This is the original piece of art before it was cut into small circles for the hanging drifting mobiles. White Post marker, and pencil on vellum.
When I listen to sound I feel certain tones in different parts of my body. I relate it to ASMR and mirror touch, when I watch musicians play I feel as if them playing their instruments is them playing my body.
When Ben asked me to create artwork based on his metallophone recordings from Stretch I figured the piece I would create would be a two dimensional drawing that one would view but when I received the initial recordings and began work on the drawing aspect of the piece I could feel the movement of the sound as a delicate breeze, stream side, cloud caress. I knew that I wanted the artwork I created to be movement based and somehow interactive. The sounds are a delicate dance, an exploration of the space itself through sound and imagining the movement of bodies while they would be in class. I felt like I was in a dream while listening to each song evolve with grace, slowness, and peace. The tranquility of the metallophone was felt through my neck and shoulders mainly, as if my clavicle and upper spine trailing into my nape and scalp were being played, I would draw on this large sheet of vellum the shape the sounds were making and if it felt high or low, filling the page with the water like shapes and sequences moving across the vellum with ease.
I wanted to create an artwork that creates an encompassing place to relax, to drift, float away with the sounds and move your body with the music and have a dance of shapes that can assist others in the experience of sound the way my synesthesia makes me feel when listening.
