cloud shapes and patterns.
Therefore, common photographers became very curious about
the world around them and many, more like scientists, enjoyed
the delights of being able to zoom-in on details of our world,
previously unnoticed and un-appreciated.
Then the silent movie came along... And then sound.
Naturally - or perhaps - not so naturally, sound was not used
in the same way as the still camera. The number one priority
for sound, was to apply it to movies, disk-music and later,
radio.
But with a little thought, sound can be made to act and be
much appreciated in the same way as the still image. We
can record our entire day, and play it back in a matter of
moments. This way we can hear and notice clearly, all
the 'soundscapes' (as opposed to 'landscapes') that make up
our everyday life, which certainly do go un-appreciated, and
constantly 'escape' us.
It was with this knowledge that Glen Clifford made the second
part of his series of Soundscape segments, 'The Streets of
Taipei - One Day in My Street' (for part 1, go here).
To emphasize how sound can 'escape', much in the same
way that a precious photographic opportunity can be lost,
one portion of this latest project was particularly hard to
obtain: The postman -
Glen wanted to record the postman as he delivered the mail
to the boxes around his apartment, but a dog started barking
loudly (as they tend to do at postmen), followed by the passing
of a huge truck. These were not adding anything to the
postman recording, rather detracting. The postman has
a distinct voice and a human quality, that signals the arrival
of mail, news... It is a cultural phenomenon that needs
to be captured as clearly as possible. After the failure of
the first take, Glen followed the postman, as he delivered
further down the street, then finally, around the corner into
a little alley. At last, some 'good tape' (today, digital)
was recorded.
'The Streets of Taipei - One Day in My Street' contains 15
different recordings (or little soundscapes), made over 24
hours (Glen stayed awake the entire time)... In fact, each
little recording is more like an entirely different scene,
with its own theme and ambience... To emphasize time, a real
clock was recorded (no - not a sound effects disc!) This
ticking helps to break up the different aural scenes, creating
a 16:15 time-lapse that represents 24 hours of sound, - amazingly,
from just one location.
Glen hopes that this latest work will encourage people to
take more notice of the beautiful sounds around them, and
also inspire a few to record their own streets.
As always, in the absence of
good quality stereo speakers, wearing good quality headphones
brings out the best in these recordings.
Streets
of Taipei - One Day in My Street
3.00AM - Frogs in little gully down the street.
They start, and they stop. It seems that a male frog is the
conductor of it all.
5.00AM - Very early birds.
The very early birds seem to have softer voices.
7.00AM - Morning birds waking up. The morning
birds are more extroverted, having distinctive voices and
other 'attention seeking' mechanisms!
12.00PM - Mr
Postman... Come rain, hale or shine (and today is intermittent
rain with heavy humidity), we hear his voice. In Taiwan, a
LOT of ordinary mail is registered, as registration is quite
cheap. For example, some banks mail all their standard account
statements through registered mail. Therefore, we continuously
hear 'Mr Wang/Lee/Tsou, registered mail for you'... They don't
bother yelling out if it's paid-for junk mail they are delivering!
Taiwan postman should get extra health cover for using their
voices all day. Postman also (when possible) press the door-bell...
But here's something amazing: In Taiwan, 95 percent of houses
use the same door-bell! ... Well, to be precise, it's more
like a 'door-bird'... Almost all apartments and houses have
it.... You can hear the door-bird go off (in this recording),
just before the postman deliverers a registered letter to
me. By the way, that buzzing you can sometimes hear is from
air-conditioning - everywhere in the neighborhood (and extremely
hard to avoid recording). What you can appreciate hearing
is the postman's fast foot-work, as he dashes around putting
mail in about 20 boxes, before getting on his motorcycle
to deliver further down the street (he probably thought I
was some member of a foreign spy agency when I started following
him with my microphones).
12:45PM - Children have a hose and bucket
water-fight... Their father returns (on motorbike) and also
gets 'attacked'. These were children visiting their grandfather
in the next apartment, so easy to record. Soon after, the
water
department came to do some work on the drainage, but this
sound was not worth recording!
2.30PM - Traveling stinky tofu seller (with
repulsive harassing announcement, - I would never buy from
this guy, even if I could tolerate the taste of it)... Followed
by another seller - selling... I don't know what he's selling,
maybe a window repair service... AT THE SAME TIME - A man
practicing the rhythm/drum beat for a Buddhist parade group,
with makeshift fake drum (as he would annoy the neighbors
even more if he had anything like the real temple drum in
his apartment!)
3.20PM - Girl practicing piano, trying to
play theme from Doreamon cartoon. AT THE SAME TIME - The sound
of a thousand aluminum roofs crackling and expanding, as the
sun and humidity come back again.
6.00PM - Taiwanese Ambulance siren. It's
trying to get through peak hour traffic to save somebody's
life, a regular occurrence. For various reasons, including
poor driver courtesy/training, Ambulances in Taipei have a
really hard time getting to their destinations.
7.30PM - Going to the corner store, Family
Mart, to get some milk. The sound of JPOP (Japanese pop music)
is quite normal on Taiwan radio. It is as common as hearing
a British song on U.S radio or vice versa. Among it all, is
the famous Family Mart door chime that sounds quite loudly
- thousands of times a day, as every customer walks in, and
out again.
8.15PM - A 50ish couple walking in the rain,
loafing in their rubber slippers. This is a familiar sound
of Taiwan, where people are not taught to pick up their feet
while walking. They put up their umbrellas when it starts
to drizzle again.
10.00PM - The nightly (except Wednesdays
and Sundays) rubbish [U.S= garbage] truck with its electronic
classical jingle. Yes, it really does come at 10.00PM! This
jingle is played by hundreds of rubbish/garbage trucks across
Taipei, at various times of the day, depending on local government
collection schedules.
11.00PM - Girl cat giving her regular mating
recital, calling for any boy cats that may be in the neighborhood
(they make the agony 'in-pain' sound before having sex...)
12.00AM - Night insects
in nearby embankment.
The stereo effect in this is minor, but after a short time,
it becomes substantial - as a result of the constantly impenetrable
insect recital.
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