= Reflection 感想 =

Hong Kong
I only participated in the soundwalks at the Tsz Shan Monastery and Yuen Po Street Bird Garden, but these two walks offered a rather stark contrast to each other – spacious versus packed, forest versus urban, wild versus pet birds, inward versus outward observation. They introduced me to attributes and facets of sound, as well as perspectives with which to approach our subsequent exercises, such as relations to space, organic/inorganic activities, and the states of the listeners.

Kuala Lumpur
We have more opportunities to interact with other participating artists. We were all keen on sharing our experiences and thoughts and that created a great atmosphere for mutual learning. During our visit to the Bird Garden, I opened my ears to the serenity of the birds and listened to the sounds of their walking feet. The whole field-trip was inspired by Catherine’s research on bird calls, which most urban dwellers would consider as noise, or morning/evening background sound – that’s why bird calls could only be regarded as inorganic research subjects in Hong Kong. Strolling in the park, alongside all the types of birds in Kuala Lumpur, unearthed our connections with other living things and the meanings in their songs. These experiences facilitated another learning approach – to observe the relationships between observant/creative and other subjects, the meanings that developed, and how the two were closely connected.

Many of the participating artists felt distant from the creative theme set by Catherine, probably because our relations with birds were rather different from hers. Our different standpoints brought different observations, which became crucial inspirations for our exchanges.

Writing
Illogical writing stood out in our writing exercises. The small, yet well-rounded creative experience encompassed processes like the selection of materials, their grouping, structuring, and infusing of meanings. It had a different nature from the previous activities and made a nice warm-up exercise for the planning of our public workshop. Chan Sai-lok was great at sorting our thoughts out and raising more questions for further discussion. The writing workshops helped us to enhance our sensitivity to words.

“In One Ear and Write Out the Other” Workshop
All the participating artists and soundpocket coordinators managed to work well together and we had a smooth experience, from planning our route in the early stages, to the actual execution. The route of the other group seemed very interesting too, especially after having done the workshop.

Overall it was a pleasant and substantial learning experience. I had a great time and fruitful discussions with the other participants. The two artist-mentors took our activities to the next level. I was thrilled to find such a project in the artistic ecology of Hong Kong, and I think myself lucky to have been a part of it. Thanks to soundpocket for organising and coordinating this project. I hope to see more of this kind of project for creatives from different fields, to inspire each other in the mutual learning process.

香港前段部分
我只參與了慈山寺與雀仔街的soundwalk部分，兩次經驗的對比很鮮明：空曠與狹小的空間﹑山林與市井的環境﹑野生與蓄養的鳥﹑及向內與向外的觀察。這些比較有助我認識聲音的屬性與面向，以空間﹑生物／無機物活動﹑聽者狀態等等，作為參與往後練習的一些切入點。

吉隆坡
更多機會與其他參與藝術家相處交流，各人都樂於分享經驗與想法，整個氣氛十分有利互相學習。參觀雀鳥公園時最深刻的經驗是看見鳥的沉著恬靜，聽見趾爪步行的聲音。整個考察學習的開端源自Catherine對鳥的嗓音研究，然而對於城市人來說鳥聲大多只是生活的雜音，晨早與傍晚的背景聲，所以在香港時只能把鳥聲當作某種無機的研究對象。在吉隆坡與各種鳥類一起逛公園，才對鳥類生起大家同樣是生命的通感，牠們嗓音由此蘊含更多意義。這些體驗開啟了另一種學習，就是留意觀察者／創作者與其對象的關係，意義生成與兩者的關係如何息息相關。同行的藝術家不少對Catherine的創作主題感到有距離，大概也因為大家與鳥類的關係與Catherine的大不相同。立足點不同所造成的觀察差異，正是這次交流中帶來啟發的關鍵。

文字部分
書寫練習中的illogical writing較為突出，當中涉及擷取素材﹑組合﹑編成結構﹑意義引導等過程，可算是一次迷你但完整的創作經驗，性質與此前的其他活動不同，作為準備計劃公眾工作坊的前奏而言，是一次不錯的熱身。
阿三（陳世樂）擅長整理思考並進一步提問，恰如其分地推進討論，文字工作坊中也有效地協助各人開發對文字的觸覺。

《左耳入右手出》工作坊
各參與藝術家與soundpocket統籌者能互相配合，在前期準備規劃路線，以至實際執行也流暢順利。工作坊完成後有點好奇別組聲景行的路線體驗，因為似乎都很有趣。

總體而言是一次愉快充實的學習經歷，參與者相處氣氛良好，討論豐富，兩位藝術家導師分工合作，讓各項活動的意義得以深化。很高興認識到香港藝術生態中有這類型的項目，而且幸運地能夠參與其中。感謝soundpocket籌辦這項計劃，並妥善地進行各種協調工作，期待計劃一直延續下去，讓不同領域的創作者在共同學習的過程中互相啟發。