About the Work

Using open-back headphones, spatial sound, haptic sculpture and moving image, Becoming invites audiences into an intimate yet porous listening environment. Participants encounter mothers’ spoken experiences through a layered sound world that is both private and shared. The open-back headphones create a personal listening layer within the wider sonic environment, allowing individual voices to sit in tension with the collective experience of the installation.

​

At the centre of the space is a steel bath transformed into a resonant speaker. Fitted with transducers, the bath vibrates audibly and physically, sending children’s toys tipping, falling and rattling across its surface. Associated with care, washing, domestic ritual and childhood, the bath becomes both familiar and unsettled: an object, an instrument and a tactile encounter.

​

The work grows from the difficulty of putting maternal experience fully into words. Rather than trying to explain matrescence, Becoming creates a space in which its contradictions can be encountered, held and felt.

​

Originally developed as a prototype through the Immersive Arts UK Experiment strand in 2025, Becoming is now being developed into a public-facing artwork through Immersive Arts UK Expand, building on prototype development and play-test learning. The project is being developed in partnership with NI Science Festival, Belfast International Arts Festival, Digital Catapult, the Sonic Arts Research Centre and QUB Media Lab, supporting audience development, technical development, iterative testing, public presentation and touring exploration.