JOHN CAGE
'As the sounds that one listens when silence is performed'
The practitioner I chose is John Cage and the technique is ‘as the sounds that one listens when silence is performed’. John Cage is an American composer who also associated with literature, art, and many other mediums. He expressed his passion of these through visually representing sound through carefully and intimately listening to the sounds around him. His works greatly influenced the music industry and inspired many others due to his unique way of seeing and producing work. His ability to think out of the box was influenced by his father who was an inventor, and further allowed Cage to experiment with new kinds of instruments such as tape recorders and radios. This way he created new music that was beyond the comfort zone of the people at that time. Cage focuses on the sounds in our everyday lives that we often disregard, or maybe do not even notice. He created music with sounds that are only noticeable when in silence; such as the sound of nature within the city. As much as Cage signifies the music of silence, he strongly connects with the environmental and natural sounds. Therefore, I incorporated this idea into my recording of the city to show a combination of the manmade sound and the natural sound.
The final drawing of the city recording incorporates both mine and Cage’s view of music within the city. Each sound that I recorded are the sounds that I believe build up as a city. I started the recording with the train announcement as it is the most common transportation to travel in the city, and a sound we hear every day. The sound of dragging the luggage was also included to show the high percentage of tourists our city has. Cars and motorcycles driving past, cars honking, phones ringing, and people talking are also the major sounds that build the city.
Next, I recorded the sounds that people notice when in silence, or when we pay attention, which are the sound of rain drops and the wind. These sounds show more of Cage’s view as he strongly associates with sound that is heard in silence, and environmental and natural sounds.
Finally, to make the audio transitions smoother, I used exponential fade in the beginning and the end of the clips. By changing the audio level of the clips of overlapping sounds, I highlighted the stronger sounds to stand out against the background sound.
Visual Analysis 01
Composition
The overall composition consists of various line weights, dots, a grid, and a straight line. Each represent a different element within the music and are drawn accordingly to the rhythm, tone, pace, and decibel levels. These elements fill the drawing in the centre where it is more dense compared to the outer corners of the drawing.
Perspective
There is no perspective in this drawing, however, the different line weights of the lines create a sense of depth to the drawing. The dense grid in the background with the thick straight line on top create a sense of background and foreground.
Line
The lines in this drawing can be considered the most significant element to express the music that was based on. Each line represents a different kind of sound, and by using different line weights, the viewer is able to see the strong and weak sounds in the music.
Sequence
The repetitive use of lines and dots create a sequence in the drawing. Also, various versions of this drawings are created which show a consistent sequence in Cage's works.
Space
The centre of the drawing of the grid is dense whereas the outer corners of the drawing have more negative space, and therefore creates salience.
Visual Analysis 02
Composition
This work was created by layering different types of paper to create one whole artwork. By drawing each sound on different paper, as a whole the viewer is able to see the areas that are dense which indicate where all the sounds come together, and where it is silent. The yellow circle indicates the most dense part and the white circle indicates the silent part.
Perspective
The photograph of the work was taken from a birds eye view perspective, however, the artwork itself does not have any perspectives. The layers of paper creates depth to the artwork and shows the foreground and background of the artwork which are the straight line in the centre, and the coloured lines in the back.
Line
Different colours, line weights, and dotted lines are used to represent different sounds in the music. The line weights represent whether the sound is weak or strong, and the curves indicate the decimal levels.
Sequence
Cage's works use various lines, colours, dots and grids to show the different sounds in the music. This shows the consistent sequence within his works.
Space
The area with the grid and coloured lines are full and complex, whereas the other areas surrounding them show negative space. This shows that those areas were silent, or had minimal sound.
Draft Drawing 01
This is a draft drawing i did in week 9 of the recording of the rain and cars driving in the rain. This has been drawn with my eyes closed by just listening to the sound, then marking it as i go. I have used different line weights to show the strong and weak sounds, and indicated the approximate decibel levels by the vertical heights. The dotted lines indicate the parts where i could hear the rain more intensively.
Recording of the City
This is the recording of the city which includes the train announcement, the rain, cars driving in the rain, dragging luggage, iPhone ringing, car driving past, motorcycle, car honking, people laughing, the wind, as well as many other minor sounds in the background.
Draft Drawing 02
This is the draft drawing of my recording of the city which is 170 mm x 170 mm. I have used pencils from HB to 8B and different coloured pens to signify each sound. I have also drawn 30 columns to break it down to 1 second to draw it in more detail. This draft has helped me develop my final drawing and made me realise that the columns were drawn too thick and were rather distracting the viewer from seeing the actual drawing.
Final Drawing
This is my final drawing which is 420 mm by 420 mm. I incorporated Cage's technique of using different lines, colours and a grid to show each sound. The grid is the sound of rain which is one of the most significant sounds in my recording as it is the natural sound within the city. Due to this reason, i decided to represent this sound by using a salient element within the drawing. The dots also show the density of the rain sound. All the other lines signify different sounds such as the train announcement, car driving on wet road, people laughing, iPhone bell sound, car driving past, motor cycle, car honking, dragging luggage, the wind, and minor sounds in the recording.
REFERENCE LIST
Cage, J. 2016, John Cage, Autobiographical Statement, John Cage Trust, New York,
viewed 2 Sep 2019, <https://johncage.org/autobiographical_statement.html>.
Piekut, B. 2013, ‘Chance and Certainty : John Cage's Politics of Nature’, Cultural Critique,
Vol. 84, viewed 1 Sep 2019,
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/culturalcritique.84.2013.0134?
seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>.
V, Ruthie. 2016, Seattle Artist League, John Cage, Seattle Artist League, Seattle, viewed
2 Sep 2019, <https://seattleartistleague.com/2016/12/07/john-cage-chance-
operations/>.
