In this series of works I control a drawing machine with a stereo audio signal. In the video below the right channel of audio controls the longer x-axis with the left channel controlling the shorter y-axis. I control the machine by singing a constant note which helps me to gain a little more control over what is a fairly chaotic system.
Many of my drawing projects involve setting up situations in which I have only a limited ability to control the marks that are made. With these works I’m interested in how my agency in mark making might be complimented by the agency of the other components the system. In this way the kind of expression that the body can produce is just one part of the expression of the larger assemblage.
The audio controller also allows me to record and then play particular audio signals through the machine as a way of repeating certain vocal gestures. This form of playback allows me to produce a series of slight variations on a particular vocal gesture in a way that balances repeatability and variation.
I put together this wall mounted version of Drawing Song at the Adelaide Central School of Art as part of the Drawing Exchange 2017. In this case increasing volume in the left and right channel corresponds to points further along the horizontal and vertical axis of the machine with the starting point of silence in the bottom right corner.