Fiona Lee Wing-shan works on sound performance and interactive installation. Recently, she has been focusing  on the integration of natural materials and daily objects with new technology, in order to explore the possibilities of personal expression.
http://fionaobscura.com

“That day with the tear gas, I remember there was a clip online, with a few seconds of birds chirping. Then tear gas was fired. That contrast of sudden transformation was really intense for me, from comfortably quiet to the sudden sound of ‘piiiiuuu’.”

The Library: How long ago was it when you first used sound to intervene in a social movement?

Lee Wing-shan: The first time that I consciously remember must have been when the Star Ferry pier was being demolished. It was the first time I felt the police was incredibly rude. On site was a police officer about the age of the former Commissioner of Police, Andy Tsang Wai-Hung! He came over and cursed at one of the girls among us: “If you were my daughter, I would have raped you a long time ago.” We were furious, but we only had a recorder. We went forward and kept playing the chime of the Star Ferry on the recorder. They continued swearing, and we kept on going all the way. Maybe they were afraid. They retreated all the way back to the City Hall and then left.

The Chime of Star Ferry
Played by Fiona Lee

The Library: You all kept on playing the chime of the Star Ferry? You didn’t say anything?

That’s right! We just played, without saying anything. Actually, this wasn’t really beating back the police. Maybe we were just furious at the time and couldn’t think of any way to resist.

The Library: At the “Anti-Northeast New Territories Development Plan” protests, you borrowed, from The Library, recordings of the 24 Solar Terms which Kwong Wing-ka collected in the Northeastern part of the New Territories of Hong Kong. I remember you carrying a speaker about the size of the palm and playing these sounds while walking in the midst of the assembly.

Lee Wing-shan: There are lots of sounds in the Northeast, like human sounds, animal sounds, or sounds from the farmland or the countryside. It’s an environment with a pluralistic ecology, a place where many creatures co-exist. I really hope once again to bring back the sounds of the area and remind others that not only humans are fighting; there are lots of sounds of other creatures.

The Library: After the “Anti-Northeast New Territories Development Plan” protests, it was the Umbrella Movement.

Lee Wing-shan: I didn’t really want to record, actually. There were about five tracks. The Lung Wo Road track was really out of curiosity about what was happening. I was having a meeting with Sampson Wong Yu-hin and those guys, and in the middle of it, suddenly a bunch of people started making a ruckus over towards the metal barricades at the Legislative Council. On another side, a crowd was trying to take away the barricades, among them were some middle-school students wearing their school uniforms skirts, and there were some students from the Academy for Performing Arts. I thought those should be my people, so I returned to the meeting. Not long after the meeting finished, I helped out with transporting the saline solution and umbrellas and other goods. Afterwards I heard them removing the manhole covers; the sound that every manhole cover thrown on the ground generated within the manhole in the tunnel was astonishing for me. I didn’t have any recording equipment at the time, only an iPhone with which I recorded the sounds.

Tunnel Soundscape, the Building of Road Block
12:00 AM, 10/16/2014, Lung Woo Road

And then there was another track I recorded waking up from an all-nighter one day. There was a group of policemen taking apart the metal barricades over at Central. Everyone was woken up. One female officer told us to remain calm, explaining how they simply wanted to take back government property. That clip was only 30 minutes; from the time I woke up and then wandered around everywhere until I ended up over where the metal barricades were taken apart, in the middle there was a segment that was actually really quiet. And why did I want to make a recording then? I think it was because earlier at The Library I recorded a clip of morning sounds from the time of the “Anti-National Education” protests, so I was hoping to do that again.

Sound of Morning
06:16 – 06:51 AM, 10/13/2014, Walking from Civic Square to City Hall

The Library: Why did you like the sound of “morning”?

Lee Wing-shan: I think it’s because of the ambience in the morning. It could be the air, or it could the lack of vehicles. It feels nice, like the feeling of a quiet city just about to stir.

The Library: From what I know, in the early stages of the Umbrella Movement, you bought many megaphone.

Lee Wing-shan: Come to think of it, it’s pretty interesting. Buying the megaphone almost cost me half a month’s salary. Even though my salary isn’t huge, I felt the equipment was important, especially in the first two days when the Umbrella Movement was just beginning. Maybe I felt we all needed to get our message across more accurately! I still remember buying them on Apliu Street back then; there were others buying them, buying even more than me, six to eight. They used those in Occupy Mong Kok. Maybe everyone wanted to get their message across better. In the end, I bought four. I passed by every supply section and put one down. I asked if they needed a megaphone. They said, “Just put them here first!” After passing through near the Hai Foo bridge, I saw someone who looked like a middle-school student, who seemed like he wanted to say something but lacked the tools. So I handed my loudspeaker to him. Then he gingerly and fearfully read his message. At the time, I wondered if these loudspeakers might have had a better use. I also considered whether I should use them to make a speech of some sort. But perhaps I am more introverted. I didn’t put it into practice in the end.

I recall how during the Umbrella Movement I saw a work about sound. I don’t know who made it, and that work existed for a very short time. I guess within an hour or so it was damaged.

The Library: It seems you have shared this on Facebook.

Lee Wing-shan: That’s right. I asked the people around me who made it, but they could only tell me he left immediately after making it. It’s a string telephone with lots of paper cups, with lines all tangled up. If you understand the principle of how a string telephone works, you would know they can only be used when the lines are straight. I tried to pick one of them up to test if it was working properly, but with too many lines tangled together, it was all a bit of a mess. I don’t know if the creator did this on purpose, but this image, for me, was meaningful—“inaudible” and “unspeakable”. Of course, that might not have been a complete work in terms of the formal expression, and it was extremely fragile—in the end it was only made with paper cups, with sticky tape binding the [drinking] straws together. Plus it was windy, so the work looked a bit chaotic.

When the Umbrella Movement ended on December 11, I also went to make some recordings on site. At the square space between Admiralty Centre, the McDonalds, and the Admiralty MTR exit, for me, this space was already a public square. After the protestors were cleared and the roads reopened, we only had this “public space”. Some were performing, some were singing, and also others doing dances related to the Umbrella Movement.

public square
03:33 PM, 12/11/2014, Admiralty Centre

To sum up, swearing and yelling were the things I heard the most during the whole movement. These made me not want to record, or oftentimes I didn’t bring any equipment to record these temperamental scenes. We know already that the police or the government are awful, really revolting. So on a certain level, continually intensifying these things, as far as I am concerned, doesn’t really help—and this perhaps was the thing the whole movement needed to face up to the most.

李穎姍作品媒介以裝置和表演為主，關注日常物及大自然裡的微小變化，再而與科技融合，發展出表達個人感受的各種可能性。
http://fionaobscura.com

『催淚彈那天，我記起當時的網上片段有幾秒鐘鳥叫聲，到催淚彈發放時，那突然轉變的對比，對我來說是很強烈的，由很安靜舒服到 「唪」 一聲｡』

聲音圖書館:你第一次用聲音去介入一個社會運動時候是多久以前？

李穎姍: 第一次有意識的應該是清拆天星碼頭的時候｡那是我第一次感覺警察是多麼無禮，當時在場的一個大約是前任警務署署長曾偉雄年紀的警察!他走過來向我們其中一個女孩指罵:「如果你是我女兒，我一早強姦了你」｡當時我們很氣憤，但手上只有一支牧童笛｡我們走上前一直用牧童笛吹奏天星的鐘聲，他們繼續指罵，我們就一直前行，可能是害怕，他們一直退後直至去到大會堂的位置然後離開｡

天星的鐘聲
李穎姍重新演奏

聲音圖書館:你們是一直吹奏天星的鐘聲? 沒有說什麼嗎?

李穎姍: 是啊! 單純地吹奏，沒有說什麼，其實也不算擊退警察，可能只是當時很憤怒，想不到用什麼方式反抗｡

聲音圖書館:在「反東北發展集會」期間你向「聲音圖書館」借用了鄺永嘉在東北地區所採集的《二十四節氣》錄音，我記得當時你拿著一個手掌大小的擴音器，播放著這些聲帶，在集會人士中間游走｡

李穎姍: 東北是有很多聲音的，例如人聲､動物聲､農地或是鄉野的聲音，那是一個擁有多元生態的環境，是很多生物一起共處的地方，我期望再次帶回當地的聲音，提醒別人並不止有人類正在爭取，而是還有其他生物的聲音。

聲音圖書館: 東北之後就到雨傘運動｡

李穎姍: 那時候我其實不太想錄音，大概只有五條聲帶｡龍和道那一條聲帶是出於好奇當時他們正在發生什麼事情，當時我與黃宇軒他們開會，會議途中突然有一群人在立法會鐵馬那邊的方向開始爭吵，另一邊廂有一群人在搶奪鐵馬，當中有一些穿校服裙的中學生，亦有演藝學院的學生，我想那應該是自己人，所以就回去開會｡會議沒多久結束，我便幫手搬運鹽水及雨傘等用品｡之後我聽到他們在拆坑渠蓋，而每一坑渠蓋擲落地下在隧道所產生的回音令我很震撼，我當時沒有任何錄音器材，只有一部I Phone可以把聲音錄下來｡

隧道聲境， 設置路障
12:00 AM, 10/16/2014, 龍和道

還有另一條聲帶是我某日天通霄後起床所錄的，當時有一班警察在拆中環那邊的鐵馬，大家都被吵醒，有一位女警叫我們冷靜，解釋他們純粹想取回政府物資。那段聲音大約只是三十分鐘，由我醒來四處遊蕩到拆鐵馬那邊，中間一段錄音其實十分寧靜，而我當時為何想做錄音?我想是因為早前在聲音圖書館錄了「反國民教育」的一段早晨的聲音，所以希望再做一次。

早晨的聲音
06:16 – 06:51 AM, 10/13/2014, 從公民廣場走到大會堂

聲音圖書館: 你為什麼喜歡「早晨」的聲音?

李穎姍: 我想是因為早上的氛圍吧,可能是空氣,也可能是沒有什麼車輛,很舒服,像是一個寧靜的城市剛剛甦醒的感覺。

聲音圖書館: 據我所知在雨傘運動初期你買了很多支大聲公。

李穎姍: 說起來那是一件很有趣的事，那次買 大聲公差不多花了我半個月的薪金，我雖然薪金不多，但我覺得這些器材很重要，特別在雨傘運動開始的首兩天，可能是我覺得大家需要更準確傳播訊息吧! 還記起當時在鴨寮街購買時，也有其他人在買，而且比我買得更多，買了六至八隻，他們是用在旺角的佔領區，可能大家都想有更好的訊息傳播，最後我買了四隻。我經過每一個物資部逐一將它們放下，我有問過物資部的人是否需要大聲公，他們說：「先放著吧!」，之後經過海富天橋附近，我看見一個估計是中學生的朋友，看似想表達些什麼，但他欠缺器材，我便將我手上的大聲公交給他，之後他很戰戰兢兢地宣讀他的訊息。那時候我想這些大聲公是否有更好的用途呢? 我也考慮過自己是否該使用這些器材作一些發言? 但可能我比較內向，最後還是沒有付諸實行｡

我想起在雨傘運動期間曾見過一件關於聲音的作品，我並不知道創作者是誰，那件作品存在的時間很短暫，我估計可能只有一個多小時左右就被弄壞了｡

聲音圖書館: 你好像在臉書分享過｡

李穎姍: 是啊，我問身邊的人創作者是誰，但他們只交代說他做完便離開｡那是一個用很多紙杯，加上線，造成很多聽筒糾纏在一起的作品｡如果你了解聽筒的運作原理，聽筒是需要拉直才可以用的｡我試過拿起其中一隻測試是否運作正常，但太多線糾纏在一起時狀態有點混亂，我不知道創作者是否故意這樣做，但這個意象對我來說很有意思，「聽不見」與「講不到」｡當然那未必是一件表現形式上完整的作品，而且非常的脆弱，畢竟是只是以紙杯和膠紙黏貼飲管制作而成，那時又大風，所以這件作品看上去有點混亂｡

在12月11日雨傘運動完結的時候，我也有去現場錄一些聲音，在海富商場､麥當奴和金鐘地鐵出口的正方形空間，這空間對我來說已經是一個廣場｡清場後，馬路重開我們就只有這個「公共空間」，有人在表演，有人在唱歌，也有做形體的在跳有關雨傘運動的舞｡

廣場
03:33 PM, 12/11/2014, 海富商場

總括而言，粗口與吵罵是我在整場運動中聽到最多的東西，這些東西令我不想去錄音，又或者很多時候我也沒有帶器材去錄這些情緒的東西｡我們也知道警察或政府很壞，很令人厭惡，某程度不斷地再強化這些對我來說並沒有什麼幫助，而這也許是整場運動最需要面對的事｡