Kim Sokolowski's Audio and Object

For my Audio and Object Self Portrait I tried to convey the feeling that I'm pretty sure all of us have felt at some point in time. I wanted to show how busy and hectic our lives can get, so much to the point where we do feel like a hamster running in a wheel. We keep on trying to reach our goal of having everything finished so that way we can take a break from running around, but just as we finish a "to do" off of our list another one pops up causing us to keep on running. I tried to represent this continuous "to do" list through the endless cutouts from agendas, calendars and transit transfers that just keep looping around the hamster wheel.

I also wanted to show how this constant running can cause your life to become routine and mundane. I wanted to portray this endless cycle of walking up, getting ready, commuting, working, going home, going to bed and then starting all over again. Which is why I used looping sounds of iconic and familiar sounds of everyday life along with the ticking sound of a clock to show how life is pasting us by when we are stuck in this wheel.

I decided to use a hamster because I have a pet hamster myself. My hamster herself has a stress reliever for me, because whenever I'm playing with her I can't focus on anything else but playing with her. She's provided a way for me to talk a break from all the stress of life. So in a way a hamster manages to stop me from running in my wheel.