experimental studio 2/3

Author: kbanning

  • Kyla

    Live art ritual: Journey through pages

    Artist statement

    Reading for me is an escape from reality and a distraction from my problems or struggles. As a kid I always loved to enter new exciting worlds through books but as I got older life got busy and I couldn’t make as much time for reading. But recently I have made it my goal to spend more time reading and to allow myself to escape into fictional stories. When I read, I am fully focused on the world created by the author and less aware of the world around me. I immerse myself by visualizing the scenes in my head while I read the words on the paper. Now reading has again become a sacred ritual for me and a part of my daily routine. I often take anytime I can get to read and am often in a variety of different environments while I am reading. While I am focused on the world in my book, I am unaware of the world around me. In a similar way the world or people around me are unaware of the world I am in. We are in the same place, yet I feel as if the people around me are far away. But in each environment, there can be different distractions that snap me back into reality. Reading is like a never-ending cycle of being pulled into one world and pushed back out to another. Through this live art ritual, I show this concept of an endless cycle of going in and out of reality. In different ways and environments, trying to keep myself present while there are other elements pulling me out of my world. This ritual follows my routine but from the perspective of a person who is unaware of what is happening in the book. Following my journey through my book but allowing viewers to make their own interpretation of what is happening in the book. Creating a mystery of what is happening in the book and what is happening around me while I am focused on the book.

    Score/Script

    Begin  

    Wake up 

    Have breakfast 

    Make coffee 

    Read until you finish your coffee 

    Take a break  

    Read until you get pissed  

    Rant 

    Then take a break from book 

    Finish the chapter you started 

    Evening 

    Read until you get tired 

    Go to bed  

    Start work 

    Alarm for first break 

    Go on break and read until break is over 

    Pause book a minute before break ends 

    Multitask 

    Pick another task you want to do 

    Begin reading while working on the task 

    Stop once you finish the chapter 

    Bus ride home 

    Find spot on bus 

    Begin reading  

    Stop reading when you are two stops from your apartment 

    Together yet not 

    Read while someone else is reading 

    Stop reading when they stop 

    Change locations 

    Find a comfortable spot outside of room 

    Begin to read 

    Read until you run out of time  

    Move around 

    Lay on the ground  

    Read half a chapter 

    Stand up and finish the chapter 

    Last chapter 

    Start final chapter 

    Read until you finish the book 

    Once done grab a new book 

    Read the next book 

    Moments of magic

    Sound object: The chosen one

    Process

    For my sound object I chose to create a vessel for sound and a toy lightsaber as the vessel. In action films weapons are used for battle scenes and for visual aesthetic but the sounds aren’t seen as that important. I wanted to experiment with using an object seen as a weapon as a vessel for sound. To see how the sound could play through an object it would not normally be played through. And test how the sound might be altered if the object is in motion. I used a variety of materials to put together my lightsaber. I used pieces of pipes, tape, hot glue, a flashlight, paint ,a plastic sheet and a mini speaker to put it together. Music can be played through the speaker attached to the bottom of the lightsaber. It can be taken apart into two pieces to be able to insert and control the flashlight in the middle. I imagine this sound object being used as an interactive piece, being held and experimented with.

    Speculative Video

    Memory Parlour

    I have always been a forgetful person and I worry about forgetting the important memories I want to hold onto. Ready player one is a movie set in the future which focuses on advanced technology and how the virtual world becomes peoples reality. Upload is a tv series set in the future, where there is a digital afterlife and before people die they can upload there consciousness to the afterlife. This show and movie inspired me to want to focus on the theme of preserving memories and technology that can enhance viewing memories. Being able to enter a virtual reality where you can flip through your memories like a journal. You can see memories you didn’t even remember and you get to see the people you have lost alive in your memories. Reliving whatever memory you chose and getting to be immersed in that memory. Memory parlour focuses on how future technology could allow us to live in a world where we can access every memory at anytime. And we can get to interact with people that have passed away through memories of them.

    Process images

    Symposium

    Script

    Is there a word for that dull, empty feeling you get after finishing a TV show or a book series? I recently finished Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and I can feel this subtle but physical sort of dull ache in my chest. I don’t know whether it’s longing for what’s already passed or nostalgia but it’s there. I was wondering if there’s a word for this feeling because I usually get it after following through on something that’s kind of a long-haul thing.  

    Hiraeth. It’s a Welsh word for being homesick for a home you can never return to or a place that doesn’t exist. 

    Whao….love that, thank you. Like when you dream of a place and it feels like the happiest place on Earth, or meet a person and they’re just right for you and when you wake up in your real life, you have a moment of pure ache, heartbreak, nostalgia, longing….. 

    Welsh has a word for that. 

    Hiraeth originates from Wales and is Welsh word that is hard to translate to word in the English language. Hiraeth is a longing or yearning for a place you can’t return to or that never was. A homesickness for a place that you have never been and you cannot go to. The need or want to return to a memory of a place or moment in time that you can no longer recreate or return to. The loss of a person or place you left in the past and the longing to relive your memories. The feeling of hiraeth is similar to nostalgia, but hiraeth has a deeper and more complex meaning.  

    To me hiraeth is the feeling I get when I want to return to being a kid at home on Christmas, writing letters to Santa, having my whole family with me, snow days and watching Christmas movies. But I can’t go back to that time and though I can go back to my childhood home, I can’t recreate the feeling of being a kid on Christmas in the early 2000s. Or that feeling after you finish a show you have been watching for months and the familiarity of that fictional world, the connection you make to the show. The feeling of ending the show and longing to return to a fictional place, yet you have never been.  

    I spent a year watching every Naruto episode and movie, it felt like home, my escape and safe place yet I have never been to their world, and it doesn’t exist but I long to return there that is hiraeth.  

    Adventure time was my brother and I’s favourite show growing up, we watched every episode together. My brother got the DVD’s of each season for Christmas so we could watch them on our portable dvd player on road trips. For me that show is a connection to my childhood and my brother, it brings me comfort, and it feels like home. It is my comfort show and even the songs from the show relax me still.  

    Tv shows and movies are my escape I feel a connection to the characters and their world, when I finish it, I feel lost and yearn to watch it for the first time again. But I can never feel the feelings I felt the first time I watched it and I cannot physically be a part of their world. I’m homesick from a place that isn’t real and long for people that are not real. The comfort I feel when I watch tv shows and movies leads me to the feeling of hiraeth.  

    My Hiraeth 

    My past, an old version of myself, my comfort shows/movies, my favourite activities and objects are all connected to different memories. The love I have for them is why I feel Hiraeth. 

    Proposal

    For my symposium presentation I am going to talk about Hiraeth which is a word that describes an obscure feeling that not many people know about. Hiraeth, is the feeling of yearning or longing to return to a place you can never return to or a place that never was. The nostalgia of a memory of a place from your past you wish you could return to. Or the comfort and familiarity of a place that does not exist such as a fictional world and the yearning of returning to that place. A longing for a place at a specific time in your life such as longing to be a kid again, watching your favourite cartoon and pretending you were in the show. Recently I have been obsessed with learning about words that describe deep and complex feelings. I have felt this feeling of Hiraeth before but until I discovered this word, I always used different words to describe it that could not completely describe how I felt. There are many words similar to Hiraeth that describe these detailed and complicated emotions. In my presentation I plan to describe this word through a video art piece. This video art piece will include found footage from popular culture and other media to showcase the meaning of the word. Allowing viewers to visualize the meaning and emotions of the word. Along with the found footage I will do more research into other representations of this word in music, art, literature etc. To connect the word through multiple examples to help clarify the meaning of word. Although Hiraeth is rarely used directly in art and popular culture I believe it is often used indirectly. I think there are many pieces of media which refer to the emotions and feelings associated with this word unintentionally. Also included with my presentation I am considering adding a physical aspect such as a zine. A zine could be a fun way to explain the word in another form that is more interactive for the viewers. Giving a more detailed description of the word in tactile way. To allow people to get a more personal or up-close version of the presentation and video art piece. I want to mix text and visuals to try bringing the feelings of Hiraeth to life. I want to share this word with people because I think it is a beautiful word. I like being able to share something that not many people know or think about.  Words are interesting and many other languages contain words that explain obscure emotions that many people don’t know. I find these words beautiful and find some of these complex emotions relatable. I find it cool that although I have spoken English my whole life there are still new words that I get to learn that I was never taught before. Emotions can sometimes be complicated to describe and knowing there are words that can describe some feelings I have felt is a beautiful thing. Being able to put feelings you never believed you could explain into words is powerful.   

    Bibliography

    McDaniel, J. Out of the Box: Hiraeth: The nostalgia within abandoned homes. Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research. 2019, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi article=1373&context=jpur  

    hiraeth (n.). Oxford English Dictionary. March 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5588108701  

    Crossly-Baxter, L. The untranslatable word that connects Wales. BBC. 2021, https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210214-the-welsh-word-you-cant-translate  

    Infinity & Beyond. The Art of Dealing with Homesickness – The Philosophy of Hiraeth. YouTube. February 5, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZAf-sVD0k4  

    Found footage: