Drawn in Music – The Sonic Adventurers Collective – Book

About The Book

I make music. I don’t know why. Daniel Munnery from The Sonic Adventurers Collective In ancient times proto-humans used cave drawing – the art of making representative marks – as a method for comprehending their world: their universe; their functions of life. Drawn in Music is a collection of ‘real-time’ drawings – mark making – from a collective of artists with and without disabilities comprehending musical works as they are listening to them: Drawing as a means of understanding that which is being drawn.

Sarah Ellis (2019), Drawing of Black Flag’s Oblivion 1983

Drawings in this collection were created as an exercise within The Sonic Adventurers’ creative process during the period May to July in 2019. The process was to listen to the recording of a diversity of works through the 20th and 21st Century, and to draw responses to those works. Drawers responded to the music spontaneously without preconception. Drawers were not required to create music scores or literal representations of the music. Music to be drawn was chosen through exploratory discussions the collective was having about the sort of music and work they would like to create together. Quite a number of the artists whose work was drawn were artists that the collective had become aware of through JOLT Arts’ artistic programs: YoshimiO; James Tenney; Keiko Higuchi; Ernie Althoff, Otomo Yoshihide for example. Other artists were well known to the group through their historical prevalence, i.e. John Cage and The Doors. Some artists’ recordings were more random – they just showed up at the time: Richard Barrett. The collective’s research process included discussions and learning about the work and life of the artists whose work was being drawn. For this reason Drawn in Music includes quotes from the artists that were studied. Choosing quotes helped deepen the collective’s understanding of all the artists involved while clarifying the collective’s own aesthetics and philosophies. The quotes matter. The dates of the music works and the texts from which the quotes were chosen also matter. Context is everything.

THE SONIC ADVENTURERS COLLECTIVE BIOGRPAHY

The Sonic Adventurers is a collective of artists that work across a variety of art forms with a focus on sound art. The Sonic Adventurers are:

Louise Hunter, Sarah Ellis, Kathryn Sutherland, Daniel Munnery, Helen Kruljac, Jay Euesden, Alister Karl & James Hullick

The group started in early 2019 so that the artists could work together to support their individual practices as well as making group works. The Sonic Adventures is made up of experienced performers who have shown in significant venues both locally and internationally. The collective is mentored by composer James Hullick and by visual artist and curator Alister Karl. The artists work individually and also as a group in the collective and explore electronic music, sound sculpture, field recordings, acoustic instruments, drawing, sculpture, video and other ways of creating sonic worlds. The majority of artists who make up the group live with a disability.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. This project is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.