The Artist Goes Outdoors to Draw with a Sound Recorder for Company

“A sound piece, performance for voice” is what I wrote on the flyer when “Drawing on the Radio” was broadcast in June 2006. Jonny Brown, the singer with the Band of Holy Joy, has a regular spot he calls “Mining for Gold” on Resonance 104.4 FM. He invited me to do something for his show. “How about drawing on the radio? Would you do that, Aldous?”, he said one day in my studio. That was the only clue he gave me. Make of it what I will. I toyed with the idea for a while. I wondered whether to be didactic. But then in what way? A lecture? How-I-do-it instructions? Recipes for looking? It was talking with Gerry Smith one day that decided me, when his suggestion “Just record yourself drawing” made me realise that it was going to be art, not documentary, a work in its own right rather than some kind of explanation. After all, Resonance is art radio, a station like no other, where everything to do with listening can and does happen. Something here to live up to. [Read more…]