Sunday 9 March 2014

Noise Maker


Unhappy with how my first object manipulation went, I decided to move on to the next objective set 
for the class – to drill a hole in something. Seeing as it wasn’t very practical for either the 
plastic bag or chain I continued to work with the can, this time focusing on the lid. 
I put one hole in the center and then threaded the chain through it. 
By adding the chain I completed the ‘add a string’ side of the instructions and gave
purpose/noise making ability to the hole.

The sound created by my noisemaker was interesting, the ribbed texture of the chain against 
the metal lid worked well. I chose the correct size drill bit – small enough to force the two 
materials to connect and make sound but also not too small that it wouldn’t slide smoothly. 
The size means the sound is consistent – how long it goes for is determined by how far 
you let it slide, the angle the chain creates also controls how loud the sound it.



If I were to relate the sound my noisemaker created back to a painting I would describe it as 
very flat and one-dimensional. Through out my research in to sound art I have been more drawn 
to works that had depth and layering of sound. I wanted to recreate that through adding 
different objects on to the chain so they could both move along and create different 
sound simultaneously.


To do this I took the remnants of my can, a pair of round nose pliers and twister the pieces of tin 
in to a rough loop, I then continued to twist tighter to make it small enough to keep in contact 
with the chain. Twisting it tighter also meant I created several sections within the loop. 
This adds to the sounds I can create as the chain feeds through either a smaller or larger opening 
each creating different noise.


Trying to follow all the steps set for the class I attempted to connect wood and metal. 
Although it didn’t turn out as I had intended – the reason that the tin and chain worked so well is because 
they are both made from metal and create a decent sound (in terms of volume) the wood on the 
other hand made a very soft sound you could hardly hear as the chain passed through it. 
It would have easily been lost in a live performance with other noisemakers over powering it.
 Potentially in the future I could get a few more pieces of wood – the chain rubbing against the 
wood five times could make it five times as loud?

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