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?