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Royal Hastings, University of London Multimedia Art MA Final Project

Candidate name: Ludya Parak

Candidate number: 0883481

The project:

It started weird and stayed weird. I’m not averse to strangeness. Strangeness is just life, right? Doesn’t mean anything is wrong, simply that people are people. Our group was diverse, as you’d expect. Only we’re drawn to others like ourselves. The clique factor. This course is what happens when everyone is really, really different.

We went in to pitch our ideas to RD 8, a company of engineer geeks and tech nerds who love codes, computer languages and programming. I’d never get a client this big in real life, but I’ve worked for that many tiny start-ups who aim to be like them. Gela was smart getting them on board. They know nothing about art, so we were free to explore and experiment. Best of all, they have the money. Not that they paid anything near market value for the work we did. Still, when Jem went off-script and pitched her own idea, of course they liked it. I thought the ASMR headphone experience didn’t belong in an installation designed to connect people, but what could I say after that?

It’s OK. I signed up to this course to explore 3D design and learn skills that complement my screen-graphics work and that’s what I got to do. Only, when we all went down to Somerset, shit got real. It’s like before that we were playing at this. It wasn’t quite real life. I should never have agreed to drive. It makes me tired and when I’m tired I get angry, and I do and say things I shouldn’t. I’m not the only one. Jem cancelling our motel booking! Holy shit, the girl has so much to answer for. Although it’s not her fault, or mine. Whose was it? Alyson, Jonathan, Cameron and Patrick.

Mysterious sounds:

So you’ll know by now, a radio was ‘borrowed’ from the RD 8 museum in Somerset, a place called Thorney Coffin. You couldn’t make it up. The thing was dead, but Patrick and Jem performed some sort of miracle and it picked up a signal. Jem was totally stoked for the noises that unit made. I could tell the consensus was: well, if it keeps her occupied she won’t notice anything else – and remember if Jem’s not happy, she will make trouble until things go her way again. I learned that the day she threw a piece of clay at me.

Then came the voice.

I’m trapped in the dark. Please help me.

Doodle message group [Private] Jonathan, Alyson, Jem, Patrick and Ludya, 15 February 2024:

Jem Badhuri

I’ve got my dad to pick me up an hour later again tonight. Let’s get the radio out and try to find that station again. Who can stay?

Ludya Parak

Not me. Kid stuff.

Jonathan Danners

OK. Yep. Good idea.

Doodle message group [Private] Jem and Patrick, 15 February 2024:

Jem Badhuri

It came through at exactly the same time as last night, but said something different.

Patrick Bright

‘I’m trapped. Floating in the dark. Please help me.’ If it’s a recording, then it’s not the same recording as yesterday. It sounds live to me, Jem.

Jem Badhuri

‘Floating in the dark’ sounds like he’s on a boat. Shall we tell Jonathan to call the Coastguard?

Patrick Bright

Let’s not involve outsiders.

Jem Badhuri

We could ask RD 8 what the radio is? They might be able to help.

Patrick Bright

Let’s not bother the client. Jonathan’s heard it two nights in a row now. He’s project manager, so it’s up to him what – if anything – we do with that wireless.

Doodle message group [Private] Jonathan, Alyson, Jem, Patrick and Ludya, 15 February 2024:

Jonathan Danners

Right, this is important. The old radio is distracting us from our coursework and final project. From here on in, it’s out of bounds. No one is to touch it. Jem and Patrick – do I have your word?

Patrick Bright

Absolutely. I get the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.

Jem Badhuri

If Doodle had emojis, I’d put a really sad face here.

Jonathan Danners

Jem, do I have your word?

Jem Badhuri

OK then.

Jonathan Danners’ Doodle Diary, 20 February 2024:

‘The sounds I am listening to every night at first appear to be human voices conversing back and forth in a language I cannot understand. I find it difficult to imagine I am actually hearing real voices from people not of this planet. There must be a more simple explanation that has so far eluded me.’ Nikola Tesla, 1918

‘I have been at work for some time building an apparatus to see if it is possible for personalities which have left this earth to communicate with us.’ Thomas Edison in an interview in the October 1920 issue of The American Magazine

Both were working just after the First World War – a time when millions of young men had died and a generation was living with irreparable grief. At the same time technological, scientific and industrial progress were rapid.

On 14 February 2024 we heard this:

‘I’m trapped in a dark place. Please help me.’

On 15 February 2024 we heard this:

‘I’m trapped. Floating in the dark. Please save me.’

It was the same voice. But not the same words. As if the voice has one opportunity every day to broadcast its plea for help. Or perhaps it’s speaking all the time, but the atmospheric conditions are only conducive to broadcast for a minute or so per day. He sounds like he’s clutching at straws – and so are we.

Doodle message group MMAM ( FTP ), 20 February 2024:

Gela Nathaniel

I see you’re all busy with the salvaged components in the studio. We’ll have a catch-up meeting this morning to check everyone is happy with their tasks and discuss your long essays. Like I said, you can keep a full diary, or you can NOT keep a diary and have more work to do later in this process when you’ll also have practical work as well. The choice is yours.

Patrick Bright

Thanks, Gela. I’m firmly in the ‘keeping a diary’ camp!

Ludya Parak

Guess which camp I’m in.

Jem Badhuri

Thanks, Gela. I’m keeping a diary too.

Doodle message group [Private] Jonathan, Alyson, Jem, Patrick and Ludya, 20 February 2024:

Patrick Bright

Should we tell Gela about the radio and the voice, or not?

Alyson Lang

It’s not relevant to the project.

Jonathan Danners

Please, let’s just forget the radio – and no one mention it to Gela.

Jem Badhuri

The man sounds trapped. He needs help. Should we call the police?

Alyson Lang

It’s recorded. I looked it up. It’s a ‘numbers station’ – a radio broadcast for spies. They aren’t even used any more.

Jem Badhuri

How do you know what we heard, Alyson? You weren’t here.

Alyson Lang

I was there. I heard the voice.

Jem Badhuri

You weren’t in on either day I stayed late.

Jonathan Danners

Ali was in on the first day, for sure.

Patrick Bright

Yes, she was here, Jem, but you were so excited, it’s no wonder you don’t remember. Now I googled numbers stations. They broadcast numbers or music. Nowhere does it mention a voice that claims to be held prisoner.

Ludya Parak

I mean, people who are trapped tend not to be trapped with broadcasting equipment? Right?

Jem Badhuri

He could be stuck on a mountain. In a cave. In a forest. On a boat out at sea. He’d have a radio then.

Patrick Bright

We heard it at exactly the same time two nights in a row, but the voice said something different each time.

Jem Badhuri

You could ask RD 8.

Jonathan Danners

We MUST NOT involve the client.

Jem Badhuri

But they gave us the radio, didn’t they?

Patrick Bright

The sourcing team weren’t given that radio.

Jonathan Danners

Alyson is right; it’s most likely an old government radio channel. They keep them open, in case other forms of communication are compromised. Recorded messages like these help them check the channel is working. Now, please, can we forget the voice and the radio and concentrate on the course?

Ludya Parak

Assignment Four is due this Friday. If you need a link to the special-consideration form, just ask.

Doodle message group [Private] Jem and Patrick, 20 February 2024:

Jem Badhuri

Patrick, when you said the sourcing team wasn’t given that radio, what did you mean?

Patrick Bright

Oh, it’s probably not relevant, but I’ve a feeling it might be in our possession unofficially. It’s only a feeling, though.

Jem Badhuri

I don’t understand.

Patrick Bright

I was wandering about, looking at all the old tech. I don’t know exactly what happened, but Jonathan and Ludya started arguing about something. Nothing physical; she was screeching, he was telling her to calm down. But the RD 8 lady came and asked them to step outside. Minutes later they were skulking in the corridor. I didn’t see where Alyson was because Cameron was chatting to me.

Doodle message group [Private] Jonathan, Alyson and Ludya, 22 February 2024:

Jonathan Danners

FFS , all their messages say the unit shouldn’t work at all. What is that voice?

Ludya Parak

It’s weird, but it’s the least of our problems right now. Just get rid of it? The radio, I mean.

Message group: 2024 Examiners, 30 May 2024

Tilda Ricci

OK, what is going on, Ben?

Ben Sketcher

Good, you’ve got to the radio bit.

Tilda Ricci

Cameron submitted a final essay and is scheduled for a discretionary pass, on the basis of his ill health. Unfortunately, I fear Gela made that up to keep him on the course in name only. You think there might be a relationship between them? A conflict of interest?

Ben Sketcher

I think there’s more than that. I’ve been looking into the group and the admissions procedure. This is a new course. It was never advertised and doesn’t appear in this year’s prospectus.

Tilda Ricci

MMAM was devised after our prospectus was published and long after the usual admissions process was under way. Gela wanted to assemble a class of good, experienced artists as her inaugural year. She could take what she learned from them and adapt the course for a more generalised intake, going forward. She’d seen some promising candidates. I remember this crossing my desk about a year ago – it was completely transparent. All fees were paid up front.

Ben Sketcher

Gela chose each and every one of those students by hand. But they weren’t all experienced artists. Patrick and Jonathan were acquaintances who had shown a passing interest in getting into art. She personally sought out the others to join the course.

Tilda Ricci

I’d say that showed initiative on the part of the tutor. The department is under pressure to make its courses relevant to the job market. All Gela’s MA s have been cut, and the BA course is fully staffed. This one is her idea and she has to make it work.

Ben Sketcher

The university has admissions criteria. Demographics they must adhere to.

Tilda Ricci

They’re a very diverse group. Gela is a woman of colour herself and has been active in opening opportunities to students from underrepresented groups. Personally, I think she’s done an excellent job. Whatever problems you’ve picked up on, Ben, I am confident the tutor is entirely innocent.

Ben Sketcher

Gela brings the group together. She arranges for them to pitch an idea for an art project to a local manufacturer. In sourcing material for it, they discover a strange voice broadcasting from a mysterious radio. Then someone disappears. Or at least one of the students seems to think so.

To: MMAM ( FTP )

From: Gela Nathaniel

Date: 23 February 2024

Subject: Assignment Four

Dear all,

Thank you for submitting your Assignment Four projects in good time. I gave you freedom of expression, with the only stipulation that you must work in your least-explored medium and create something inspired by the final project. When we’re all back in the studio next week we’ll view and critique the work. It should prove light relief from construction of the head and the tunnel.

Enjoy your weekends.

Gela

Doodle message group [Private] Jem and Gela, 23 February 2024:

Jem Badhuri

Is Alyson still coming to the studio or is she working from home?

Gela Nathaniel

That’s a strange question, Jem. Of course she’s coming in, although mainly at night.

Jem Badhuri

Have you seen her lately?

Gela Nathaniel

Yes. I’m sure I have.

To: Gela Nathaniel

From: Griff Technician (Maintenance)

Date: 23 February 2024

Subject: Your MA students

Some of your group are hanging around the studio after hours fiddling with an old radio they keep hidden at the back of the cupboard (behind the old frames). Heaven knows what they’re trying to do, but they wait until all us technicians are gone before they start. If their activities mean our department encounters extra clean-up work, then you will be hearing from me.

Griff

To: Griff Technician (Maintenance)

From: Gela Nathaniel

Date: 23 February 2024

Subject: Re: Your MA students

Bless! They’re so keen on their final project. I’m sure they won’t cause any trouble, but thanks for letting me know.

Gela

Doodle message group [Private] Patrick and Ludya, 24 February 2024:

Patrick Bright

I’ve tried talking to Jonathan. It’s hopeless. That poor voice. We’ve got to tell someone, so he can be rescued.

Ludya Parak

They never say where they are, so what can we do?

Patrick Bright

What do you think it is?

Ludya Parak

An old radio drama? An actor’s voice? Whatever, it’s Jonathan’s problem. We shouldn’t have that radio, you shouldn’t have got it working. It wasn’t in our plan. It’s distracting everyone and wasting our time.

Patrick Bright

Jonathan said something very strange. In that museum, materials don’t age. He said this radio could be a prototype from any time within the last hundred years and, if it is, then that’s the exact time Tesla and Edison were working on machines to contact the dead.

Ludya Parak has left the group.

Patrick Bright

The dark place our man wants to escape from. He could be in limbo, either unaware he’s passed away or, for some reason, unable to reach the Other Side.

Doodle message group [Private] Gela and Cameron, 26 February 2024:

Cameron Wesley

Long story short, the sourcing team have a radio they should never have taken from the museum. If the boss gets it back, no questions will be asked.

Gela Nathaniel

Griff mentioned this. It’s in the studio cupboard.

Cameron Wesley

Tell them it’s dangerous and has to go back.

Gela Nathaniel

How could it be dangerous?

Cameron Wesley

You’re a creative powerhouse, Gela, you’ll think of something. Leave it at the rear doors tonight and I’ll collect early tomorrow morning. Kiss-kiss.

Gela Nathaniel

Kiss-kiss.

To: MMAM ( FTP )

From: Gela Nathaniel

Date: 26 February 2024

Subject: Tomorrow

Hello all,

Bad news about the old radio some of you have been experimenting with. The technicians were clearing up and noticed it had woodworm, which caused quite a panic in the studio. All the benches are wood, plus the floorboards and the tables. Griff has taken the offending article and quarantined it in a plastic bag.

Luckily you’ve got plenty of other components to help you construct the installation and, in any case, the priority now is to devise and programme the multimedia elements of the display. Remember we have until the middle of April to create something to show the client for their top-line feedback.

See you in the studio tomorrow.

Gela

To: Gela Nathaniel

From: Griff Technician (Maintenance)

Date: 26 February 2024

Subject: Question

This old radio in a bag by the back door: sure you want it scrapped? Jem said something about using it in your installation.

To: Griff Technician (Maintenance)

From: Gela Nathaniel

Date: 26 February 2024

Subject: Re: Question

Please leave it there. Someone will nip in tomorrow morning and grab it. Please don’t tell the students I said that, just tell them it has woodworm. I need to return it somewhere with minimum fuss and bother. This group has been enough trouble, I don’t want any more. Please Griff, can you do that for me?

Gela

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