Helena Hamilton is developing Becoming, an immersive artwork scheduled for Belfast International Arts Festival at Media Lab QUB from 22–25 October 2026. The installation brings spoken experiences of motherhood into a shared environment, placing individual maternal voices alongside the collective experience of the audience.
Audiences encounter large-scale moving image, sound in the room and intimate testimony through open-back headphones. As participants move closer to one another, new voices emerge through their headphones, shifting the experience towards connection and shared presence. A steel bath fitted with tactile transducers vibrates at the centre of the space, rattling toys across its surface and inviting visitors to approach, touch and feel the vibrations.
Development for the festival
The public-facing artwork builds on a prototype developed through the Immersive Arts UK Experiment strand in 2025 and learning from play-tests. Immersive Arts lists £50,000 in Expand funding for the project's development towards its 2026 festival presentation.
Hamilton is developing the work with five partners:
- NI Science Festival
- Belfast International Arts Festival
- Digital Catapult
- Sonic Arts Research Centre
- QUB Media Lab
Together, the partners support audience and technical development, iterative testing, public presentation and exploration of touring.
