Datscha Radio Logo

The day started with an expedition into the audio equipment world of Taipei: A broadcast-compatible second microphone was missing. To cut a long story short: Hero of my day was a young man called Wu Weida who led me from one Hi-Fi shop to another and finally to a stand in a market hall where I happily acquired the item.

Here come come pictures from our broadcast. The day was overcast and slightly fresh, therefore I decided not to move onto the terrace but stay inside my living room. Radios were tucked to nearby trees and marquees, and the scent of the freshly bought tuberoses wafted through the air.

A teacher came too with her class

Mabel Wang’s and Eli Liang’s musical inserts were a highlight. Both are trained musicians and the pieces they played belonged to the lore of traditional Taiwanese music. I still feel honored.

Mabel Wang at the Guzheng.
Eli Liang grew up in a family of flute players

THAV’s managing officer Charlotte explained in her talk how the village of Treasure Hill evolved. The artist village has hosted more than 500 artists since 2002. Meanwhile different people flock in and out of the studio: THAV’s new interns and artist’s friends mostly.

Charlotte Ming Chung and I
The stream works, says Gabriele de Seta

The Italian ethnographer and artist Gabriele came with Ping, a puppeteer. She brought a youtube list of Taiwanese flower songs, some from the early 40ies, some more like 80ies. The flower in the culture here is always always a symbol for the female… many songs speak of flowers “in the rain”, “at night”, falling petals, or the other way around, of coming to bloom.

Ping and her sister during the set

Ping’s DJ-set was followed by another concert by Mabel and Eli, and the recording of an interview with the Thai poet Rewat Panpipat who lives next door and is the only other artist resident from abroad in this village. All the time I was glad to find that our little radios outside picked up perfectly the transmitter signals. And evidently also the streaming radio worked :)
The broadcast closed with the give-away of the “radio carrots” to the artists and a sip (or two) of fine whiskey. Which makes me think of the fruit wines being manufactured by Cassandra, one of the local artists next door. But that’s already for the next broadcast.

More pictures will follow here, bear with me,

Read More

For the next seven weeks, Datscha Radio will plant its ‘radio day’ each on a different week day, progressing from its first broadcast on Tuesday, the 22nd of January. The location will be my terrace in the Artist Village of Treasure Hill, Taipei, Artist Studio No. 4.

I am happy to say that I have the great luck to collaborate here with the Italian ethnographer and experimental sound (and radio) artist Gabriele de Seta. Apart from assisting with tech and sound, he will also help with translations as he is a fluent speaker of Mandarin.

We’ll broadcast on stream via datscharadio.de, but also locally via micro-FM transmitters. This means that you can bring your radio, maybe find a place in the vicinity, sit down, listen and relax. The frequency is not yet decided upon, you’ll find it published in due time on this blog and social media.

Our forecast for the 22nd of January
Live concerts: Mabel Wang (Guzheng – Chinese zither) and Ely Liang (Dizi – Bamboo Flute)
Talks: Charlotte Ming Chun, Catherine Lee (THAV and TAV representatives)
Field recordings: raw audio
Selected interviews: Audio walk through the Village led by Lily Liu
Rewat Panpipat (Poet); Orachacorn (Editor)

Gardening is not about keeping schedules and plants don’t grow by the clock. Rather they follow their inner rhythms, they react to weather conditions, they communicate with fellow plants, living beings and matter in their environment. Gardening is most of all about caring and spending time with your surroundings. This newly planted radio garden in Treasure Hill invites you to come, listen, to contemplate, share and participate.

As we want to make this place as beautiful and flowering as possible, you may donate unwanted pot plants, flowers and/or vegetables :)


Read More

Yesterday I received great help for our jingle, – and the writing in the picture, „Hua yuan dian tai“, means „garden radio“.

I owe my thanks here to Yi-Chun Liu/Lily, Mabel Wang, Ming-Chun Cheng/Charlotte and Alice who lent their voices to the recording. And to Catherine Lee, director of the AIR program Treasure Hill Village, for her enthusiastic support. Catherine also explained that the word „datscha“ sounds very much like „Let’s go“ in Chinese. We also recorded an extra male voice for the jingle, the one of Yi-Wei Tsai, presenting Datscha Radio Taipei with an awe-inspiring laugh…

Catherine Lee. It’ grape harvesting time in Taiwan now.

Tracks will be soon online!

Read More

Taipei’s flower market is located under the protective rain shield of a flyover about 100 meters from Daan Park. It’s Sunday, but the hall is not too crowded. White arrows on the ground direct the flow of the masses into the right direction. So, first look at everything to the right, and on your way back onthe left. Hasty lane-changing leads to a little confusion, but is possible. Almost everything is here to discover : Water-steam machines, fertilizers, garden tools, soil, aquarium supplies, young dogs (in pink cages), seeds, pots and vessels of all kinds and of course flowers and plants for house and garden, mainly the latter.

One thing that strikes me, is the relative silence in comparison to the London flower market: no barkers, no screaming, not even with the countless special offers for orchids. I am glad that I am not an orchid specialist, otherwise I would have shed tears of delight. There are exquisite selections of „lady’s slippers“, young plants of special varieties, cascading flower stems in light yellow and aubergine, darkly speckled pharynxes, mysterious root pieces and lots of smaller „home plants” from 50 TWD (ca.1, 60 Euro). The prices for more splendid specimens go from 200 to 450 TWD and I feel very tempted.

Roughly speaking, the flower market can be divided into the sections orchids, succulents, ferns and epiphyts, camellias and bonsai (they really don’t belong together, but they are often grouped together), plants for the herb and vegetable garden and “showy perennials“, among them above all asters, pericallis and tailflowers as well as snap dragon, some roses and delphiniums. The stalls offering western spring flowers attract evidently delighted woman customers: There are hyacinths in full bloom and bulbs of daffodils. All of these are comparatively expensive.
Taipei flower lovers also seem to share an obvious liking for decorative Chichi, especially in aquaristics…

Coming to seeds, I search for Asian flowers, but there’s nothing there. Maybe because everything grows here almost by itself? The assortment – apart from garden vegetables – is almost the same as in Western stores, although a bit more limited: sunflowers, cosmea, Sweet William, autumn asters.

Garden tools are a story for themselves. To my astonishment, Western product names are abundant. Yet, much more interesting are the super-stable steel rakes, garden knives and shovels, which lie heavy in my hand and unfortunately would increase the weight of my suitcase considerably.
Tea is also sold: First, by the cup, being filled from huge steel vessels, secondly also in packages. Happy, I cram 300 grams of Oolong into my bag.

In the middle part of the hall, young dogs (and cats) are sitting in cages and I feel sorry for them. The seller tries to pull one of them out for a potential customer by grabbling its paw, and it seems to me that the animal here is viewed just as a living object.
In general, the dogs being walked here in the streets are often adorned with extravagant hairstyles and/or clothes. Being a dog groomer seems to be a profitable profession in Taipei. Also, it is not uncommon to transport dogs in buggies, for whatever reason..

Read More

(Translation follows) Treasure Hill Artist Village im Zhongzheng Distrikt Taipehs liegt nahe am Fluss, über dem ein Wirrwarr an Flyovers und Zufahrten die Lüfte kreuzt. Dahinter: grüne, in Wolkendunst gehüllte Berge. Auf dem Weg zum Ufer liegen die Gemüsegärten der Dorfbewohner: Etwa 19 Familien teilen sich das Viertel von Treasure Hill mit heimischen und auswärtigen KünstlerInnen.

Während die Einheimischen vorwiegend ihre Nutzgärten pflegen, ist die gesamte Anlage nicht weniger auch geprägt von „Picknickorten“, Wandelgängen und einer Vielzahl versteckter Mikrogärten. Was von den alten Fliesen geblieben ist, mit denen Plätze, Betonwände und Terrassen gekachelt sind, zeigt meist Blumenmotive. Die Dächer begrünen sich von allein…, aber einige Dachgärten wurden doch mit Absicht angelegt. Mauern und Wände sind bewachsen mit Farnen, Winden, Moosen und kleinen Steinbrechgewächsen. In Töpfen stehen Zitronen- und Mandarinenbäume, Hortensien, Wandelröschen, Azaleen und Kamelien. Kohlweißlinge sind unterwegs, weshalb die meisten Kohlköpfe sorgsam unter Fließ gehalten werden. Ein Teich, eine Seerose und viele Mücken auf einem Pfad, der bereits hinter das Dorf führt, in einen weitaus ungeordneteren Garten unterhalb der historischen Fassaden der Bunker. Dort finde ich auch ein Exemplar der indigoblau blühenden „Schmetterlingserbse“. Eine Pflanze, deren Name, Clitoria ternatea, quasi selbsterklärend wäre, wenn es sich hier nicht um eine gefüllte Variante handelte.

Eating the blossoms of this plant is said to increase intelligence and beauty…

Nun ein paar Treasure Hill Gartenansichten:

(Translation follows) Treasure Hill Artist Village im Zhongzheng Distrikt Taipehs liegt nahe am Fluss, über dem ein Wirrwarr an Flyovers und Zufahrten die Lüfte kreuzt. Dahinter: grüne, in Wolkendunst gehüllte Berge. Auf dem Weg zum Ufer liegen die Gemüsegärten der Dorfbewohner: Etwa 19 Familien teilen sich das Viertel von Treasure Hill mit heimischen und auswärtigen KünstlerInnen.

Read More
Open Call Datscha Radio Taipei 2019

Field recordists & composers, morning larks and moles, sound spies and spellers: The Garden is Calling!

Datscha Radio Taipei calls out for local contributors and participants: Nomadic (Garden) Radio – A Quest in Six Movements. 20th Jan – 10th of March 2019.

Datscha Radio will relocate for six weeks to Taipei and is looking for local sound gardeners and radio artists to perform and/or create soundscapes, talks and radio shows on site. Datscha Radio takes ‚the garden’ as a matrix and metaphor for sharing, organic growth and the dissemination of knowledge.

Bring your plants and musical contemplations, come and visit at the top of Treasure Hill and support your local radio garden in Taipei!

Datscha Radio Taipei will broadcast once a week from a garden in Treasure Hill between the 20th of January and the 10th of March. Duration: 2-4 hours – depending on your responses …

What we are looking for

– garden/plant/environmental related compositions and songs
– local musicians and singers
– active gardeners, improvisers and researchers 

How can I participate?

Please send your suggestions, ideas and/or files to: opencall@datscharadio.de from 5th of January to the 10st of March.

You’ll find further information about the project on datscharadio.de. You’ll find there also the latest updates on Datscha Radios Taipei adventures and, of course, the current dates and times of  the envisaged broadcasts.

Formats

– Live presentation and/or talk
– Sound files (mp3 192)

Datscha Radio is a temporary radio station and a garden and radio art project by Gabi Schaffner, Berlin.  Datscha Radio Taipei is supported by the Treasure Hill Artist Village and the Goethe Institut Taipei.

Read More

Dear radiophiles and friends! Datscha Radio wishes you health and happiness, ongoing inspiration, smooth transmissions and generally good luck for everything in 2019.

As early as the 11th of January the „station“ will move to Taiwan where it will hopefully broadcast once a week live from a garden at the Treasure Hill Artist Village in Taipei. I’ll keep you updated.

Surely this won’t be the only garden broadcast in 2019… seeds and bulbs are already planted!

Read More
The El Paso Rose Garden

„Aspirin is very good“, Patrick says, „but take care you buy uncoated tablets only“, and he’s not talking about his head but about the roses of the ELP Municipal Rose Garden on 710 Aurora Drive. We stand in the blazing heat and are talking roses.

A rose garden always seems to be a formal matter and the El Paso rose garden makes no exception. Its surrounding walls are whitewashed, the paths and plots follow prescibed horticultural plans, and yet, the neighborhood seems rather unimpressed. A police car is the only vehicle on the gravel parking lot of the garden. Teenagers in yellow shirts jump up and down under the terracotta colored roof of a nearby school. In front and behind the walls, rows of Hespealoes (Red Yucca) show off their last blossoms on gracious stalks, with black seeds spilling out of elegantly shaped pods.

Patrick is about 70, wears checkered trousers and a  Catweasel-like beard. How come we started talking about the roses? He was working at a stretch of red shrub varieties.  We admired him and the roses, unfilled simple red blossoms on age-grey sun-battered strong stems: desert hardy roses. And as it turned out, desert hardy roses were a favorite theme of Patrick who starts at 7 in the morning and has been working for the past 11 years in this garden.

He leads us to a shed where the gardeners stash garlic and onions to fight off the white fly, baking power against soil pests and aspirin against black spot desease and yellow leaves.
“If your roses becomes weak and sick, a good spell of aspirin helps them recover their health again”, says Patrick.

Aspirin is good for roses
Texan desert rose information files…

Desert roses are bred on rose wood that is not the European Rosa Canina but the (still!) hardier and heat resistant desert rose Rosa Stellata. They are bred to withstand the enormous temperatures encountered in the regions of Texas, New Mexico and and and.
The bushes, floribundas and tea hybrids bear mostly simple open blossoms, many of them with a strong, quite varied scent. Some are like apple, others almost cinnamon, others like old scented wood.

A multicolored specimen…
Purple Passion
Shoot from withered stem
Knockout

Patrick takes us back to his pruning work, a basket full of grey wood and wilted flowers stands next to him. Of course, he has the shears ready anytime, stashed in a leather sheath fixed to his belt. Next to the basket leans a very reliable looking pair of lobbers.

One of our questions seemingly puzzles him. “How about lavender?”, I had asked, to fight off the pests and give the roses company. “This has never been taken into consideration or planning… though, from now on I’ll think on it”, he says.

The sun has called its tribute already. The roses, hardly opened up, fold their leaves exhaustedly together, the rims of their petals at times even dried up before the whole flower has opened. Against one of the fences leans a tattered New Dawn, evidently unfit for this desert climate and close to fainting. Maybe this is a reason for the floribunda’s preference and also for the selection and breeding of smaller flowers. The resident tea hybrids of course still have prominent blossoms, but these are not always as much scented as one would suspect. Some have almost Dahlia-like spirally arranged petals, some variegated in while and red, or yellow and red.

The Municipal rose garden has quite a bit of staff to care for its roses, next to Patrick there is another elderly gardener (sturdier but with no beard and rather in his 60is) and a young woman who sets herself to work just as we are leaving the garden. In our bags we carry a small catalogue on desert roses and the inevitable leaflet on how to fight common pests and pruning.
One last theme: Almost all roses in the Municipal Rose Garden are American bred, the greatest part of them during the 50s and 60s. Their names convey quite accurately the diptych of culture and patriotism while a third section refers to their brilliance of colours: “Judy Garland”, “Betty Boop”, “Freedom”, “Roosevelt”, “Veteran’s Honor”, “Fourth of July”, “Proud Land”, “Prairie Lass”, “Purple Passion” and of course, “Knockout”…

 
Read More