Idea development workshop - visualising sounds

In today's development workshop, the piece I decided to focus on developing is a layered recording, consisting of two sounds. One is clinking cups and pouring water - a very nostalgic sound from my childhood, which reminds me of spending time with my grandmother, whom I do not see very often, as she lives in Poland. Recently, I accidentally created the sound myself, and it reminded me of that moment in time, which inspired me to record not. The other sound is me talking about why the sound is so nostalgic to me, what it means to me. It is me telling a story. I layered those two sounds, using an app on my phone. I then looked at the sound bites, and drew them out in different ways, to see which one would be my favourite. 

 

The setup: 

My outcomes:

I also projected the wire, and stuck a piece of paper onto the wall. Moving the wire up and down, I used black Indian ink to paint over the casted shadow line, creating a repeated line pattern. The scale of this ink painting is roughly A1.

Photos of the wire taken from under the microscope:

Based on the smaller wire sculptures, I wanted to create a larger more sturdy one, to experiment with scale. Though this wire was just silver, I used it for its benefit of being more sturdy. I did not consider the colour of the wire for this larger sculpture. 

I then decided to trace the wire shape onto a piece of paper, cut it out and experiment with different ways of positioning it, to create shadows. Below are my results:

Afterwards, I developed this further by taking the cut out stencil and doing rubbings of it using charcoal and graphite. the graphite ones turned out better, as I used the stencil for those ones. Whereas, for the charcoal one, I used the actual piece of wire, and placed it under the paper to do a rubbing. That one did not turn out as well. 

Stencil:

Graphite rubbings using stencil:

Charcoal rubbing using wire:

Reflection:

Th rubbings turned out to be quite faint, which makes me think of the nature of that memory from my childhood - a faint memory. The lines kind of resemble waves, gently washing over you like the faint memories of the past. The coloured wires I used were very delicate, reflecting the sweet, delicate, pleasant and nostalgic nature of the memory. I wanted the material to reflect the feeling/ atmosphere of the work. The red and pink also reflect that, I think. Wire is usually quite sturdy and a harsh, firm material, which doesn't reflect the nature of this memory, however, by using soft wire, it made the material more suitable for the piece. 

I was extremely pleased with the amount of different developments I was able to produce during this one workshop. I think that the mini wire sculptures (coloured) and the larger wire sculpture were a great starting point, and translating them into 2D, like into photographs, projections, and rubbings, was certainly a successful development. I would like to take this shape further, perhaps trying out different media/ techniques/ processes, such as using fabric, and stitching onto it, or maybe wrapping something around the wire sculpture, to keep its structure, but change its external look. As mentioned previously, this is a sound bite of a very happy and pleasant memory, and although the two thinner pink and red wires represent that idea/ concept well, I do not think that the plain/ silver wire does it so well, due to its colour, but also its thickness and sturdiness. Therefore, as a further development, I would like to experiment with wrapping it in materials, or colours which are associated with the feeling of happiness/ love.