100 WHISPERS

21 mins 53 seconds

Created by Lisa-Marie Gibbs Anurita Chandola & Gareth Evans

Minghella Studios – University of Reading 2026

Commissioned by Reading University as part of their centenary year

100 Whispers is a spatial sound installation built from 100 recordings gathered on mobile phones in and around the University of Reading. Drawing on fragments of everyday sound—voices, movements, textures, and ambient noise—the work transforms these contributions into an immersive and evolving composition that reflects on presence, memory, and connection.

Presented within a minimal, contemplative environment, the installation uses a two-speaker sound system in which sounds emerge, overlap, and recede across the space. As visitors move through the installation, subtle shifts in balance, texture, and proximity shape the listening experience, creating changing relationships between sound and space.

Rather than following a fixed narrative, 100 Whispers embraces ambiguity, subtlety, and multiplicity. Quiet, intimate sounds exist alongside distant and indistinct murmurs, encouraging close attention and reflection. Removed from their original contexts, the recordings blur the boundaries between individual and collective expression. The installation becomes a living composition—an ephemeral gathering of traces—that foregrounds listening as a shared and active process of meaning-making.

At the centre of the installation is a pianola roll that transcribes the layered soundscape into a physical visual score. The roll acts as a material trace of the composition, translating ephemeral sonic fragments into a time-based mechanical form. By bringing together digital recording and analogue transcription, the work explores the relationship between memory, notation, and the preservation of fleeting moments.