Comparison 6: Specifically, the 'Sound' of Music
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, performed by the cast led by Julie Andrews
Excerpt from The Sound of Music (16th century)
Music composition for film
Wanted to end on reinforcement of the idea that 'mark-making' can be broadly interpreted as anything that can be used to create, broken down to its smallest unit of direct action. In music, as in the song above, this comes down to the notes: how they're arranged, what they're made with, how they're inflected to mean one thing or another.
In writing, we have individual words (and, depending on how experimental the writer, individual letters/clusters for specific sound effects). In one of those team sportsball-games, we might have the sequence of coordinated individual actions that creates a play. In textiles, we might have the stitch or the weave. In cooking, the ingredients that make up the food. And on and on and on, through coding and architecture and dance.
It is, pretty much, impossible not to be a mark-maker of some variety or other. The key to being a better mark-maker, if that's something you want, is simply to pay attention to how your marks build on each other. What is their actual effect? Could you find ways to deepen that effect? What ways can you change it? If you have something specific you're trying to communicate, how could the marks best be arranged to convey your meaning?
Mark-making: infinite complexity, dead simple.