(Un)familiar Territories is a series of headphone walks which transport the listener to the streets of Shanghai or Harbin while taking in the sights of Manchester city center.
Leading Chinese sound artists Yan Jun and Hitlike (real name Zhang Liming) have created carefully edited sound works linked to locations on a half hour walk around Manchester city center.
Using noises captured from the bustling markets, streets, restaurants and industrial sites of their respective cities, the works offer an experience of everyday life in China as the listener encounters familiar territories in unfamiliar ways.
Yan Jun and Hitlike were each sent sound recordings, images and descriptions of locations on a route around Manchester which takes in Exchange Square, Market Street and the Northern Quarter.
The artists then gathered music, conversation and everyday sounds from corresponding locations in Shanghai and Harbin to create an eleven track headphone walk around Manchester city centre. Contrasted with the surroundings in Manchester, the dislocated sounds offer a unique insight into life in China today.
Chinese MP3 players loaded with the tracks will be available at Chinese Arts Centre along with a map of the route and the artists' descriptions of the places and sounds they encounter.
The tracks move fluidly through the different settings as the walk takes in locations as different as Shudehill Interchange, the Arndale and Afflecks Palace. The walk starts and ends at Chinese Arts Centre where an exhibition of photographs by Zhu Ying of locations in Shanghai where Yan Jun's sounds were captured will be showing. The tracks and map will also be available for download from Chinese Arts Centre website.
Yan Jun is a Beijing based sound artist and poet. A driving force of China's underground music and sound art scene, Yan uses the concept of recycling, feedback and reduction to create sound works. He has participated in many exhibitions and festivals across Mainland China and internationally and has authored six publications on new Chinese music. In 2004 he co-founded KwanYin Records for experimental music and sound exploration.
Hitlike was born in Inner Mongolia and currently lives in Harbin, northeast China. Hitlike describes himself as a mere listener who occasionally creates field-recording based works that are concerned with acoustical textures. In 2006 he created work for Awakening Battersea, China Power Station: Part 1 at Battersea Power Station, London. He has released three CD sound works and is the founder of various web based sound art groups.
(Un)familiar Territories is part of CHINA INCIDENTAL, a series of sound art projects curated by sound artist and musician Matthias Kispert working collaboratively with Chinese sound artists to present experiences of China through sound.
CHINA NOW, the UK's largest ever festival of Chinese culture, is a 6-month nationwide celebration with over 1000 Chinese events including exhibitions, performances and activities spanning Chinese film, cuisine, comics, art, literature, music, design, science, technology, business, education and sport across the UK.
(China.org.cn May 30, 2008)
