Sensing Rhythms: Hong Kong Temporalities through Practice-Oriented Research in Data and Sound

Abstract This article introduces spectral processing methodologies in Max/MSP as a means of producing and modulating sound to express relationships between isolated events recorded by weather data and the political rhythms that permute life in Hong Kong. Two sonic compositions, Extreme Weather in Three Movements and Sky Bends Dark, produced between 2021 and 2023, while the author was living in Hong Kong, serve as case studies in which perception is suspended between two modes of data access utilizing a traditional auditory display and a three-dimensional soundscape. These audio works are also reminders of the historicization of Hong Kong which has typically been understood through countdowns between past and future events.