Along the Xindian River

Beneath the Surface

Underwater recordings were made across different sections of the Xindian River.

Downstream, low-frequency vibrations from the city travel through the water and merge with bridges, traffic and riverside infrastructure. Around Bitan, the hydrophones reveal dense and delicate traces of aquatic life. Further upstream, currents strike rocks and pass through narrow crevices, creating shifting layers of splashes, gravel and underwater friction.

Hydrophones displace listening from its familiar human position. The river is no longer only a landscape observed from above, but a living acoustic field shaped by movement, pressure, vibration and the residual sounds of the city.

A field recorder in an open bag and a microphone in a fur windshield on a floating dock beside the river, with a suspension bridge and apartment blocks behind.

A field recorder in its carrying bag on a concrete embankment, facing a green river and forested hillside.

The River and Human Memory

The project also gathers songs, stories and lived experiences from people whose lives are connected to the river.

The voices of hunters, weavers, residents and local practitioners reveal how the river enters everyday life—as a route of movement, a place of gathering and labour, and a carrier of cultural memory, environmental change and personal history.

These voices do not merely explain the landscape; they form part of it. When oral narratives are placed alongside the movement of water, the landscape is no longer silent, and place becomes more than a name on a map.

Two elderly men sit in a covered outdoor space during an interview, each wearing a small lavalier microphone.

A woman holds a thin cord to a small bamboo instrument at her mouth, with traditional garments on mannequins behind her.

Close view of hands weaving a patterned band on a wooden loom, with a printed pattern chart clipped beside it.

An elderly woman seated at a small wooden frame stretching red and purple thread, with pattern sheets on the table.

A wooden loom with a half-woven cloth in blue, white and red stripes and bundles of loose thread.

Participatory Listening

The research was further developed into a guided outdoor listening experience using wireless headphones. Participants walked through the landscape of Wenshan Farm while listening to recordings, songs and stories gathered from the upper reaches of the Xindian River. The experience brought mediated sound into contact with the ground beneath their feet, surrounding vegetation, moving air and the rhythm of their own bodies.

A person carrying a microphone rig and recorder walks along a forest boardwalk, with a line of participants behind.

One participant embraces a tree trunk while another crouches on the grass in the distance.

A person in a yellow rain poncho lies on a rock in the grass while another walks away along a path wearing headphones.

Participants sit on a lawn in headphones, hands raised to their faces, with trees and a slide behind them.

A person in headphones works at a laptop on a black equipment case outdoors, beside two microphones in fur windshields.

The walk concluded at an elevated viewpoint overlooking the river. From there, participants encountered the river again—this time bringing together the sounds heard through the headphones, the route experienced through the body and the landscape before them.

Three participants in headphones stand at a wooden railing, looking down on the river and valley.

Listening here is not simply the reception of a finished narrative. It becomes a way of rebuilding relationships. Participants first enter the river through sound and then observe it from a distance, allowing a familiar landscape to disclose another depth.

Participants wearing headphones sit in a wide circle of chairs in a bright room, with a person standing at a laptop and mixing table at the centre.

A smiling woman wearing illuminated headphones holds a small furry microphone, with other participants seated beside her.

Three participants sit in a row wearing eye masks and illuminated headphones.

A woman in an orange T-shirt and headphones speaks while holding a small furry microphone, seated in a circle of chairs.

A woman wearing headphones holds up a small printed card and looks toward the camera.

Artistic Approach

For me, field recording is not only a method of documenting environmental sound. It is a practice of staying.

When the body remains in a place long enough, perception begins to move beyond its usual assumptions. Water, terrain, human activity and other forms of life emerge not as separate elements, but as forces continually passing through one another.

Along the Xindian River uses listening to open this process. The river is approached not merely as something to be viewed, managed or crossed, but as a living field with which relationships can be formed.