Sonic Territories: Performance Recap
By David Green
“Sonic Territories” was an eclectic mix of performances, transformed into the near-sublime by virtue of the uniquely powerful location in which the events unfolded.
The site in question, the Beishan Broadcast Wall, on Taiwan’s Kinmen Island, is a ten-meter-high brutalist box that houses 48 speakers. Constructed in 1967, it was used by Taiwanese authorities to blare anti-Communist propaganda, directed at mainland China, until the late 1970s. The speaker system hurled news, songs and spoken messages as far as 25 kilometers into mainland Chinese territory. In return, the Communists pumped back shells packed with propaganda leaflets, firing a total of 500,000 shells over 20 years.