Will's Hill is a play with words and also a reference to Wills Hill, the Brit who served as secretary of state for Britain’s North American colonies from 1768 to 1772 under the name of Lord Hillsborough and who the river is named after. The changing nature and interacting elements of sky, sunlight, raindrops, algae blooms, thunder clouds, animals and more, are used as prompts for reorienting a personal as well as shared past, while exploring the ecology of forces that causes, acts and wills. By mixing and resampling human words, texts and rhythms from memory, our digital commons and a specific locality, Wallin creates chants for willing new subjectivities, while directing AI to speak them.

Music taken from digital commons: ‘Anything Goes (1934) by Porter, Cole and Merritt and ‘Dat Old Black Gal’ performed by Zora Neale Hurston in 1939 and recorded in Florida.

Will’s Hill (2024)

The grass and the hills shall break into singing

all the trees of this mud shall clap their hands

flowers shall flow and gather momentum

folding their bloom onto water and lands

the clouds in this river shall listen closely

to the sound of water taking licks from the sky

circles will grow from tongues in the making

passing gator and turtle and ducks as they fly

my word will be such that it goes out of my mouth

it shall speak to ears that will hear it

like a willing from far finding its way

until it can say I am near it

it shall burrow its way into the ground

up through a bush of flowers

riding the wind across heaths of grass

now with additional powers

gathering figure gathering ground

gathering earth and sky

gathering mortals gathering gods

and untying the tongues that tie

like a willing from far willing its way

willing a voice that says I