For a Helen” is a multimedia work for film, sound and electronics. It is a multimedia composition; the music and visuals were composed at the same time. It is the outcome of an ongoing research in the narrative abilities of the aforementioned media when used in tandem.
The syntax of the work is characterized by parataxis - the placement of stimuli one after the other “without coordinating or subordinating connectives” (Merriam-Webster), thereby generating a spectrum of narratives by the very association of the stimuli to each other. This form of syntax provides a freer platform for the exploration of the media’s expressive as well as time construction capabilities.
Both the visual and audio parts of the work were composed at the same time. I considered all three as different sides of the same tool of expression and picked each medium according to their individual characteristics that fit the part of the overall narrative the best.
The paratactic syntax and the treatment of the media as equals, made me realize the different “experience of time” that audio and visual stimuli construct and the intricacies that arise when putting them together. In a hypotactic syntax, there is a hierarchy between the media, and the one on top defines - for the most part - the time experience of the work. In a paratactic syntax, time is shaped by the interjection of each medium’s individual time experience in the service of the overall narrative direction.

“For a Helen” is a journey through life, memory, the imaginary and the realistic, our struggle to understand and take control, the past and everything that’s never to return again.

Directed by Kakia Gkoudina