sound and city image 聲音與都市印象 ：reykjavik 雷克維克

都市的聲音景觀有沒有像一個人的聲音那樣獨特，讓我們一聽就知道是誰？

我去冰島時，差不多每天在回雷克維克就寢，所以慢慢認識冰都的聲音，最引起我的注意是哈爾葛林姆教堂，教堂鐘聲每一刻鐘都響一下。雷克維克並不大，哈爾葛林姆鐘無論在哪裡也聽得到，成為冰島首都的聲音地標

I often wonder whether there might be a special voice of a city, much like the voice of a good friend that one recognizes before one sees the friend’s face. And so, when I visited Iceland in March, I found that in our everyday return to Reykjavik, I slowly began to recognize the city through its voice. One sound that caught my attention was the carillon tower of the Hallgrimskirkja. Reykjavik is not a large city, so wherever one might walk, one would hear the chimes every fifteen minutes. In this way, the Hallgrimskirkja serves as a city soundmark

雷克維克市中心托寧湖也很特別，冰島屬高緯度，每年來棲息的候鳥群特別豐富，但有些鳥類真的偷懶，雷克維克托寧湖不缺人養牠們，一群鴨子、鵝、天鵝一整年都待者，這群鳥呱呱、咕嘎咕嘎、軋軋軋比車子的喇叭聲、輪胎聲還要到，特別是人帶著一包麵包過來，鳥群的叫聲特別洪大

Down the hill from Hallgrimskirkja, the Tjornin also stands out. Iceland is nearly circumpolar, but its relatively mild weather attracts many migratory birds. Of course, among these, there are those birds who become too lazy to migrate. They’ve figured out that if they live at the Tjornin, someone will come feed them. So at this pond near the city center, there is a lively collection of ducks, geese, and swans, whose honking and quacking can be heard over automobile traffic. The sounds are particularly evident when people come with a paper sack of bread!

托寧湖以及哈爾葛林姆都是雷克維克地標，但不只是視覺景觀的存在，人在雷克維克，也在這兩個地標的聲音範圍，使得冰島首都、頗有獨特性

我相信熟悉雷克維克的人、認得出她的聲音

The Tjornin and Hallgrimskirkja are Reykjavik landmarks, but they exist in more than just the visual landscape; rather, they place nearly all of Reykjavik within the range of their voice. They give Reykjavik part of its personality

I’m sure that Reykjavikers would recognize the voice of the city

法國人類學家馬克。奧熱 （marc auge）曾以「非場所」（non lieux) 描述(超)現代都會設計所構造的大賣場、捷運站、機場、廣場、等，據奧熱，一個「場所」其實是一個倫理媒介，人通過地方才有辦法跟自己、異己、以及歷史相識相認、溝通、協調、和連結，相對得，「非場所」不需要這樣麻煩，人與人之間的關係，通過標準程序、金錢、規則，就過得去，為了快熟流通，非場所減少了歷史、文化、倫理各種摩擦力，但同樣的，非場所缺乏個性

The French anthropologist Marc Auge has used the term “non places” to describe the shopping malls, subway stations, airports, and plazas created by (hyper)modern urban planning. According to Auge, a place is actually an ethical medium: place mediates between self, other, and the past, allowing us to recognize, understand, communicate with, contact, and negotiate with ourselves and others. Non places are not so much trouble–after all in a non place, our relationships with other people are organized through standard procedures, money, and rules. In order for rapid circulation, non places excise or at least reduce the friction of different histories, culture, and ethical frameworks. But of course, this leaves non places more than a bit generic. They lack characteristics we usually associate with place

非場所雖不陌生，不過我們在中間好像變成陌生人

Although non places are not strange, they seem to leave us all strangers

奧熱的「非場所」讓我更注意都市個性
每一個都市獨特的聲音、就像好朋友一樣，是慢慢慢慢醞釀起來的，托寧湖其實最早是跟大海相連的澡澤，它隨著雷城的成長過程才成為我們現在所看到的湖泊，如果我們要了解托寧鵝群，需要在冰島近代史追究…

那，太平洋邊的島都、港都呢？雖然奧熱所謂「非場所」多，但是台北、高雄也有獨特的聲音，讓我們一起分享！

Auge’s notion of non place might let us think a bit more clearly about what gives cities their characteristic voices

For one, history, including the ways that city people have ordered their relationships as citizens and with those (humans and non humans) they think of as Other, creates a specific kind of voice. Originally, the Tjornin was not a pond but a marshy estuary connected to the ocean; the Tjornin we see today grew out of a long process of city planning and reorganization in Reykjavik. If we really want to know more about the birds of the Tjornin, we would have to look more closely at this history. I suspect it is a complicated one which reflects Iceland’s colonial and post-colonial search for modernity (for a sense of this search, we might look at the work of Haldor Laxness among others)

By now, you are probably wondering, “What does this have to do with Taiwan soundscapes?”
Well, the capital city of that other island country has its share of non-places, particularly in the Sinyi District near Taipei 101. But Taipei and Kaohsiung both have their own voice. By thinking about the voice of another city, maybe we could think a bit more about how to document and preserve those elements of Taiwan’s urban soundscapes we have come to view as voices of our dear old friends

Here’s a soundwalk from my time in Reykjavik
請聽我的雷克維克聲音散步