Shimmering Lenses

through which one field

might perceive another.

 

Metis (local knowledge)

Entrainment

seasonal literacy

….

The Chinese Lunar Calendar
consists of 24 solar terms

In this video,
you see/hear
the time of Summer Solstice.
The time between
the 21st of June 2019
and
the 6th of July 2019
…

 

The Power of Place

In the place passing
in front of your eyes
as you are watching this film

trees could walk
and
rocks could talk

in the beginning.

 

It has been written:

‘After the source of the sound

 falls

 silent…

 …the sound persists 

…

…for as long
as it takes for
all sound waves
that have not been absorbed
to reach

the listener’

 

How do we help

ourselves
and
others

to listen for a better life

?

 

The Power of Place

and

 

Metereo
clouds, rain, the things of interest
to famers and sailors

and

 

Encounters
daily life, anecdotes,
the things of interest to humans

 

 

 

‘She writes me’….

I imagine
years of vibration
tigthly bound
in space…

  

‘she writes…’

Of a place
where real and
imagined
knowledge
meet…

 

‘…evokes a location…’ 

…where listening
encourages
(new) styles of contact
with human
and
non human bodies
at distance…

 

She writes of

the fifth ear

 

…and returns
the memory of origin

when humans knew

that rocks hear.

 

 

‘Metis’ is an expression, in this context, coined by anthropologist James Scott

 

Bibliography

Baumann, D & Niederstätter, C. (2016) Acoustics in Sacred Buildings. Building Types Online, edited by Oliver Heckmann. Berlin, Boston. Birkhäuser.

Black, C.F. (2011) the land is the source of the law. Routledge, UK

Leon, E. (2023)  All the Things Perceptible Within & In-Between: The Fifth Ear & New Styles of Contact. a row of trees, Vol 2, Issue 1 Journal of the Sonic Art Research Unit, Oxford.

McKhann, C. (2012). Origin and Return: Genesis And The Souls Of The Dead In Naxi Myth And Ritual. A copy of this paper was kindly forwarded by the author per e-mail.

 

Many thanks to

Ricardo Gallo and Yang Zhemin (composer/musician)

John McCowen (composer/musician)

He Xingsheng also known as the PingPong Master (may he rest in peace)

Sara A Che 阿车木兰允笛

Paula A Che 阿车木兰丹珠

and He Jixing. (Fixer, friend, filmmaker)