Subjective Measurement, and Beginning to Explore Three Dimensions.

In contrast to the large scale canvas pieces I completed at Sunny Cove beach I have completed a series of very small ‘Sound Drawings’ on small squares of paper this week.

In these pieces I am exploring the concept of subjective measurement and alternative methods of recording and documenting the landscape that I am in. They follow the same concept as my original ‘Sound Drawings’, though these drawings began and ended at the sound of human voice, making the drawings representations of the periods of purely natural sound (waves, wind, birds etc.), I used the interruptions of human voice to signal the start and end of a drawing, making the drawings small measurements of both the time period between human voices and the intensity of natural sounds during these periods.

Series of 16 small 'Sound Drawings' drawn between human voice sounds

Just looking at the drawings as a collection, you can see the differences in the length of time between different human voice sounds – some drawings are made up of simply one small line, whereas others are much more chaotic as there was more time between the voices.

In response to a one-to-one tutorial, I also began to explore these methods of alternative measurement and documentation through more three-dimensional means. Again, using the same method as the ‘Sound Drawings’ I responded to the natural ambient sounds of both the landscape surrounding me and, also back in the studio responded to recordings of natural sounds, using natural clay sourced from Sunny Cove and Pendennis Point beaches, sculpting the clay with my hands, translating the natural sounds into sculptural objects. This was interesting in that the results of this were tangible, physical representations of sound, something that is very non-physical. This also represents the idea of translating energy, as mentioned in my previous journal post.

Natural clay divided into equal sized small blocks before sculpting them

Series of 16 Small Natural Clay 'Sound Drawing' Sculptures

These sculptural ‘Sound Drawings’ were more successful at representing the idea of translating the energy of the natural landscape, as their physical nature implied the embodiment of the sound energy that they had captured, whereas the original drawings on paper were more of a measurement or study of the quantity of sound, though both forms did document and explore the idea of the sound of a landscape successfully. The series of sculptures did seem less fluid, especially once the clay had dried and the forms hardened, whereas the drawings had a sense of movement, of vibrating, shifting energy that the solid form simply could not capture. I intend to explore casting to take these sculptural sound drawings further, working with the idea of negative space by casting the shape around the sculptural form, leaving a void in the shape of the original sculpture to represent how the sound in its physical form is now gone as the work has been taken out of the natural landscape and into the studio, but the impression it made is still left.

Translating energy in this way has its links to the practice of deep listening. In her TED Talk on the subject, Pauline Oliveros mentions that the ears hear, the brain listens and the body senses – in my Sound Drawings I am using all three elements to hear, listen and sense the environment around me, tuning in to the vibrations of its energy.