' The Voice of the Leading Light ' is an interactive video based on the life of the 10th century nun, Hildegard Von Bingen. Hildegard was an author, illustrator, composer, feminist, and healer. She is said to have had visions through God from the age of three and when she confessed to the Church about these biblical visions she was told to “write down that which you see and hear”.
During her time living in the Monastery, Hildegard would have had to fast for months at a time, having only one meal a day during the winter seasons. To test if extreme hunger could induce visions, I fasted for 24 hours and drew every hour to document how I felt. These drawings would then be used as ‘buttons’ for the viewer to press, triggering different sounds to run alongside the final video. To create each drawing’s individual sound, I used the browser-based synthesizer ‘PIXELSYNTH ’ created by Olivia Jack, 2016.
I wanted the viewer to act on impulse to what they are seeing, similar to how Hildegard would have recorded her visions. If I had the ability, I would ideally like this piece to be an interactive installation in a large room. The video would play on the surrounding four walls and, as opposed to simply pressing buttons, the viewer would stand over whichever large scale image they felt drawn to, where sensors hanging above the drawings can be used to turn movement into sound through the programming platform, Arduino. The sounds made from each drawing would then be played through speakers directly above, creating a unique experience for each person.
Audio, created using ' PIXELSYNTH ' by Olivia Jack, 2016.
Final video