visual/sound artist
HELENA HAMILTON
"On Wanting" is an audio-visual installation inspired by my everyday lived experience of being a mother. Below are 2 separate 1 minute ambisonic to binaural renders of this work:
This work was initially created to be experienced at home via an individual’s personal device. A second edition was then created and mixed using ambisonics for the 40 speaker surround sound system and 3 LCD screens at Sonic Arts Research Centre Lab, Queens University, Belfast. This video is a 1-minute binaural render of the 3rd order ambisonic mix created for the lab. The full duration of this ambisonic concert piece is 9:50 minutes. The original stereo version created to be experienced in the home is 21:33 minutes.
‘On Wanting’ utilises gradually transitioning colour, as an evolving effect that bleeds into a physical space, playing with the viewer's perception of time and atmosphere. Sound has been intentionally sourced from Helena’s everyday sonic environment. The foundation of this is the nursery rhyme A Farmer Wants a Wife, recorded from one of her child's toys.
"The farmer wants a wife...the farmer gets a wife.
The wife wants a child...the wife gets a child...
The child wants a Miss...the child gets a Miss...
The Miss wants a dog...the Miss wants a dog...
The dog wants a bone...the dog gets a bone..."
A problematic nursery rhyme, interpreted and used in this work as material that signifies a contemporary condition of perpetually seeking instant gratification.. Playfully, she has time-stretched the recorded rhyme multiple times, doing so creating drones which have been used as the basis of this work. Other layers of audio included are soundtracks from around the domestic environment. Each sample reflects personal joyful moments when wanting is neutralised by the beautiful banality of the everyday. Such as rain, birds, and Rice Krispies. The final audio sample is pencil on paper. Helena utilised the sound of mark making whilst listening to the drones to dictate the speed, location and duration of each mark. Primarily following the sound rather than the visual.