Graphic Scores
I have created graphic scores for the ‘performance’ of touching the fabrics whilst wearing the interactive garments. Graphic scores are visual representations of sound, usually produced by composers to articulate to musicians the manner in which they want their musical compositions to be played, but by unconventional means. They often employ images of musical notes, but not necessarily on stave lines, as in normal musical notation. They denote the essence of a composition rather than an exact inscription of the notes to be played. The titles of the drawings correspond to the names of the woven fabrics.
My graphic scores are based on the tactile surfaces of the woven fabrics. With eyes shut, I slowly drew a finger on my left hand across each fabric used in the garments, whilst simultaneously drawing what I felt with my right hand. The left hand traced the undulations of the fabrics whilst at the same time the right hand imitated what I felt by means of a line drawing. The recorded sounds of the fabrics being touched were also produced by drawing a finger across the fabrics in a particular direction. The scores are intended to correlate with these sounds. For example, if a finger is drawn across the black rib fabric, a juddering type sound is produced. This is because there are regular short gaps between the peaks and troughs of the fabric. Similarly, the graphic score for this fabric visualises the feel of the cloth through regular undulating lines.
black blob down
Drawing a finger down the 3D fabrics produces less resistance than drawing it across, so there are smaller undulations in the drawings.
black blob across
The black blob fabric has an all-over pattern, and the peaks and troughs between the surfaces are mostly not as pronounced as the rib fabrics.