Within the framework of the Residency and Festival TTTIFA 2019, Siedl/Cao have created this series of sound installations which rediscovers the „forgotten“, the „neglected“, the „unused“ and the „everyday“. Some of the installations are results of the workshop by Siedl/Cao with the pupils of Taiping Elementary school. These installations use sound as a medium to reconnect to the wonder of traditional Taiwanese games, toys, glove puppetry and everyday objects, particularly plastic ones. During the four workshops, old objects and toys were given to Siedl/Cao by the pupils of the class 306. These objects were incorporated literally and figuratively into an interactive sound performance and two installations – „the wonder labyrinth“ and „my old treasure box“. Many of these installations are interactive and highlights how one can be creative by being playful.
Tangram Sound Bridge
Many traditional games and toys help develop critical thinking and abstract imagination. A better known example of such toys is a tangram puzzle, which consists of seven flat shapes that can form thousands of figures.
To interact, build your own creative „sound bridge“ between the orange and green triangles – two ends of the „sound bridge“. When the bridge is finished and all the tangram pieces are well connected to each other, you will hear a sound. Keep changing shape or form of your „sound bridge“, you will hear the sound changing. Actually, even small movements of the bridge sometimes make big change in sound.
After school line-up
“that last drop of focus, restraint, tension
it´s the linup to being released into afternoon bliss
some straight, some loose, cascading, wiggling or giggling – parents waiting at the gate
every day, every year” (Gregor Siedl)
material: 16 jacob´s ladders, 16 servo motors
How many traditional theatres were there in Dadaocheng alone?
There used to be over 20 traditional theatres situated in Dadaocheng area, where one can see puppet theatres and traditional operas. The golden squares on this map show some of those traditional theatres. This installation is our tribute to the music of Nanguan, Beiguan style, the distinctive voice of each puppet characters when they enter the scene, when they laugh, when they cry, the sounds of traditional instruments, the human vocalisation of these instruments.
To interact, put your hand into the puppets, use the puppets’ hand to touch the golden spots on the map.
Polymer’s Voyager
This sound installation takes the shape of a voyager made up of designated plastic trash bags used within Taipei area. The voyager is “traveling” in space with the sound of radio short waves, with the musical garbage truck tune – “Mainden’s prayer” by Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska, and with ideas from the Taiping Elementary pupils written on cardboards of how to reinvent plastic for the future.
My old treasure box
The sense of wonder, the nostalgia for ones childhood, the collective story filled with magic and fantasy… The story is the imagination of each pupil about their old toys and their chosen objects. The music is from a music box of a pupil. She got her music box for her 4th birthday.
To interact, simply open or close the box slowly.
Turn back time
One could tell which period of Taiwan history it is, simply by seeing the popular game, toy and cartoon characters in that period of time. „Battle cards“ is a game in which the players attempt to use their cards to hit and flip over an opponent’s card. These nostalgic old cards show the aesthetics of that time period, which classics are known by everyone, which puppet characters are children’s favourites. Let’s turn back in time through sound!
To interact, place the card on to the black box to hear the reversed nostalgic sound associated to each card.
The wonder labyrinth
This installation is a collaboration between Siedl/Cao and the pupils of Taiping Elementary school. The objects in this marble labyrinth are old toys and objects from the pupils. These imaginative drawings are the pupils’ impression they have from the sound walk that Siedl/Cao and the pupils did together in the Dadaocheng neighborhood.
To interact, use the wooden spoon or plastic ruler to push the golden marble into the labyrinth.
Cao Thanh Lan 