Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice - Listening – Drawing – Sounding, Apr 2025

This paper examines several original drawings that explore the significance of montage in the composition of sonic works, where space plays an active role. Whilst choreographic drawings combine temporal and spatial information into a single image, there are very few instances of musical notation that incorporate a spatial element. The original examples discussed in this article do not serve as instructions for musical performances but instead function as a key part of the compositional process. The technique of compositing spatial and musical notational material aligns with the conceptual basis of the work. The objective is to create compositions that interact with a specific spatial context whilst also establishing their own spatial constructs, using sound as a medium. This type of work is referred to as ‘spatiosonic’.¹

This report presents a case study building upon the methodology outlined in ‘Sound drawing and dhol notation: A methodological approach to visualising drum sounds’ and investigates the outcomes of a novel iteration of the sound drawing activity designed for dhol notation. The study explores the nature of sound drawing to capture the dhol’s intricate auditory landscape, offering a perspective on its tonal complexities. By examining the visual representations generated through this method, the report highlights the potential of sound drawing to enhance the understanding and preservation of the dhol’s sound and musical heritage.

This text examines my field recording practice as a form of landscape drawing and, more closely, looks at drawing as both archive and instruction when trying to capture the event of a landscape with the multiple timescales perceived, and recorded, in the field. Taking landscape drawing as a method to collect observations for further development in the studio, I find analogies with both the process and concept of field recording and, ultimately, find an interrelation between resulting pieces of work in both media.

‘A dialogue between sound and drawing, the body and its environment’ explores the relationship between sound and drawing through a responsive listening and drawing process. Investigating the impact of sound on the body, this article examines drawing not just as a means of translation and transcription, but also as a tool to deepen our understanding of bodily responses to noise and soundscapes. The paper contrasts two approaches to this practice: one in situ, responding to live environmental sounds, and one in the studio, using recorded sounds. By doing so, it questions which is more effective and might ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of the body as a sonic vessel and a tool for exploring external and internal soundscapes.

This paper documents the collaborative research project, Sound as Form / Percussive Drawing, by a collaborating percussionist and visual artist. The project, which culminated in a live performance at DRAW Space Gallery in Eora (Sydney) on 1 September 2023, is a unique exploration of the potential of percussive sound as a medium for drawing. Grounded in the hypothesis that there are parallels between these modalities based on similar attributes, the research sought to uncover the dynamic interplay between the improvisation of sound and the mindset of drawing. This paper describes the preparatory workshop, live performance, conceptual framework and project research outcomes. These include identifying alignment between sound and drawing characteristics and the importance of temporality and mindset in making and experiencing a sound work as a drawing.

This paper is based on my artistic practice, which has focused on exploring drawing and its limits. It is based on the pieces The Sound of Drawing, from 2019, and Twin Drawings, from 2020 to 2021, which contemplate a relational dimension between drawing and sound. These works sought to expand the limits of the drawing experience in its relationship with listening and mental recreation through words. The expansion of drawing and the attention to the sound dimension has made evident the ambiguity regarding the identity of drawing and the pieces themselves present, raising pertinent questions. These include: how does the drawing manifest itself? Is it to be understood as a mark on a surface? As an act? As an image or sound? This practice and these pieces aim to attempt to understand the delineation through which Drawing reveals itself. The conclusion is that the hybridization of processes is conducive to creating composite, indeterminate or ambiguous works between the field of drawing and other domains. The sound, like the trace, is a component of drawing that is revealed in the process when it is touched on a surface and becomes visible and audible. That drawing develops in transit, crossing the boundaries of fields, materialities and spatial dimensions to potentially assert itself as a work of art, and that since the origin, as described by Pliny, this transitus is already extensive to Drawing (name and verb).

Drawing and sounding both rely on bodily movement as a basis for artistic expression. Movement provides the underlying spark that brings both visual and sonic practices to life. As part of a long-term research project titled ‘Sonic Kinesthetic Forest’, this paper reflects on a collaborative exchange between three researchers who use moving, drawing and sounding practices to deepen human relationships with trees. Through this exchange, we developed embodied approaches to drawing using sound and movement prompts to unearth the essence of trees that may be less apparent through representational forms of visual expression. To support this research, our approach was applied within a university seminar called ‘Listening to Trees’ that invited landscape architecture students to tune into the actions, ephemeralities and temporalities of trees. With bodily movement as an underlying impulse, students engaged in a simultaneous performance of sound-making and charcoal drawing (sounding–drawing) to translate the hidden qualities of trees to paper. This research demonstrates that movement can stimulate a dynamic sounding–drawing process through which the sonic kinaesthetic essence of trees can be explored. As an alternative to visually focused representational or scenic views of trees and landscapes, this process aims to offer a multi-sensory mode of expression for engaging with the living world.