Drawing in the wind

Abstract

I am proposing that a sound can exist as a drawing in its own right. How can sound be seen and could drawing be used to render it visible? Could a drawing be made of an invisible residue, for example, of a sound created by the wind? I have asked these questions through making ‘sound bows’ – a series of devices activated by air currents to enable a connection to environment and weather through sound. The reasoning for the project evolves from the narrative of journal entries made during research in an island landscape. It begins with the use of kites as interfaces with the medium of the air. Then, due to adverse conditions, sound bows are built from local materials and used as ‘connecting devices’ to the wind. After initial trials with phone recordings of the noises emitted by the bows, a method of recording and experiencing sound by hand-drawing is developed which does not rely on digital machines. The project aims to analyse the equation between movement and form through drawing. Translating sound into another medium such as drawing can only be rendered as an equivalence, but the experience of attempting to do this through hand-drawing enables me to know how it feels to be the wind.