Rediscovering Music Composition Through Drawing Practice: Curiosity, Imagination, and Experimentation

Compositional practice is frequently shaped by expectations of originality, technical achievement, and aesthetic coherence. These conditions can gradually shift creative attention from exploration toward evaluation. This paper examines how an experimental drawing practice served as a catalyst for transforming the approach to music composition by redirecting attention toward curiosity, play, and process. The drawing practice was developed around self-imposed constraints that were continuously invented and revised. Rather than seeking visual outcomes, each drawing functioned as an open-ended experiment guided by simple rules and curiosity regarding what might emerge through drawing. Each new line was made in response to previous lines, establishing a relational process in which the drawing unfolded through continuous interaction rather than predetermined forms. The contrast between this experience and conventional musical compositional practice, often marked by the pressure to produce meaningful results, prompted an investigation into whether this experimental attitude could be transferred to music composition. This paper argues that the displacement between artistic practices does not involve translating drawing into music, but rather transferring a mode of creative engagement. Drawing became a means of reorienting compositional attention, allowing experimentation, uncertainty, and imagination to occupy a central role in the creative process. In dialogue with Tim Ingold's understanding of artistic practice as a way of educating attention and Chris Stover's conception of theory as emerging through artistic practice, the paper proposes that encounters between different artistic media can generate new forms of compositional thinking. Rather than presenting drawing as a compositional method, the paper explores it as an artistic displacement that transforms the creative process through curiosity and imagination. By examining how one practice reshapes another, the paper contributes to discussions of artistic research by understanding experimentation as a condition through which compositional knowledge emerges.