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Helen Anahita Wilson

Helen Anahita Wilson

composition, electronics, piano, sound art, voice

Artist profile: https://makingtracksmusic.org/artists/helen-anahita-wilson

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helen_anahita_wilson/

Helen’s story

Helen is an award-winning composer, sound artist, pianist, and improviser. You can read about her composing practice and numerous achievements in the jazz music scene through her web page, but through her art we would like to introduce you to the world of 'biophilic' and collaborative composition!

Helen has developed a creative relationship with plants, where she interprets plant biodata, and physiological activity readings, which she combines with her experimental Western and South Asian compositional techniques. The product of these music projects are presented in her album from 2023, Linea Naturalis, with music derived from bioelectricity in plants with medicinal and healing properties.

Plants 'sing'? How does that work?

So, we are all familiar with data visualization, right? Every time you open your phone to look at the weather app you see colors used to represent different temperatures. Data sonification works in a very similar way, only instead of colors, we use sound. The music is created by the devices that can capture the electrical variations in a plant which are then converted into MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) signals, which are translated into harmonious sounds. So your garden salad can easily be turned into a living musical instrument.
The resulting sounds vary a lot, not only based on the species of plant but also on what two leaves you choose, how the light, time of day, oxygen levels, and even responses to movements in the room change. Of course, the idea of plants as sentient beings with unique forms of communication has been implemented in human consciousness long before these thoughts could be materialized into physical sound.

Ecoacoustics

This field specifically focuses on using sound to monitor ecosystems. Sound artists and researchers collaborate to analyze how changes in soundscapes—caused by habitat loss or climate change—affect biodiversity.

Bioacoustics in composition

Some sound artists use bioacoustic data—recordings of animal and environmental sounds—as the basis for collaborative compositions.

What is 'sound art'?

Sound is materially invisible but very visceral and emotive. It can define a space at the same time as it triggers a memory.

- Susan Philipsz

Strictly defined, sound art is any art that uses sound both as its medium (what it is made out of) and as its subject (what it is about).

When Luigi Russolo built noise machines evoking the atmosphere of the industrial age between 1913 and 1930, he opened the world which resulted in numerous experiments leading us to many great digital technology inventions. While some celebrated the new world of sounds at the beginning of the 20th century, others, like so-called Dada artists through sound expressed their anger and hatred towards the horrors of the First World War, using their art to rebel. Others, like John Cage, decided to explore the silence, creating a piece of music in 1952 called 4’33’’. Check it out!

So, from ordinary everyday noises like your refrigerator humming through the night, to sounds made by humans, instruments, plants, or nature, all sorts of different sound sources could be used to make sound art.

What is electronic music?

This term refers to any music produced or modified by electrical, electromechanical, or electronic means. We may take it for granted today, but let’s remember that to produce the tone using purely electronic means and the ability to record this music electronically using magnetized film or tape developed only in the 20th century. In the context of using electronic music to connect with the natural world, artists as Brian Eno and Ryuichi Sakamoto worked on these ideas already in the 70s and 80s.

Case Studies and Artists to check out:

  • Bernie Krause
    His work with The Great Animal Orchestra combines his field recordings with visual and musical elements to highlight the richness of natural soundscapes. His recordings act as both art and scientific documentation of biodiversity.

  • Jana Winderen
    Jana Winderen is an artist based in Norway with a background in mathematics, chemistry and fish ecology. Her practice pays particular attention to audio environments and to creatures which are hard for humans to access, both physically and aurally.

  • Chris Watson
    As a sound artist and wildlife recordist, Watson's work captures the sounds of nature and weaves them into narrative compositions that often reflect the effects of climate change and human activity on biodiversity.

Challenges for the brave ones

  • Try to make your own three-minute sound story using only the sounds from one day of your life. Record the sounds with your phone, or any kind of recording machine, and put them together in a story

  • When you wake up in the morning, try to track every possible sound you can hear until the moment you go to sleep. Try to make your sound diary - all the traffic you hear during the day, the birds, people’s rambles, trains, even the sounds your own body makes.

For those who want to know more

Sources


Watch the film Growing Into Music (2012) by Making Tracks advisory board member Lucy Durán, which explores how children in diverse cultures from different parts of the world acquire musical skills and knowledge.

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