Royal Hastings, University of London Multimedia Art MA Final Project

Candidate name: Jemisha Badhuri

Candidate number: 0883479

The aims of the project:

I’d like to say it all started last year, when we went to RD 8 to ‘pitch our brief’. Four of their people sat on the opposite side of a big table and told us about the market for wireless communications. Their voices bounced off the partitions in that cavernous meeting room as we all sat nervously in a row. One by one the others stammered out their prepared speeches. Apart from Cameron, who blustered through his.

Of course it didn’t start then, really. Gela had been speaking to RD 8 for months. They’d already agreed to commission the work from us. And so much for it being a discussion. I knew how this meeting would unfold. They’d talk, we’d listen. We’d squeak our speeches, they’d shuffle politely in their seats.

I’d prepared a breakdown of costings to assure them a time-tunnel installation could be achieved within their budget. That was supposed to be all I said. Now if I’m given a limitation, I push beyond it. That’s just me. So I presented my own idea to RD 8.

The most breathtaking ASMR sound is recorded binaurally – in three-dimensions. It feels like the source is a moving, living entity that plays with your sense of space, time and self. You think someone is whispering in your ear, breathing down your neck, and what they say cuts right to your core. It picks up the rhythm of your heartbeat, the flow of blood in your veins. It permeates your entire life system. Binaural recording isn’t simply a nice way to experience music, or a gimmick for horror films. It’s a technology that literally hacks into your brain. It is the future.

But to appreciate ASMR , you need headphones, and apparently Gela agreed with Ludya that headphones were not in the spirit of the installation. She said that RD 8 wanted to reflect the ability of their technology to bring people together and that headphones would do the opposite.

I disagreed.

So I explained to RD 8 how the tunnel would reflect the history the company is so proud of, while my idea – a binaural ASMR soundscape, playing literally in their ears – would ensure they felt that connection. That link between the earth, the body, humanity and the unseeable mysteries of space and time that radio waves are … Then once RD 8’s guests emerge from the tunnel they arrive in the future, as our centrepiece reveals itself to be a human head, a show-stopping replica (in clay) of a binaural microphone. Science finally meets and melds with humanity. I finished my pitch and waited for the response.

Everyone in the room was silent. Gela exhaled. Jonathan cleared his throat. Then one of the marketing ladies spoke. She said what a great idea, but could we do it within budget? I said yes. With clay, papier-maché and any salvaged hardware we laid hands on, we could create my idea cheaply and easily. I’d costed it out and it was more than doable.

Did we achieve our aims?

The whole project would’ve been different if I’d gone to Somerset. What went on there? All I know is that something came back with them and haunted us all from that moment on. Was it the radio? What we heard that afternoon in the studio? Even now, I’m not sure. But it started long before that meeting. It began the moment we arrived in the Media Arts Department in September. And if I manage to submit this exam paper safely, then it’s going on even as you, the examiner, read this essay.

WhatsApp chat between Hannah O’Donnell and Ben Sketcher on 30 May 2024:

Ben

Is this Hannah O’Donnell, who works in admin for the Media Arts Department?

Hannah

Who is this?

Ben

Ben Sketcher. External Examiner for the MA in Multimedia Art.

Hannah

I can only apologise. How on earth did she get your number?

Ben

Sorry, who?

Hannah

Jemisha Badhuri. Has she contacted you about her grade? I know she wants to.

Ben

She hasn’t, but send me her number and I’ll be sure not to answer if she calls.

Hannah

Good idea. I’ll forward it. Is there anything I can help you with?

Ben

I have a question about the Multimedia Art MA . Did anything strange happen on that course?

Ben

Hannah?

Hannah

I’m glad you asked. There is something.

Ben

You can tell me in confidence.

Hannah

Have any of the essays mentioned a voice?

Ben

Yes. What do you know about it?

Hannah

I heard it myself. Overheard it.

Ben

What did it sound like? What did it say?

Hannah

It asked for help. Said it was trapped.

Ben

Could it have been a part of the installation? A recording made by the students?

Hannah

It may have been. Only their panic was real. It affected them all in different ways.

Ben

Hannah, can we meet?

Hannah

Absolutely not.

To: Gela Nathaniel

From: Griff Technician (Maintenance)

Date: 13 February 2024

Subject: The MA group

There’s nothing in our health-and-safety guidelines about messing with mains electricity. But those guidelines can always be rewritten. Gela, please tell your MA group it’s dangerous and has to stop.

Griff

To: Griff Technician (Maintenance)

From: Gela Nathaniel

Date: 13 February 2024

Subject: Re: The MA group

I’m sorry, Griff. You’re right. They are so keen and inventive there’s no holding them back. But of course this must stop. I’ll have a word with them.

Gela

Doodle message group [Private] Gela, Ludya, Alyson and Jonathan, 14 February 2024:

Gela Nathaniel

Please be careful using mains electricity. The technicians are across everything that happens in that studio.

Jonathan Danners

It isn’t us. Patrick is helping Jem experiment with radio circuits. We’re staying late tonight to hear some noise they picked up.

Ludya Parak

Shit, is that all it is?

Gela Nathaniel

So it’s nothing to do with you?

Jonathan Danners

No.

Doodle message group [Private] Jem, Patrick, Jonathan, Alyson and Ludya, 14 February 2024:

Jem Badhuri

Don’t forget the surprise Pat and I have been working on. The big reveal is 5 p.m. tonight! Don’t be late – my dad is due around then and he doesn’t like waiting.

Patrick Bright

I’m sure everyone will be there.

Patrick Bright’s Doodle Diary, 14 February 2024:

We’ve got a mystery here. Jem wanted to see if that old radio worked, but I didn’t want her playing with the electrics on her own, so I’ve been helping. Sure enough, once I wired a plug to it, we got a hissing, squawking and crackling – the atmospherics. Young Jem was thrilled because she could use it in her soundscape. It was more like white noise to me, but I was pulled along by her sheer enthusiasm, and we arranged to show the others once Gela has left for the day.

But something happened as we were all sat around that radio in the studio. The white noise came through sure enough, but suddenly it dropped away to complete silence, as if a radio station had started broadcasting – and into that silence came a voice.

‘I’m trapped. I don’t know where I am, but I’m alone here. If you can hear me, send help.’ Something like that. It had a strange timbre. You couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. It felt live, like through a walkie-talkie. Spine-chilling. My blood ran stone-cold. Who was it?

Then the atmospherics kicked back in, as if the broadcast was switched off as suddenly as it had been switched on. Jem was frozen to the spot, so I leapt to the dial, tried to get back to the same frequency, but I was all fingers and thumbs and there are no markings on that thing. We all stood around and looked at one another. I have to say that for a group with a lot of issues, we were united in our shock at that voice.

We jumped out of our skins again when Hannah leaned in at the door. She had Jem’s dad with her, a kindly old gent who clearly thinks the world of his little girl. When she wasn’t in her usual pick-up spot, he’d gone straight to admin in a panic. Jem, who is never short of things to say, quickly got her bags together and left with barely a word. Hannah glanced round at us and said to make sure we switched everything off. She had a look on her face. Had she heard it too?

Jonathan and I played with the dials, but couldn’t find that broadcast again, and by the time we were ready to leave I think we’d all decided it was nothing. Only now, when I’m alone in the dark myself, I can’t help thinking about that poor, trapped person, pleading for help over the airwaves.

Doodle message group [Private] Jem and Patrick, 14 February 2024:

Jem Badhuri

OMG !

Jem Badhuri

I’ve been listening to the radio all my life and never heard anything like that.

Patrick Bright

Feel a bit shaky.

Jem Badhuri

If only the dial had wavelengths, we could find it again. Wish I’d recorded it.

Doodle message group [Private] Patrick, Jonathan, Alyson and Ludya, 14 February 2024:

Patrick Bright

Guys, Jem is beside herself about the weird radio station. She’s talking about recording it. If she puts that in the RD 8 soundscape, we’d better have a paramedic with a defibrillator on standby at the event.

Jonathan Danners

Managing Jem’s enthusiasm is a key part of my role.

Patrick Bright

Had you better come clean?

Jonathan Danners

Don’t start this again.

Patrick Bright

About that radio, I mean.

Doodle message group [Private] Gela and Cameron, 14 February 2024:

Gela Nathaniel

Kiss-kiss.

Cameron Wesley

Kiss-kiss to you too.

Gela Nathaniel

When are you back? We could meet up for a drink.

Cameron Wesley

A work drink?

Gela Nathaniel

Have you seen the date? A not-work drink.