How might two water coolers talk to each other? In a new installation at Melbourne Recital Centre, they’ll be given the gift of the gab.

The work by Monica Lim is part of Listening Acts, a series of live performances and sound installations, produced by contemporary arts company Chamber Made, which examines what listening means amidst so much modern noise.

Composer Biddy Connor, whose duet for vocalist and hospital IVF drip will feature in Chamber Made’s Listening Acts. Photo © Sarah Walker

Chamber Made’s previous work with sound artist Rebecca Bracewell, who used her hearing aids to create a “delicate, intimate, sonic world of blips, crackles, whispers and feedback”, was the spark for the series.

“Her hearing aids were both listening devices and sound-making instruments. I was fascinated by how sound and technology converged in [her] work and the particular way it framed the physical act of listening,” says Chamber Made’s Artistic Director and Co-CEO Tamara Saulwick.

“From there, we invited a larger group of artists to explore this intersection between bodies, technologies and listening. [They’ve] approached it in myriad directions.”

“We’ve ended up with...