︎

Lifted Motörway Project: Investigating the sonic atmosphere through experiential fieldwork in the jungle.

https://studentlab1.rmit.edu.vn/%7Ev81013/index4.html

Black Murmur: Installation Panorama:

The Lifted Motorway Panorama:

Massive

Dragonflies

Atmosphere #1

Project Audio Sample:

1.Vertical Recording OnGround: 1 April 2023 Two audio recorders are aligned verticaly under the elevated expressway while recording simultaneously, here is the first recording from the ground

2.Vertical Recording OnBoomPole: 1 April 2023 Two audio recorders are aligned verticaly under the elevated expressway while recording simultaneously, here is the second recording from the boom pole

https://studentlab1.rmit.edu.vn/~v81013/index4.html

PROJECT#4
The Lifted Motorway

Concept Finding: Thần [spirit of the land]

Through a series of field recordings, I’ve been investigating the soundscape of a ‘still’ in-construction (2014 - present time) suspended expressway in Nhon Duc ward located in Nha Be, a suburban district of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. This 57-km long massive suspended expressway (e.g., Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway) gets constructed segments at different point along the drawn pathway, in which locals have access to it to freely use it while the road function is not available yet for vehicles. This setup offers me the latitude to explore at different height the sonic atmosphere that occurs between wild life jungle prints and the vertical presence of this cement display, in which the sound of life is amplified by the reverb occurrence of this heavy and massive man-made structure.

The Lifted Motorway extends the trajectory of verticality within my practice, deepening the engagement with sonic space as both a physical and affective field. Whereas Black River (see Research Project #3) explored vertical listening across bridges and tides, this project shifted the perspective beneath a massive, elevated expressway, framing the structure as a resonant and responsive body suspended between land and sky. Field recordings and performances were conducted at different vertical levels—on the ground and elevated via boom pole—capturing stratified sonic layers shaped by material resonance, atmospheric conditions, and shifting environment activities.

This project not only reinforced verticality as a method employed to field recordings but also revealed how infrastructure and environment co-produce atmospheres charged with presence. Verticality, in this context, also emerged as a conceptual vehicle—its ascending connotation aligning with the idea of extra-forces or spiritual presences that seem to rise beyond the material. The site’s acoustic presences and spatial textures opened a space for sensing something more—an unseen but felt dimension, echoing Thần Thổ Địa, the spirit of the land. The motorway, in this context, was no longer a passive structure but an active participant in a shared sonic and affective ecology.

The Lifted Motorway project invites audiences to hear beyond the aural surface—to experience a space where the material, the spectral, and the environmental merge. It builds on and reconfigures the principles of Black River (see Research Project #3), moving from urban canals to a suspended infrastructure surrounded by jungle, and from observational recording to performative, more-than-noise engagement.

PHOTO-PANORAMA:

︎

PROJECT#4 The Lifted Motorway

PROJECT#4
The Lifted Motorway