Over the years, Dino's enigmatic notion of "romantic listening" has resonated with me, urging a departure from contextual noise that distracts the listener from embracing the raw, unfiltered nature of sound. It calls for a willingness to trust the immediacy of auditory stimuli, allowing our hearing to shape a reality that transcends the constraints of the visible world. This departure from the conventional order of perception suggests a profound shift in the way we engage with and interpret the world around us, highlighting the potential for a more visceral and unmediated connection with our surroundings.


To reach this auditory proximity to truth, Dino once quoted Confucius to describe what he does as a noise performer, “to live with unquestionable virtue..to end at one’s own excellence.²” With the time on stage by nature finite, Dino insisted each performance was an end to itself. To achieve excellence on stage is to enter a state of clear moral being and act by unquestionable goodness. He defined this goodness as a way of living in which all calculations are suspended and reflexive habits dulled. Fellow Taiwanese transdisciplinary artist and writer Lin Chi-wei once associated Dino’s sound practice with the traditional motive to detach oneself from worldliness, “What truly supports the value of "literati" is their life attitude…to transcend the entanglement between desire and reality, and allow the ‘real’ natural energy to flow into the small crafts of the world.³”

To align oneself with this immediate energy of life, Dino’s music can be best described as a wandering consciousness of will pitted against the invisible phenomenon of noise. There is no thinking and only doing as he “suppresses the never-ending feedback⁴” running through his no-input set of audio mixer and analog effect pedals. In face of the raw force of electronic noise-both as his phenomenological opponent and creative material- he controlled sound in a manner to cultivate his moral character. In his self-recorded tape “Song of Death” from 1997 ⁵, a wet, rhythmic pulse continuously runs through his electronic circuit with effortless fluidity and resurfacing with a changing facade, like a meditation on transformation. Dino continued this alchemic process between the sound and self in varying dynamic range throughout his career. Of the few times I saw him on stage, Dino would perform with such understated showmanship, sitting still with minute hand movements tinkering analog controls. As a listener, it was easy to forget about his mortal corporeality. During his shows, I would often stare into the ceiling as sound embodied the space to realize itself as what 19th century philosopher Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński defined music as “the corporealization of intelligence that is in sound.⁶”


Group photo at Dino’s residence in 2019 (from left to right: Jyun Ao Ceasar, Sheryl Cheung, Dino)


In a solo performance at Revolver in 2018⁷, a spattering of electronic feedback emerged, transformed, overlapped and/or died out before forming any definable structure. Between the original trigger and its shadows, space slowly opened up into a trance-like melody that emerged like a phoenix. Even as a recording, the listening experience causes a sense of spatial disorientation. Dino explained, “The kind of music I do is simple…only the first beat of sound you hear is real and the rest is fake, created by effects.⁸” As a listener, Dino’s psychoacoustic motivation created a flux state of consciousness that suspended my cognitive reflexes as a listening body, where it became difficult to ground perception in any other dimension other than sound.


In a Taipei underpass, I had a chance in 2019 to perform with Dino as part of Outer Pulsation, a guerrilla noise series organized by Chia-Chun Xu and folks from Senko Issha⁹. Culturally referencing the traditional Qigong anecdote to perceive the inner body as a pastoral landscape, I ran found recordings of rubble, metal and water through different filters and gates back and forth, at times to rub out their material references to reality, and in other moments seeking to build color with different elemental timbres. Meanwhile, Dino manipulated his no-input feedback into a high-pitched reed-like pressure as if playing a suona. He continued to play in this improvisational manner without melody or narrative, insisting on a minimalism that was searching for an opportunity for pure encounter. In moments when sounds were most indescribable and formless, sonic trajectories of power found space for conversation. 


Dino’s romantic sentiment about sound provides an opportunity to trust in its boundlessness and seek direct engagement with its dynamic, transformative power. As described by Lin, “In the midst of chaos, Dino crafts a unique calm and simplicity that emanates from nowhere—an endless, yet intriguing silence that defines the very essence of music¹⁰.” Dino's approach to listening is an invitation to step into a realm where sound becomes the medium for profound, unspoken conversations with the self and the universe.

* All the photos are taken by Xia Lin.

¹ Cheung, Sheryl. “Gentle Sweeps in a Deep Abyss: Interview with Dino.” Art Asia Pacific, March 26, 2019. https://artasiapacific.com/ideas/gentle-sweeps-in-a-deep-abyss-interview-with-dino

² Kaplan, Kyle. 2017. “Made Here - Dino.” YouTube Website. Retrieved Dec 7, 2023. (http://youtube.com).

³ My original translation of Lin Chi-Wei’s “The Frame of Modernity and Beyond – The Lifework of Hsieh Tehching, Hsieh Ying-Chun, Wu-Chong-Wei, Graffitist Hwang, DINO and Tsai-Show-Zoo,” 2013. http://www.linchiwei.com/archives/1777

⁴ Kaplan. Ibid.

⁵ 誠意重, 2021. “Dino 廖銘和 - Song of Death 死亡之歌 (1997).” YouTube Website. Retrieved Dec 3, 2023.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF8YUz3wt1Y&t=905s.

⁶ Edgar Varese in his essay “The Liberation of Sound”  Chou, Wen-chung (Eds.) The Liberation of Sound. Perspective of New Music, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Autumn - Winter, 1966), pp.19. https://music.arts.uci.edu/dobrian/CMC2009/Liberation.pdf

⁷ Dino, Senko Issha Live. Senko Issha, Nov 17, 2018. https://senko-issha.bandcamp.com/album/senko-issha-live

⁸ Cheung, Ibid.

⁹ 誠意重, 2023. ”Outer Pulsation #6, Dino 廖銘和 x Sheryl Cheung 2019.8.10.” YouTube Website. Retrieved 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd9sGa4ba8Y&t=693s

¹⁰ My original translation of Lin’s Chinese text. Lin. Ibid.




Other references

TKG+ Projects. 2023. “TKG+ Projects｜物・自・造・＿ creN/Ature｜Dino X 吳牧青 Wu Muching.” Youtube Website. Retrieved 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0IiT_-lZdA

Dawang, Huang. “Slowly Circling Around on a Bicycle: Dino and His Era of Noise.” Feb 29, 2022. Artouch. https://artouch.com/art-views/content-58691.html

Jyun Ao Caesar. “Underground Experimental Music in Taiwan.” Laoban Records. Oct 25, 2020. https://www.laobanrecords.com/post/underground-experimental-music-in-taiwan

Chia-Chun Xu. ”Re-think the Vitality of the Local Audio Scenes in The Post-Pandemic Era.“ Noman’s Land. Feb 12, 2023. https://www.heath.tw/nml-article/re-think-the-vitality-of-the-local-audio-scenes-in-the-post-pandemic-era/




(2024-05-21)

☯ Sheryl Cheung
Sheryl Cheung works between experimental sound compositions, abstract scoring and performances to explore a material concept of life. Perceiving life as a force, a mobility that drives our innate persistence to live, she explores how active listening (working with sound) can be a mind and body practice to negotiate different noises of the world.

https://soundcosmology.cargo.site/

☯ 張欣
張欣透過實驗作曲、譜、和表演去掌握一種對生命的物質性理解。透過聲音的探索進入流動性的場域，特別關注物質運動中所產生的聲音回饋，去提煉一個主觀的世界脈絡。

Let us begin with a general mythology of sound. Imagine the most elemental technology in the world--the essence of life--the animating power that runs through all living things. This power is an intangible material with universal potential that suggests a shared disposition between all that appears to be separate. Like wind, it flows through different internal and external worlds, making the inner and outer one of the same. The ability for this power to connect different entities, spaces, and time gives it a narrating quality, bringing together different relations, changes and patterns to assemble a perspective of the world that differs from histories based on externality.

17th Century Dutch philosopher Spinoza speaks of the power of life as a musical instrument that produces melodic variations with a vast range of dynamics determined by affects, or passions of the mind. Because affects are not determined by the self alone, but induced by various conditions that influence one’s experiential state, the melody of one’s life force is not an expression of free will, but a series of responses to a greater network of influences. The Taoist sage Lao Tzu shares a similar view of agency by positing that all natural forces, including man, follow the laws of nature (天道). And so, when a strong gust of wind howls like a beast, does its force intend aggression, or an impartial demonstration of a greater cosmic order? Here the concepts of affect, power, and world order seems to lean on interpretations of plasticity.

One’s power in the cosmic order can be cultivated by mind and body technology. In Taoist practices, the animating power of life, which they call qi, is fostered according to the characteristics of nature: how plants grow, animals move, the order of the seasons. Based on these qualities, practitioners follow certain daily methods to gather, mobilize, replenish energy of a human body and connect with the qi of its surroundings. A visualization of this process can be found in The Inner Scripture, an imaginative Taoist diagram about manipulating energy; the diagram depicts the human interior as a natural landscape of fields and agrarian labor; qi flows with the collective efforts of this complex system. Here the human body is a space for energy cultivation, and the good condition of energy is portrayed through towering mountains and streaming rivers. This inner world suggests a soundscape of collective living, an animated field that mobilizes a polyphonic materiality.

The pursuit of material sound resonates with Pierre Schaeffer’s music concrete proposed in the mid 1900s, which sought to develop a kind of music emancipated from the cultural structures of his time. In search for liberated sound, Schaeffer took on the physical world as a general instrument unbounded by traditional tools and fixed understandings of music theory. Music making involves more than technicalities of craft, or the understanding of science, said Schaeffer, it also requires a critical determination of “the nature of the music which the choice of certain musical objects implies.” He emphasizes on the implicit, a searching of meaning within the entwined.

In my piece “Earth Crust Quake,” I abstracted the form of sound until form is no longer and only matter remains (無), then experimented with matter in a nonlinear process (有). Like qi that runs through the Inner Scripture--music concrete is a sounding of a general substance, a processing of physical representation to excavate the internal rhythms in the essence of sound.
The state of co-habitation as portrayed in the Inner Scripture raises questions about shared embodiment between different life forms. One of the highest achievements of a Taoist practitioner is to, by way of connecting by qi, attain unity between heaven, earth and man (天人合一). With conscious engagement oneself and the world, a transbody becomes possible between different life forms. Spinoza zooms in for a more specific look at this unity by speaking of a mixture of bodies. “Affectio” is a mixture of two bodies, one body which is said to act on another, and the other receives the trace of the first.

The idea of transbody is explored in Moon Tides I, a ritualistic performance in which a plant and a human are united in a shared narrative of vulnerability and weakness. Internal sounds from the human and plant, such as breathing, digestion, breaking bones and branches and electromagnetic bio-feedback are used in a musical experience to create one sonic field of bio-rhythms.In this performance, the narrative of vulnerability and sadness reflects upon a general correlation between power and emotions. How does the energy of life embody a certain affective politics based on our vision of life affirming goodnesses? According to Spinoza, Joy and sadness are considered two poles of the emotional scale that determine the range of the vital melodic line; joy increases one’s power to act and persist in life; sadness diminishes one’s level of power.

While this power scale can be useful as a general guideline for self-orientation, it is also beneficial to consider the world beyond the positive--as a boundless space that stretches limitlessly towards all directions. Where there is no aesthetic judgment of either direction, but an ability to maneuver with the tides and to cultivate one’s instrument in the ever-changing states. From this perspective, weakness is negatively affirming and thereby empowering: In the research of Indian scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose, the right amount of stimulation (shock) on a plant can increase internal flow of sap and fuel growth in certain developing areas. This enhanced inner mobility suggests a connection between weakness and growth, driven by biological instincts to heal, to bloom and prosper in life. In Bose’s studies, we see a perseverance that goes beyond resilience by responding affirmatively to a call for inner power.

To be able to maneuver in the positive and negative requires a particular state of mind and body that allows one to flexibly respond to changing states of disposition. Despite our limited agency, constrained by social, environmental, emotional and other factors, this project is an attempt to propose an attitude and practice, through the medium of sound, to navigate the constant flux of the universe.



(update: 2018)

☯ Sheryl Cheung
Sheryl Cheung works between experimental sound compositions, abstract scoring and performances to explore a material concept of life. Perceiving life as a force, a mobility that drives our innate persistence to live, she explores how active listening (working with sound) can be a mind and body practice to negotiate different noises of the world.

https://soundcosmology.cargo.site/

☯ 張欣
張欣透過實驗作曲、譜、和表演去掌握一種對生命的物質性理解。透過聲音的探索進入流動性的場域，特別關注物質運動中所產生的聲音回饋，去提煉一個主觀的世界脈絡。

KNEADING MALLEABLES
揉捏可塑之物

Anja Borowicz

a>b · kneading malleables [laptop performance]

“The inspiration for this piece stems from my investigations of how our working gestures are performed and can be extended to different situations, actions and meanings.

The source materials have been selected from the BBC Sound Effects and The Internet Archive. The piece combines the sounds of the body massage with the acts of dough kneading and clay throwing. This version was recorded as a live laptop performance using a mixer board in Audacity.

Flowing rhythms interweave with awkward changes when the labouring bodies adjust or pause their recorded action, or when my hand hesitates while searching for controls. Yet tuning my body into the sounds became less self-conscious when working live with the clips. Lighter and more playful.”

「此次聲音創作靈感來自於我對多種工作姿勢所進行的調查，這些姿勢被在不同的情況裡，成為不同行動，被給予不同的意義。

作品採用的身體按摩、麵團揉捏和拉胚陶土的聲音取自BBC線上聲音檔案庫和其他網際網路渠道。我將這些材料載入Audacity，利用內建的混音功能進行即時筆電表演。作品成果為即興表演的錄音紀錄。

當我的手在鍵盤上猶豫不決之時；當錄音中的勞動體進行自我調整，或停頓於一個動作時，流動的節奏中出現交織於其中的尷尬變化。 然而當我調整自身的頻率，與錄音達到一種協調時，這些聲音材料再也不讓我感到太過緊張，整件事變得更輕盈，更有趣。」

endosketch
內部草圖

Harriet Pittard

Harriet Pittard · Inner-Orchestra (Sketch)

Harriet Pittard is a London-based vocalist, musician and sound artist. She has made sound works in collaboration with contemporary artist Beatriz Olabarietta for exhibitions at London’s MOT Gallery, The Serpentine and The Sunday Painter, as well as making sound work to accompany the photography of artist Kadie Salmon.

For her first solo sound project Pittard will use found sound, field recordings and composition to explore endometriosis – a chronic female reproductive condition. Initial inspiration for the project came after attending a workshop at London’s Music Hackspace entitled ‘Internal-Motivations’. Led by sound and performance artist Sheryl Cheung, the workshop explored new imaginations of internal martial arts through the perspective of sound.

Through her long-term project ‘endorchestra’ (inner-orchestra) Pittard aims to explore the various medical stages, emotional experiences and opportunities for healing that living with the condition can present. Women’s symptoms are often ignored or silenced resulting in an average diagnoses time of 7.5 years in the UK. Through this project the artist hopes to amplify hers and other women’s experiences of the disease and create a greater depth of understanding of the condition through sound.

‘endosketch’ is an initial short exploration into sounds associated with the condition. The sketch traverses internal movements, medical noise and womb healing sonics.

Harriet Pittard 是一位倫敦歌手、音樂家和聲音藝術家。她與藝術家Beatriz Olabarietta合作的作品曾展出於倫敦的MOT畫廊、蛇形畫廊 (The Serpentine) 和星期日畫家畫廊(The Sunday Painter)，並為藝術家Kadie Salmon的攝影創作聲音。

'endosketch'是Harriet Pittard 第一個獨立作曲嘗試，一個初步、簡短的聲音草圖，過程中採用已有的和自製的錄音材料去探索一種慢性女性生殖病症--子宮內膜異位症 。此作品穿梭於內部運動、醫療噪音、和子宮治療的音頻之間。

endosketch為Harriet Pittard 的長期項目“endorchestra”（內部管弦樂隊）的一部分。此項目旨在探索各種治療階段，情感體驗和康復過程的嘗試。關於女性的病症經常被忽視或消音，導致英國的平均診斷病齡為7-5年。藉由endorchestra藝術家希望為自身和其他女性所面對疾病發聲，並通過聲音的探索更深入了解病情。

該項目靈感來自倫敦音樂黑客空間（Music Hackspace）的Internal Motivations (內部運動)工作坊。在聲音和表演藝術家張欣（Sheryl Cheung）的帶領下，工作坊從聲音的角度重新想像內家武術文化。

In western area, these invisible energy applying to one’s body has been treated in many scientific culture and arts, and mainly focused on as electricity. From ancient sage Pliny to T. A. Edison and N. Tesla in modern era, the works of electricity were studied and discovered as invisible, mystic, but powerful energy in nature. Also in contemporary, with names of H. Cavendish, A. Volta, M. Faraday, J.V. Neumann, R. Caton, H. Berger, W. Einthoven, M. Merleau-Ponty, and study of EEG by S. Bozinovski, M. Sestakov, L. Bozinovska, electricity is known as basic energy to activate our muscles, nerves, brains, and our consciousness itself worked by weak current as electro-physiology shows it.

On the other hand, electricity is familiar to us in tales, as laboratory work by Luigi Galvani was transformed in the story of Frankenstein by M. Shelly, that followed by Jules Gabriel Verne and scientific fictions. We could find the spiritual communication by Edison, Tesla, and even De Sade wrote about these things. Also in music and arts, invisible energy is dealt with in a subject, like Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les Élémens, and in the methods in major contemporary works, as electro-magnetic sensing. For example, John Cage’s Variations V is described as “two systems for the sound to be affected by movement (…) that the dancers triggered sounds as they cut the light beams with their movements. A second system used a series of antennas. When a dancer came within four feet of an antenna a sound would result. Ten photocells were wired to activate tape-recorders and short-wave radios”. In this body-sensing systems improvise the sonic field “as it was created by radio antennas responding to the dancers' movements.” In these works, unseen relationship between body and sensing became as trigger to generate noise – non-visible vibrations of air, by using electro-magnetic technology.

It means, in other words, from science to culture in our contemporary era, it is focused on that the relationships of body and unseen energy, we live in bio-electronic age.

In these reference to the electric-body in culture, the idea of self-cultivation will bring us back to the character and relationship of body and mind. So many questions and hypothesis could be asked, especially on mind and its works. For example, what is relationship between body movements and consciousness? What is resemblance between electro-signal in nerves and words? To sense is remade in the circuit tips? And in this computer and robotics age, we could ask more. So, could computer have their consciousness? Could it be copied from one another? Could they will? Could robots hope? Or, will robots dream of dreams of counting 100,000 sheep?

We couldn’t know the answers now anyway, but someday we could see the robots have their consciousness with the clue of current in their metallic body, and smile. In this moments, sensed-electricity circulated in their body and mind stimulate each other and will work as qui(気), and they will see the pass(道) opened in their circuit of bodies and minds in their way of communication, in internet. And we could dance with them with traditional maneuver.

Maybe that will be named as “future tao”.

The piece which I present here, is representation of that kind of electricity, rather in a row and condensed form. Using 5 discharge of high-voltage currents from 900v to 20,000v recorded in a laboratory as samples, non-effect but amplified only in volumes layered. Electricity with high pressure generated phenomena of arch, which pass between electrode as lights and heat, and sounds with dense vibration with burning air and sparking physically, as you hear.

The process of layering each tracks was really unforgettable, cause tone-cluster-form of electric arch and sparks in sound, generated streams and storms by itself like self-organization, that presented here as time based sculpture. That is, in other words, invisible but could-be-sensed high energetic field, or, which would represent one of the forms that will be appeared in the “future tao”.

「電魂」是一曲具體音樂(musique concrète)，利用放電的聲音去製造一種原始物質凝練的狀態和其中隱藏的能量運動。

「修行」的用意為擴大自我內在的能量（氣），啟動身心對接的關係，以逆轉力量弱化的趨勢。氣作為一種生命力量，是不可見的、存在於我們的身體和心靈，透過特殊的呼吸方法和武術培訓，我們可以學習控制氣。首先，去感覺氣的觸感，進入氣的運行（道），開啟生死間的迴轉過程。

西方的科學和文藝領域多次提及有關人體的隱形力量，而這些論點主要集中於對電的討論。從古希臘智者蒲林尼（Pliny）到現代科學家湯姆斯・愛迪生（T. A. Edison）、尼古拉・特斯拉（N. Tesla），電被形容為一種自然中的無形、神秘且強大的力量。當代的思想家亨利・卡文迪什（H. Cavendish）、亞歷山德羅・伏打（A. Volta）、邁克爾・法拉第（M. Faraday）、馮・諾伊曼（J.V. Neumann）、理查・凱頓（R. Caton）、漢斯伯格（H. Berger） 、威廉・埃因托芬（W. Einthoven）、莫里斯・梅洛龐蒂（M. Merleau-Ponty）、以及博日诺夫斯基（S. Bozinovski）、謝斯塔科夫（M. Sestakov）、和博日诺夫斯基和（L. Bozinovska）對腦電圖（EEG）的研究中，電被視為一種基礎能量去帶動肌肉、神經和腦的活動。根據電生理學的思想，微弱的電流驅動著人類的意識。

流傳於民間的故事中，電是一個熟悉的素材。科學家路易吉・伽伐尼（Luigi Galvani）的實驗在瑪莉·雪萊(M Shelly) 的「科學怪人」和朱爾・加布里耶・凡爾納（Jules Gabriel Verne）的科幻小說中被重新的闡釋。愛迪生、特斯拉、甚至於薩德侯爵（De Sade）的寫作中也提及有關電的靈性溝通。在音樂和藝術中，無形的能量經常被視為一個具體的主題，呈現於讓．法耶．赫伯（Jean-Féry Rebel）的Les Élémens和其他有關電磁感應的探索性創作。以約翰．凱吉John Cage的 Variations V 為例，作品中兩個聲音系統被周圍的運動所影響；舞者透過動作去干涉現場的光束裝置，距離一組天線4英尺的範圍內引發聲響，而十個光電裝置連接至一組卡帶錄音機和短頻收音機。在凱吉這個身體感應的系統中，天線依照舞者的動作作出反應，形成一個即興的音場。在這件作品中，身體和感應之間的關係，透過電磁技術產生噪音。我們生活於一個生物電子的時代中，科學和文化領域持續關注身體和相關能量的關係。

透過以上對文化中電體的各個論點，我們來回應修行中身心的關係與性質。對於腦的運作，我們可以提出各種問題和假設。舉例來說，人體運動和意識之間的關係為何？如何理解神經和語言間的電訊？如何透過電路的提示重新創造感應的能力？在這個電腦和機器人的時代裡，我們可以問得更多。電腦可以有自己的意識嗎？有意志嗎？能祈望嗎？電腦間可以互相模仿嗎？可以夢見有關數十萬隻羊的夢嗎？

針對這些問題我們沒有答案，未來的機器人會有自己的意識，他們會在鐵製的身體內感受電流的線索而微笑。在這些時刻，機器人感應身心間循環的電流（氣，他們會順著道的指引去打開網路身心交流，而人們會用傳統的體態和機器人齊舞。也許這會是所謂的 ”FUTURE TAO”。

這次的聲音創作是針對上述的，原始、凝練的電所做的一次描繪。此曲採樣實驗室裡高壓電流在900v ～20,000v間的五次放電錄音。我將採樣的素材做堆疊和音量的調整，並保留原始的素材的性質，沒有做後置效果。高壓電以光和熱的形式在電極間穿梭，所產生的聲音描繪著密集的震動、炎熱的氣體和其產生的火花。

這次堆疊採樣錄音的過程對我來說是難忘的，電路和火花所產生的音調 — 集 — 形，在流動、爆發間形成一個自我組織的、時間性的雕塑。透過這個無形雕塑可以感應到高能量的音場，作為闡釋 ”FUTURE TAO” 的一種形體。

☯ Itaru Ouwan
Itaru Ouwan is an essayist, noise-collage artist from Tokyo, a member of free jazz band Awkward Geisha. His activities began in 2008, writing essays about sound art, improvisation. He has published writings especially about Ensemles 2009, Sapporo International Art Festival 2017 on his blog, and talked in session at Ftarri about sound artists and composers, including Wandelweiser etc. Ouwan makes noise-collage tracks as Gaitoh, Overcoat, and festival_strangelove.

equantrecord.bandcamp.com

☯ 追灣及
來自東京的作家、噪音拼貼藝術家，自由爵士樂團Awkward Geisha成員。2008他開始撰寫關於聲音藝術和即興創作，特別是Ensemies2009和2017札幌國際藝術節的文章，並於Ftarri上訪談關於Wandelweiser等音樂人，他的噪音拼貼身份分別為Gaitoh、Overcoat和festival_strangelove。

To survive, one must consider how to live; and to live, one must possess wealth. And so, the tao of finance becomes an important lesson for every living person. In order to better manage your relationship with fortune, one has to study relevant knowledge and maintain a good attitude. Hundreds and Thousands of people seek this path but very few reach a sound level of practice. It is justified to say that the tao of finance is truly a process of self-cultivation.

Self-cultivation is often a journey full of hardship that requires a peaceful mind and clear spirit; but oftentimes, clarity still cannot be achieved despite the long hours of hard thinking and meditation. Meridian of Fortune offers an alternative path that tempers the severity of Cai Jing with the gentleness and relaxing quality of ASMR. In this method, climax eases the pain. Meridian of Fortune seeks to cultivate and enter the listener’s state of half-asleep-and-half-awake, searching for a space where the mind and body become one and the body and nerves are relaxed. In this space of consciousness, let flow the meridians of fortune.

ASMR and Cai Jing-two ideas that do not appear to be related-actually imply underlying connections. The word Jing (經) in Cai Jing (財經), means “method” or “route”, which originally referred to the vertical thread in weaving that serves to connect the fibre together. The gist of Jing is fluidity which also reconciles with the meridian and flow of circulation in a body while the feeling and sensation evoked by the sound of ASMR is also a kind of meridian response. For me, ASMR is like a mystic practice that is not yet fully understood but is full of charisma. ASMR is often used for hypnosis and it is also the key to the aforementioned state between dream and awakeness. Furthermore, Cai (fortune) and sleep are also subtly connected. Most people of the working class earn their wage by working while they are awake; sleep, therefore, becomes a time when the flow of fortune is suspended. The wealth of the rich is, however, continue to accumulate even while they are sleeping. The integration of ASMR and Cai Jing may entice a potentiality that brings the “productive sleep” to every listener.

Instead of thinking it through, you could as well just relax. The fluidity of body might just become a path towards a kind of understanding.

人活着，就得考慮如何生活；而要活下去，就需要財富。理財之道因而也就成了生而爲人的一 門重要的功課。打理好自己與財富之間的關係，既需要學習相關的知識，也需要鍛鍊良好的心 態。對此，雖千萬人俱往，但真正有境界的卻寥寥無幾。將之比作修行，實不爲過。

修行皆苦，人們往往被要求靜心明神，但卻常常在苦思冥想之後，還是不明所以。而《財經二周天》反其道而行之，用ASMR的“松”來調和財經（也即理財之道）的“嚴”，並用高潮來緩解痛苦。它試圖營造並進入聽者半夢半醒的意識空間，尋找一種身心交融的狀態，利用身體和神經的放鬆，來打通財富的經絡。

ASMR與財經，看似風馬牛不相及，實則暗含隱匿的關聯。“財經”一詞中作“方法、道路”之意的“經”，脫胎於紡織的經線，其要在通，也暗合了身體的經絡和循環；而ASMR通過 聲音所刺激的感官感受，也正是一種經絡反應。對我來說，ASMR就像是某種密宗——雖然尚未被充分瞭解，但卻充滿魅力。它常被用來催眠，也是進入半夢半醒空間的關鍵鑰匙。此外，財富與睡眠之間也有着微妙的關係：大多數工薪階層，依靠醒着時的勞作來獲取報酬，那麼睡眠就意味着財富的休止；而另一邊，富裕人士的財富即使是在他們睡覺的時候，仍然可以持續地增加。ASMR與財經的結合也許擁有某種潛能，把“生產性的睡眠”帶給每一個聽衆。

與其想通，不如放鬆，身體的通透也許也可以成爲某種通往理解的路徑。

☯ TEIHAKU 鐵一
 TEIHAKU is an artist and writer. Involved with various artistic and social practices, he often switched among different roles to work in different contexts and territories in order to disrupt unnecessary barriers. From 2018, TEIHAKU started to use sound as a platform to discuss the relation between sense, consciousness and technology.

www.bruceboding.org
teihaku.wixsite.com/sound

☯ 鐵一
鐵一是一名藝術家和寫作者。他曾參與許多不同的藝術與社會實踐，並經常變換⻆色，進入不同的領地和語境展開工作，以此擾亂各種不必要的阻隔。從2018年起，他開始進行聲音創作，並藉此討論感官、知覺與技術之間的關係。