A drawing you sing · Est. 2019
A whistlegraph is a drawing you sing. Every line is a syllable. You draw it while you sing it, and the finished picture is a score — it teaches you how to play it. I started making them in 2019; the trio drew millions of them onto TikTok. This is the index.
Every whistlegraph has a code.
Type
Type
imab at aesthetic.computer
to perform it — or open whistlegraph.org/imab.
Four little letters, one whole song.
Index
… whistlegraphs recovered so far — the ten first, then the rest of the archive, most-sung first. Still being combed. Tap a code.
A rough spine
2019 The form is invented. “I'm a butterfly” — four strokes, four sung lines.
2020 The trio forms in a cabin in Ashland. TikTok tutorials: a hand draws while a voice sings.
2021 Rhizome commissions The Longest Whistlegraph Ever (So Far).
2022 Ten Whistlegraphs at Feral File. The New Museum. Taipei Dangdai.
2023 The zine (Sex Magazine, 750 copies). The trio parts. The form continues, solo.
Now whistlegraph.org — past, present, and future of the artform, in one place.
Elsewhere
- TikTok — where it grew (2.6M, no ads)
- Record your own — the recorder, on aesthetic.computer
- Feral File · Rhizome · Are.na
- The zine + shop · Music 2 Whistlegraph 2
Code
The graphic score. Trace the lines; sing the words.