夏日的台北植物園 Summer at the Taipei Botanical Garden
台北植物園，年輕時每日上學必經的路 (Taipei Botanical Garden — the path I walked every day to school in my youth)
台北植物園是我充滿回憶的地方，因為我國中就讀的就是植物園旁的南門國中。整整3年幾乎每一天的上學和放學 (當然扣除寒暑假和週末假期)，我都必須走路穿過植物園，走著對國中生來說很長的一段路才有辦法到學校或回家。也因為如此，在植物園中發出的各種聲音，都常常勾起我的"兒時情境"-即便我認為現在的植物園音景已經和當年有很大的不同了。
我最喜歡的植物園季節是夏季，在那個台灣人還不像現在爆炸般盛行國內休閒旅遊的年代，外加高溫而讓人們對外出曝曬敬而遠之的盛夏午後，來到植物園內我就宛如躺在由樹木包圍的搖籃中，對我來說是遠離學校的恐懼，唯二的救贖(另一個則是藉由打電動遠離現實的一切)。我還記得每天午休時間我會只花5分鐘把便當吃完後，立刻逃到學校側門靠近停車場出入口的空地，只因為沒有人會去那裡玩，我可以獨處避開與人接觸，眺望著外面的馬路和人行道，妄想著可以離開這個鬼地方....當然我現在對於國中時期的負面回憶因為過了這麼久而淡化到近乎消失了，時間還真是個奇妙的東西。
The Taipei Botanical Garden is a place full of memories for me, because I went to Taipei Municipal Nanmen Junior High School, which is right next to the garden. For three full years, almost every single school day—excluding summer and winter breaks and weekends—I had to walk through the Botanical Garden to get to and from school. For a middle schooler, it felt like a long walk. Because of that routine, the sounds of the garden often trigger vivid childhood memories—even though I believe the soundscape of the garden today is quite different from how it was back then.
Summer is my favorite season in the Botanical Garden. Back in a time when domestic leisure travel in Taiwan wasn’t as explosively popular as it is now—and when the intense summer heat kept most people indoors—an afternoon in the garden felt like lying in a cradle wrapped in trees. For me, it was an escape from the fear and pressure of school, one of only two forms of salvation (the other being the temporary escape offered by video games). I still remember how, during lunch breaks, I would finish my lunch in just five minutes and immediately run to a vacant area near the school’s side gate, close to the parking lot entrance. Nobody played there, so I could be alone, avoiding social interaction, staring out at the road and sidewalk beyond the gate, fantasizing about escaping that awful place... Of course, now the negative memories from my junior high years have faded almost entirely with time. Time really is a strange thing.
我開始田野錄音後的首個目標當然就是植物園，然而外面有來自都市的噪音、裡面有遊客製造的人為音景，似乎和我記憶中的那個寧靜的植物園相去甚遠(當然我認為那個時候我還沒有自覺意識到這些已經存在於背景的噪音)。即便這筆錄音中的背景有著馬達的噪音(或許是溫室的風扇轉動聲)，也能夠讓我在一聽到錄音後馬上回到記憶中的那個時候，這是屬於我個人的聲音記憶。
Naturally, the Botanical Garden became my very first target when I started field recording. However, the outside is filled with urban noise, and the inside carries the anthrophony created by visitors—quite different from the peaceful garden I remember. (Of course, I now realize that back then I simply wasn’t consciously aware of those background noises that were already present.) Even though this recording contains motor noise in the background—perhaps from the fans in the greenhouse—it still has the power to instantly transport me back to that moment in my memory. It’s a deeply personal sound memory.
錄音筆記
地點類型：都會公園
天氣：晴天無雲，氣溫約35度
錄音方式：AB20(固定在錄音機包上)，麥克風面對水塘
使用器材
錄音機：Sound Devices Mixpre-6 II
麥克風：Lom Usi Pro
Recording Notes
Location type: Urban park
Weather: Clear and sunny, temperature around 35°C
Recording method: AB20 (mounted on the recorder bag), microphones facing the pond
Equipment Used
Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre-6 II
Microphones: Lom Uši Pro