I responded to Alison Carlier in my sketch book.
A photocopier has a very personal sound, they are all so different!! I have honestly been compelled to dance to rhythm of a large school copier- perhaps choreography would be an interesting way to record sound?
I found too many parts to the noise to make individual marks and the resulting up and down lines are just the same as noise/time graphs. I found making rows of marks broke my concentration so cut lengths of paper from a roll to make continuous drawings.
I stalked a chainsaw, a sad sound, the death of a tree. It seemed less regular than I would expect, just being held still was a steady sound, engaged with the wood not so steady and obviously the starting and stopping were different again, a very linear story and I was compelled to record it in a linear fashion, first with a very broad marker – harsh and precise and then a graphite stick , softer and closer to nature.
An attempt to record more accurately I used oilpastel , drafting film has a smooth surface so the oil would smudge, a lovely quality to this line, combined with colour, fresh blue, I think more representative of boiling water. Still very graph like.
We are all machines, if not mechanical. Whilst listening out for machine noises I found nature sounds creeping into my awareness. I videoed an overflowing stream observing the repeat splash of a branch being pulled down stream and springing back, perhaps the most regular sound I heard, and then other patterns of the stream started to punctuate, my mind would be drawn away for a while and then the branch would again intervene, a crow cawed…. a true symphony. The stream overflowed because of endless rain. I will revisit and contemplate how best to capture the feeling.
placeholder://With closed eyes a waterfall sounded exactly like a steam engine (rather than a steam train) which made me wonder about how we engage all of our senses when we engage with an art work.
recording sound is very different to representing sound. If representing sound I could break away from a linear format .
Using a hammer and mark making tools.
Using more gestural marks
Using more dynamic marks.
This would be a more reflective than recording process.