Sonic Friction

— Public Programme for Trevor Yeung's Soft ground at Gasworks, London

Sonic Friction is a performance programme to collaboratively build a sonic landscape as a strategic queer site to hold the commonalities without community. Sketching beyond Trevor Yeung’s artistic portrayal of the “fuck tree”as a botanical metaphor for London’s queer history, this project un- leashes the creative potential of sound to escape rigid routes and form al- ternative alliances. This programme welcomes participants to this public, digital bonfire from their private spaces to enjoy this ephemeral gathering.

The antecedent of the smooth surface on the fuck tree is untraceable, but the smoothness hints at the evidence of friction. Initiated from the skin of the fuck tree, Sonic Friction grasps the friction as the motif of this program to reimagine the encounterment within the park at night. Friction suggests encounters but is not necessarily exclusive to humans. It is the rub on the face, action during human sexual activity, and vibration when the wind blows across the leaves. By capturing the sonic aspects of the friction, we revisit the communal narratives that are constructed around the friction.

We join hands with two sonic practitioners. Through the constant translations between the visual and sonic, Yu-Jung Chen invites us to a sonic meandering around the park and its distinctive functionality at night. Ayana’s lyrics-based vocal performance of sensing the surrounding sounds and noises from the perspective of the tree meditatively forges a community in the heard and the unheard.

Traversing throughout the vibratory models of the human, the space and the tree, which actively interrupts the representational codings active on that "visual surface" of our world, togetherness arises from our shared sonic sensibility to the unseen, non-represented and not-yet-apparent.

Sonic Friction 是一個聲音表演項目，旨在合作建立一個聲景，為酷兒這個沒有在地社區，但有無限共性的群體建立有效空間。該項目作為楊沛鏗(Trevor Yeung)首個倫敦個人展覽，繼承其對 "fuck tree" 作為倫敦男同性戀歷史的植物隱喻的的裝置性回應，釋放人、空間和樹的聲音潛力，擺脫僵化的路線，建立替代聯盟。這場表演歡迎參加者從自己的私人空間來到這個營火晚會，享受這個既私亦共的短暫聚會。

這棵 "fuck tree" 光滑樹幹的前身已無從考證，但光滑的表面暗示著摩擦。從 「fuck tree" 的表皮開始，我們以摩擦為主題，重新想像夜間公園內的邂逅。摩擦意味著相遇，但卻非人類獨有的。它可以是人類進行性活動時臉部的摩擦，也可以是風吹過樹葉時的振動。透過捕捉摩擦的聲音，我們重新審視圍繞摩擦構建的共有敘事。

我們與兩位聲音藝術家攜手合作。陳昱榮邀請我們在公園裡進行聲音漫遊，感受漢普斯特荒野 (Hampsted Heath) 僅在晚上才出現的獨特功能。 Ayana透過以歌詞為本的聲音表演，從樹的角度冥想並感知周圍的聲音和噪音，在聽到和聽不到中形成一個群體。

Sonic Friction旨在穿梭於人類、空間和樹的摩擦模式，透過聲音，積極地打斷了當前世界仰賴於視覺感知而產生的疆化表象。從看不見的、非表象的和尚未顯現的事物中，透過引發共同聲波感知力而凝聚彼此。