Projects
Hall of Hushes
Hall of Hushes
Hall of Hushes is an immersive sound-and-light installation that searches the multiple meanings in the universal act of shhh. In a darkened space, multiple voices with distinctly different hushes are paired with synchronised light, creating a reactive field of whispers where harmony slips into dissonance, and care shifts into control.
Hall of Hushes transforms one of the simplest and most familiar human utterances – the act of saying “shhh” – into an immersive sound-and-light environment. The project explores the emotional and social complexity of this breath-led gesture, asking: when is creating quiet an act of care, and when does it become one of control? Visitors move through overlapping layers of sound and light, where harmony slips into dissonance and intimacy collides with tension.
Multiple speakers distributed through a darkened space each voice a distinct shhh, paired with light that pulses in tandem with its sonic qualities. The installation is designed to be reactive: sensors detect visitor presence and noise, triggering shifting choruses of hush. Stillness can produce a more consonant atmosphere, while more movement might activate sharper waves of sound and light through the room.
Experiment
£20,000
Aims of the project
Through iterative prototyping, the project will test different spatial arrangements to explore how sound, light, proximity, and movement shape collective listening.
Hall of Hushes uses audio–light mapping to heighten awareness of subtle vocal dynamics and to create an environment where quiet is felt as something shared, but potentially unstable.
Meet the artists
Yulia Kovanova
Lead artist
she/her
Yulia Kovanova is a Scotland-based visual artist and BAFTA Scotland–nominated filmmaker working across moving image, sculptural installation, and creative documentary. Her research-led practice is rooted in attunement, exploring how subtle gestures, materials, and rhythms shape perception and experience. Through installations that often unfold as accumulations of fragments, her work invites audiences to slow down and notice what usually remains in the background. Sound frequently enters her projects through collaboration with composers and sound artists. Her work has been presented internationally at the Setouchi and Aichi Triennales, Edinburgh Art Festival, Fruitmarket Gallery, and film festivals worldwide.
Louis McHugh
Artist and Creative Technologist
he/him
Louis McHugh is an artist, researcher and technologist who works with sound and interactive technology. He explores the contradictions, peculiarities and possibilities of technoculture through an interdisciplinary practice which includes installations, theatrical designs and improvisational performances.
