此活動以英語為主
費用全免，歡迎捐助；座位有限，請先訂座
the activity will be conducted mainly in English.
free entrance, donation welcome; limited seating, please register in advance.

生活在亞洲國際都會，我們每天置身於人多車多的鬧市，飽受繁忙擠塞的交通帶來的噪音干擾。2008年，環境保
護署一項研究指出香港現時的交通噪音問題滋擾超過一百萬名市民， 而建築工程、通風系統 、 防盜警鐘及鄰里所發出不同程度砰砰、轟轟或刺耳的噪音亦影響著市民的生活。休憩公園的情況會較為理想嗎？事實上，香港中文大學2006年一項研究發現，本地有90 多個市區公園噪音水平極高，全部超出世界衛生組織建議的55 分貝標准，其中最為人熟悉維多利亞公園的平均噪音更達到81 分貝，令人有如置身繁忙的高速公路。我們的耳朵能逃得過噪音嗎？噪音會否一一蓋過那些我們喜愛的聲音？又有甚麼聲音將瀕臨絕種？

加拿大作曲家、教育家、作者及環境保護者 Murray Schafer 早在四十年前已經提出噪音對人的危害。他並不是提倡控制噪音，反而採取正面態度，鼓勵大家打開耳朵，發掘再次聆聽的樂趣。七月十八日是「世界聆聽日」，旨於提升大眾對環境聲音的關注及使用地境錄音（field-recording）的創意，同時鼓勵推行聲境教育及實踐。世界聆聽日為Murray Schafer 的出生日，以表示對這位聲境研究的先鋒者的尊重。他於七十年代發表書本 The Soundscape – Our Sonic Environment and The Tuning of the World (1977)，分享他對聲態學研究作出的種種判斷。他亦為 World Soundscape Project的創辦人，啟發了世界各地很多聲態學活動。此次讀書會正是「世界聆聽日」的最好準備活動，會中將由楊陽帶領讀者重溫此重要文本的精粹，歡迎任何關注聆聽人士參與！

而為嚮應世界聆聽日，本地慈善團體聲音掏腰包(soundpocket) 首度在本港舉辦《聽甚麼？》﹣為寧靜漫步及集聲
者（包括聲音藝術家、大學生、聲音設計和工程師等）的分享會。漫步由修頓球場開始，途中向公眾免費派發
Murray Schafer 的聆聽啟示，穿梭皇后大道東至灣仔適安街為終點。隨後，聲音藝術家 Sin:Ned (黃仲輝) 分享他多
年來個人珍藏的聲音，他認為「收集聲音就如我們以前喜愛集郵一樣」。另外幾位集聲者亦會跟大家分享他們「集郵簿」內的獨特聲音，他們喜愛集聲只因他們都同樣熱衷於聆聽。

The noise level in our city keeps rising in an unpredictable rate. A 2006 research by the Chinese University of Hong Kong shows that, the noise levels of more than 90 parks in our community are much higher than the standard level (55dB) suggested by the World Health Organization. The most well known Victoria Park even reaches a noise level of 50% higher than the standard. In 2008, an Environmental Protection Department report says, “Traffic noise is a major concern which affects more than one million people.” Noise might
even cause hearing loss, mental stress and irritation. Can we still hear our favorite sounds in this noise? What sounds are endangered?

The hazard of noise has long been identified by Canandian composer and environmentalist Murray Schafer. However, rather than championing noise abatement, he takes the positive approach: encouraging people to “clean their ears” and discover the joy of listening again. His work and call have since inspired acoustic ecology movements and artistic endeavors throughout the world. “World Listening Day“, also Schafer’s birthday, is a tribute to him for founding the Acoustic Ecology movement and the World Soundscape Project. On July 18, worldwide activities on listening take place to raise public awareness on our listening environment and to celebrate the creative exploration of field recording. (http://www.worldlisteningproject.org/?p=667) The upcoming book reading session would be a perfect preparatory exercise of “World Listening Day”. During the session, Dr Yeung will highlight the essence of this important text. we welcome all who care to listen.

Local sound art charity soundpocket celebrates the first World Listening Day in Hong Kong with one-day event Let’s Listen – a group of active and critical listeners (university students of sound art, sound designers and engineers, artists…etc) lead a walk for silence in Wanchai, while distributing short quotations from Schafer’s book. After the walk, sonic artist Sin:Ned (Dennis Wong Chung Fai) shares with the public for the first time his private sound collection. Sin:Ned’s interests range from improvisation, sound art, experimental music, and noise art to field recordings. He says, “Collecting sound is like people collecting stamps in the old days.” Other sound collectors also share their favorite sound from their “stamp album” with Sin:Ned.

* * *

伸延閱讀｜of related interest

The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World
by R. Murray Schafer
Paperback $140
ISBN: 9780892814558, published 1993 by Destiny Books

No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage’s 4′33″
by Kyle Gann
Hardcover $180
ISBN: 9780300136999, published March 2010 by Yale University Press

Night Music: Essays on Music 1928-1962
by Theodor W. Adorno
Hardcover $210
ISBN: 9781906497217, published 2009 by Seagull Books

more recommendations: Around／Books on cultures of listening - Exhibition｜聽在／聆聽的文化與想象－書展

David Byrne
Bicycle Diaries
Hardcover $180
ISBN: 9780670021147 Published September 2009

著名跨媒界藝人David Byrne 帶我們坐在單車座上看世界。由八十年代起便以單車代步的他穿梭各大城市，體驗到更多每個城市的獨特規劃、肌理、節奏、人情與秘密。當歐美政府與人民都身體力行推動可持續城市發展之時，亞洲城市何時才會正視生態問題？

A renowned musician and visual artist presents an idiosyncratic behind-thehandlebars view of the world’s cities

Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Two decades ago, he discovered folding bikes and started taking them on tour. Byrne’s choice was made out of convenience rather than political motivation, but the more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation it provided. Convinced that urban biking opens one’s eyes to the inner workings and rhythms of a city’s geography and population, Byrne began keeping a journal of his observations and insights.

An account of what he sees and whom he meets as he pedals through metropoles from Berlin to Buenos Aires, Istanbul to San Francisco, Manila to New York, Bicycle Diaries also records Byrne’s thoughts on world music, urban planning, fashion, architecture, cultural dislocation, and much more, all conveyed with a highly personal mixture of humor, curiosity, and humility. Part travelogue, part journal, part photo album, Bicycle Diaries is an eye-opening celebration of seeing the world from the seat of a bike.

David Byrne, a cofounder of the musical group Talking Heads, David Byrne has also released several solo albums in addition to collaborating with such noted artists as Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, and Brian Eno. His art includes photography and installation works and has been published in five books. He lives in New York and he recently added some new bike racks of his own design around town, thanks to the Department of Transportation.

伸延閱讀｜of related interest

Mark Richardson
Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Paperback $130
ISBN: 9780307390691 Published September 2009

Part travelogue, part meditation on an author and his work, Zen and Now is a tribute to a beloved American book and the landscape that inspired it.

Since it was first published in 1974, Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has become a modern classic, a beautifully constructed blend of travel narrative and philosophical inquiry that has moved generations of readers. One of those readers was journalist Mark Richardson, who after rediscovering the book at middle age, decided to retrace Pirsig’s journey. From the back of his own motorcycle, Richardson investigates what happened to the reclusive Pirsig, his family, and the people described in the book in the years after its surprising success.

Jeff Mapes
Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities
Paperback $150
ISBN: 9780870714191 Published March 2009

In a world of increasing traffic congestion, a grassroots movement is carving out a niche for bicycles on city streets. Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities explores the growing bike culture that is changing the look and feel of cities, suburbs, and small towns across North America.

From traffic-dodging bike messengers to tattooed teenagers on battered bikes, from riders in spandex to well-dressed executives, ordinary citizens are becoming transportation revolutionaries. Jeff Mapes traces the growth of bicycle advocacy and explores the environmental, safety, and health aspects of bicycling. He rides with bicycle advocates who are taming the streets of New York City, joins the street circus that is Critical Mass in San Francisco, and gets inspired by the everyday folk pedaling in Amsterdam, the nirvana of American bike activists. Chapters focused on big cities, college towns, and America’s most successful bike city, Portland, show how cyclists, with the encouragement of local officials, are claiming a share of the valuable streetscape.

Elizabeth Farrelly
Blubberland
The Dangers of Happiness
Paper $160
ISBN: 9780262562362 Published March 2008

當所有物質垂手可得，為什麼我們卻得不到真正的快樂？
為什麼有些壞習慣我們明知道對環境會帶來巨大傷害，卻始終戒不掉？
為什麼我們始終沒有建立適合人居的城市、建造有意思的公共空間、吃價錢合理的飯餐，以及尊重大自然？
來自澳洲的環境及建築評論員Elizabeth Farrelly拋出上述問題，並一一撿舉生活日常、個人意識、社會價值等等，如何把「快樂」隔離。

This is essential reading for anyone interested in sustainability—reading that goes beyond how to set up a composter or how to calculate one’s carbon footprint, and gets tothe essence of what is wrong with modern living.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education

Welcome to Blubberland—a world of quadruple-garaged mansions, vast malls, gated communities, stretch limos, and posh resorts. Blubberland is a place, but it is also a state of mind: we expect to be happy (trophy house, SUV in the driveway, home entertainment system, pension fund, cosmetic surgery), but in fact we’ve grown increasingly bloated, bored, and miserable. In Blubberland, award-winning critic Elizabeth Farrelly looks at our “superfluous superfluity,” our huge eco-footprint, and asks why we find it so hard to abandon habits we know to be destructive. Why can’t we build human-scale cities, design meaningful public spaces, eat reasonable meals, and stop assaulting nature?

Continue Reading »

Peter Dauvergne
The Shadows of Consumption
Consequences for the Global Environment
Hardcover $195
ISBN: 9780262042468 Published October 2008

全球氣候環境歷經劇變，市民的消費習慣有何改變？
又，現代消費模式為生態及社會帶來什麼後果？
由牛肉、汽車、汽油、雪櫃以及竪琴海豹（？）五種商品作為個別案例分析，
全球環境政策專家Peter Dauvergne為讀者揭示長久被視若無睹的「消費的影子」。

The ecological and social consequences of modern patterns of consumption are often overlooked, underestimated, and poorly theorized. Engaging, convincing, and nuanced, Peter Dauvergne’s book masterfully excavates and politicizes the shadows of consumption that modern life casts, from the consumption of beef to the use of cars and fridges. Wide-ranging and superbly written, this book is sure to be widely read.
– Peter Newell, Professor of Development Studies, University of East Anglia

The Shadows of Consumption gives a hard-hitting diagnosis: many of the earth’s ecosystems and billions of its people are at risk from the consequences of rising consumption. Products ranging from cars to hamburgers offer conveniences and pleasures; but, as Peter Dauvergne makes clear, global political and economic processes displace the real costs of consumer goods into distant ecosystems, communities, and timelines, tipping into crisis people and places without the power to resist.

Continue Reading »