but, as it turns out, tsai and dauby did not at first intend to do a piece on the beitou district at the TAF negative space collective village

they had been at first invited to do recording work at the decommissioned airforce base itself. as they admit, there are some interesting sonic features of the site. however, to hear them would require not just technical skill in mic-ing; it would also need a pedagogy of listening for audiences to be able to digest

to dauby, this need for pedagogy suggests a broader problem which has been at the center of sound studies from at least r murray schafer onward: the relative deafness urban dwellers have to the accumulated sonic gunk of traffic and modern industry. in relationship to this problem, a strategy for sonic pedagogy might take the form of ear cleaning, such as sound walks and education in noise / noise abatement. but it might also be connected to a more positive program of creative sound work and archiving: something like a sound education and art center

as dauby pointed out, taipei currently lacks a center for archiving or working on sound. one possibility for the TAF space could be the creation of such a center, which would offer facilities for audio editing, mixing, and publication (either through broadcast or installation / exhibition), as well as an audio archive facility. the facilities would be open to the public to allow those interested in recording and sound practice to learn through active work

overall, it’s an interesting idea. i might have to underscore the possibility for my talk at TAF in mid-august