Josh Kun has a biodata that could take up the entire webspace of this blog. He holds a PhD in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley, is the author of various books, articles, and publications, and has hosted and appeared on a range of radio and television shows. His lecture at Woodbury focused on understanding various Tijuanologies through the realm of sound, of music, of a soundscape.
Although Tijuana is a border city, Tijuana is not defined by it, not saturated by it. Kun steps back and discusses the Renaissance as the point where the world became more apparent as a visual experience, rather than the ancient sonic one. It was a time when things both worldly and divine were brought to vision, through painting and perspective, through sculpture and relief, and everything was "envisioned." Thus, sound became less important: vision was proof, everything else, heresay. This is true even today. Our terms for understanding and scrutiny are all visual terms: focus, discern, speculate, legible, etc.
But how much more can we extract from a place in the sonic realm? What would we begin to consider? Kun presents Tijuana as a Sonic experience: the 'clank' of the turnstile at the border, the tuning of the radio to "listen to the line," the false expression of Tijuana through pop culture in the 20th century, the denial of Tijuanan rock music, the idea of Tijuana as a crossfader (choosing where and when to listen to this side or that), traditional sounds, street sounds, DJs, mariachi bands. Through an energetic, diverse, and entertaining array of sounds and music, Josh Kun presented a Tijuana, both neglected and celebrated, both loved and scorned, all the while completely and totally real.
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