Wind Memory #5 Yawen Xi 奚雅文 Time: Around 8 years till now
Location: UK, Switzerland, Turkey
Interviewer: Jiuming Duan Interviewed time: 7th June 2021
For me, that the memorable story of the wind is about paragliding itself. It may be a memory lasting for 8 years, which is quite long. The first time I saw it was the hot air balloon festival in Bristol 8 years ago, and then some people were doing a short performance. I saw him in the middle of a very wide valley. There was a person who was carrying something like a big fan behind his back, and he took a paraglider.
Because in general, the paraglider must have jumped from the mountain, and the force of the wind must be borrowed. But this is the kind of feeling that he brought the wind on himself, a bit like Kiki's Delivery Service. It took off on the ground, and then he flew up. It should be the first time I have seen that such a thing can be done with wind. It was a magical feeling. Then this thing brought a kind of hope in my mind, or something like a small flame. It kept in your mind anyway.
At that time, it was only a deep memory. Especially in such an environment, everyone was very happy. And he should last for a long time in the air, at least four or five minutes. I didn't remember how he got down. I felt like magic. That is not feeling that we stand in the environment and feel the wind, but the feeling that this person can really control the wind. Later, this thing has always been in my mind. I really want to try this feeling. I want to try the experience of flying in the wind. It is not like sitting in an airplane that you can’t feel at all. It is the feeling that it is really surrounded by you, you can feel the wind on you. The feeling of the wind scratching in the ears.
After that, it was in Switzerland. It should be the year that I graduated from MA. Then I went to Switzerland with my family to the campsite. I forgot the specific name of the snow mountain. Then I knew that things like paragliding depend on the weather so much.
The next day, I saw someone flying in the canyon. This time it was really flying in the canyon. You think that they were like two birds in the sky, and people have became two birds. I really want to know that what was it like when I fly in the wind. But it rained the next day. The activity couldn’t start in rain. So, it was a dead end.
But I was not too disappointed, because I was still a little nervous. After all, I didn't know what it will be like.
Then I went to Turkey the year before last year, I was fooled by my dad. He may know that I have always wanted to do this thing, and then we went to Turkey to go to the seaside area, and then saw someone flying. I remember that I was in a night market when I made this decision. In fact, there is a mountain on the beach. It is a mountain dedicated to this kind of paragliding. It is a very peaceful beach, but a bit commercial. I personally think that every shop in the small stalls will ask you do you want to go for a ride? I didn't think too much at the time and entered this stall. I saw the sound of the wind in the video was like rushing, then the people inside are screaming there.
At that time, I didn't believe this thing very much in my heart. But the next day I decided to try it. It took about 30 minutes for the bus to go around the mountain, but it didn't feel a long time at that time. I just thought I didn't know what to face, I was a little curious, and I didn't see how tortuous the road on the mountain was. I even didn’t look at it. We have passed three points. we jumped to the highest point that day.
Because the curtains of the bus were all closed. The moment you opened the door of the coach, you were on the mountain. But because you can see only one small hill when you come out, you can’t actually see what was under the mountain. It felt that the wind was overwhelming. There was a piece of flag hanging on a pole, and then the instructor told me that if you look at which way it blows, you know which direction the wind is blowing, and then you can know where to go. When all the paragliders are settled, the instructor will help you open your things. It was quite tense at that time, but it didn't last for long time.
On the top of the mountain
Because maybe it was a quite quick process, watching my dad jump down first, when I jumped down, maybe even less than 5 minutes. The moment I jumped down was not that scary, it felt magical. It was really magic, because it's not the kind of feeling of riding a roller coaster, because I don't like that kind of feeling. It was that you ride the wind and carry you away. It's like the kind of fairy whistling the wind, and then holding you in the palm, letting you soar in the air. It was happy and not scary. At the moment when it was launched, I still screamed. I was still a bit nervous. Then I really had about 10 seconds passed, your heart was settled down. You will feel that you are very powerful. The power of nature cannot be described. You will really become a bird-like creature.
You can go up, you can look down, and then you can really fly. Fly at a very slow speed. For almost an hour, the sound of the wind was a very gentle feeling. Although you can also hear the sound of the wind blowing, because you didn’t have this kind of fear, you didn’t have the power to contend with it. You felt like riding on the wind, so you think it was very gentle. At the beginning, when you were on the top of the mountain, the wind was very loud and there were a lot of noises. But the moment you jumped down, everything seemed to be quiet. It may be because
you were feeling its airflow, so you follow it. The feeling of being in the flow, the feeling of being immersed in the wind with you.
The screenshot of the video Yawen sent me
The view of flying you really cannot see on the ground. The mountains were very high, the cliffs between the mountains, and there are green trees. The beach was really white. Imagine the migrating birds. In fact, you feel like a member of your own bird team.
This was a good experience. you may want to continue doing it. Then I called a group of people, and then drove to Brighton to learn how to paraglider with our own to feel this power. The result was successful when we finished that day. Although we fell many times, the height of the flight was about 20 meters. Then this was not just for you to feel the wind. You are a bit like taming a wild horse. This is a next step, I think. You must really understand the wind. Such as air pressure, air flow and vortex.
Then there was a feeling that when you spray the paraglider out, you have to connect with all its lines, and the wind blows it, you will feel that the paraglider itself is a creature, you will feel that it wants to fly. Not just me, you will feel the wind blowing to it, and then it will slowly fill up the whole breath, and for a moment you will feel that it wants to fly.
Then there was a very low hillside. We need to learn how to jump down, really be able to do it by yourself. To walk and run, and then it will blow you up with a rush . When you slowly fall to the ground, putting the paraglider away and let it fall to the ground. But at that stage, it’s a bit of going back to the kind of children playing in the playground. It was not as perfect as the first time in Turkey, but I am still interested in doing this.
Regarding the wind, I think paragliding makes me feel the different aspects of the wind. I think it is a very powerful thing. Something that is very vital, or it involves something that I have recollected in a few years, whether it is good or bad, or something I miss, or the feeling that I will go there in the future. It is all inside.
The location of the place where Yawen did the paragliding
If you can use one thing to represent your experience of this wind, what would you choose? Phoenix. First, I think it will be reborn. Because you feel different at every stage. Although the carrier is a paraglider, it actually carries your different memories. Including hope this thing, I will be interested in this thing in the memory of my life forever. But I know it may not thing I can do as an effort now, but you will still see hope, and then you will find that you love this thing very much. It appeared and disappeared again and again in 8 years. But it gives you the kind of power that has always existed. It's not that I will give up if it hurts, or I didn't do it last time. I keep loving it.
There is a small flame in it, so I said a fire phoenix. It may also be because I am a fire sign, so I may also love hot things. In fact, I feel that from this perspective, wind is more containing the love for this challenge. And I feel like I want to challenge it for a long time, because you have seen it in many perspectives.
Yawen using a sing bowl to describe the differences of the sound of the wind before jumping off and after
Sound Design progress
Inspired by Yawen using the instrument to describe the sound, I used a bow to play the guitar strings. By using different ways to make sounds with noise and sounds with clean resonance and overtone. By the way, the string of the guitar and the ropes of the paraglider are very good connection with each other. The vibration of the string represents different states.
Blowing a Coke bottle to produce a constant and ethereal sound.