Wong Tai Sin, case study in progress

This blogg is much overdue! Over the past few months, the MMHK team has been focussing on a case study at Wong Tai Sin 黃大仙祠, one of the most significant temple grounds in Hong Kong. It is a large (18,000 m2) Taoist temple area, which hosts several buildings, water features, and a park. Visitors come from all over the world (perhaps 3.5 million visits per year). It traces a history of more than a century, and opened to the public in 1956. For more information, see the website of the administrating organisation, Sik Sik Yuen 嗇色園.

Our approach for this case study is multidisciplinary. As a team, we have visited Wong Tai Sin on eight occasions since November, almost once per week. We brought 360˚ video cameras and 3D audio microphones to record ~800 GB of raw data, which will be postproduced and archived for future research and other projects, as well as clips made public on our YouTube channel and MMHK map. Using our ‘smellsound protocol’, we have documented soundscape and smellscape through perceptual ratings and SPL measurements at more than 200 points within the temple complex. We have also conducted more than 40 ad hoc onsite interviews with visitors, in four languages; this rich material is currently subjected to qualitative analysis by the team.

Stay tuned for more updates and publications! Meanwhile, here’s some early results of the soundscape mapping: