In the context of the environmental crisis, art and science often miss each other. While collaborations are on the rise, they frequently remain superficial or disconnected from actual scientific research. Hush Glitches directly asks: How can a performative installation, rooted in genuine scientific inquiry into endemic flora, move beyond a purely artistic experience to become a catalyst for social and ecological engagement? It does this by challenging the notion that technology is solely a source of our detachment from the natural world, instead proposing it as a medium to re-establish a vital connection. Through genuine, transdisciplinary collaboration between artists, scientists, and the public, Hush Glitches creates the context for a more thoughtful, sustainable, and culturally resonant approach to today’s pressing environmental challenges.
The project is structured as a transdisciplinary approach to the relationship between art, science, and technology, exploring the human impact on natural ecosystems. Built on layers of scientific and artistic research, Hush Glitches is an open ended work – it aims to initiate a cultural dialogue between artists, researchers and the public, in which art becomes a tool for awareness and transformation.
In a social climate where there’s plenty of skepticism when it comes to viewing art and science as being compatible, the project aims to challenge the divide through collaborating with universities on (seemingly) opposite sides of the spectrum, such as I. L. Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film (UNATC) and the Faculty of Biology in Bucharest. In partnership with the Bucharest Institute of Biology, Hush Glitches brings a more grounded approach to the artistic process, by encouraging the exchanging of expertise in order to build premises for new working protocols, as well as good practices in future projects across disciplines. The active involvement of students and young professionals from both artistic and scientific backgrounds embodies the project’s aim to create a context for the younger generations to discover where (and how) art and science meet.
Following the Cyber-Body-Systems and Chronicles from In-Between 495 to 570 nm projects, developed by Marginal in 2024, Hush Glitches continues the process of critical questioning of the ecological system forming around technology, and the relationship between technology and the natural world. As we ask ourselves whether we can really trust technology to bring us closer to our roots, the project does not condemn the question but instead holds a mirror to it.
Hush Glitches explores a paradigm shift in the way we relate to the environment, rejecting any approaches that humanise plants, and chooses, instead, one that recognises them as forms of non-human intelligence, autonomous and opaque to full human understanding. This perspective allows for self-reflection and the reconfiguration of our relationship with nature, not through anthropocentric empathy, but through accepting other forms of existence and knowledge, which do not need to be translated into human terms in order to be valued.
The project creates a space for collaboration between art and science, transforming scientific data into artistic materials with visual and emotional impact, and vice-versa – creating an accurate digital archive for some of the plants researched by the Institute of Biology in Bucharest. Through this digitization process of rare plants, modeling them as 3D digital twins, Hush Glitches creates an interactive artistic experience that allows for a critical and sensitive approach to complex subjects such as species extinction or habitat degradation. Simultaneously, the project investigates the limits of technology as a tool of representation – far from being an objective or neutral medium, technology is questioned as a possible amplifier of the rupture between technological progress and ecological conservation, becoming an active part of the artistic discourse.
In addition to its artistic and scientific dimensions, Hush Glitches functions as a mentorship platform, in which students, young artists and researchers work directly alongside experienced professionals from various art & science fields. This collaborative framework facilitates the development of applied interdisciplinary skills at the intersection of art, science and technology and grants participants the opportunity to understand not just the thematic content of the project, but also the complex process of collaborative research, prototyping and production. This multi-layered involvement aims to contribute to the formation of a new generation of interdisciplinary creators and researchers, capable of navigating the hybrid areas of contemporary knowledge.
One of the concrete outcomes of the project is introducing a digital archive dedicated to Romanian plant heritage, with a focus on endemic and endangered species. They are reconstructed three-dimensionally, in the form of digital twins, which preserve both the visual characteristics and essential scientific information about each species. The archive will be accessible to the public and will function as an educational and awareness-raising tool, but also as an alternative form of conservation (symbolic and digital) of endangered natural heritage.
Hush Glitches develops through a step-by-step process, focusing on three main research and production areas:
Scientific research – in partnership with the Institute of Biology in Bucharest, this initial stage focuses on investigating the Romanian endemic flora and collecting relevant data. As the basis of the artistic approach, this phase provided scientific content that would later be translated into visual, sonic and interactive elements for the development of the installation.
Artistic and choreographic research – this stage marks the beginning of translation, where the previously collected scientific data is now part of an artistic language. As we test the interaction between sensors, sound and visuals, what used to be numbers and figures becomes sound and movement.
Production and prototyping – this is when the installation really begins to take shape: plants are given 3D digital models, interactivity is programmed and the generative sound component is developed. It is a period of intensive construction, as well as technological and multimedia refinement.
October marks the arrival of Hush Glitches in Timișoara, where it enters an interactive phase: the Open Public Laboratory. Here, the public is welcome to actively participate in the creative process and interact with a work-in-progress version of the installation, offering feedback that allows us to further develop the project in its future stages.
The final stage is the meeting point between the artistic process and the community – Hush Glitches comes to Bucharest in December, at the National Dance Center (CNDB), where the public will be able to experience the installation in its complete form and will have the opportunity to talk to the team in a Q&A session.
The Hush Glitches performance was a live laboratory, and these four research articles serve as the technical and philosophical documentation of the research process. Each piece is written by the core collaborators – from the choreographers and 3D animators to the botanists and creative coders. The aim of these articles is to provide dual insight: a deep dive into the specific technical protocols (e.g., sensor selection, data-to-visual translation, movement principles) and a crucial reflection on the collaborative process.
This collection explores the structural friction points and surprising breakthroughs that emerge when art, science, and technology are pushed to operate outside their disciplinary comfort zones, revealing how a shared understanding of endemic plants led to an entirely new, generative ecosystem on stage.
Roots and Projections: Botany in the Space of the Digital World – Luciana Andrei, Codrut Petre
Sensor-Linked Botanical Visuals: Thoughts and Workflow – Alina Rusu, Gabriel Stoiciu
Sensors & Algorithms: How we connected body and plant – Lorena Cocora, Denis Flueraru
The Body, Emotion and Invisible Rhythm of the Vegetal – Ada Anghel, Alexandra Necula
For more of the story, tune into the Mic Matters broadcast where we talk to the team about their journey from concept to stage.
The presentation of Hush Glitches at Simultan Festival offered a crucial entry point into the project’s evolving transdisciplinary methodology. Framed as an Open Lab, this event was not a work-in-progress showcase, but a live, critical phase designed to test the core hypotheses of the work. It is here that the abstract concepts of digital twins and biodiversity loss are translated into an interactive reality. The audience was invited to observe and experience the developing performance installation, which merges choreography with generative soundscapes and digital visuals derived directly from scientific data on endemic Romanian flora. This showcase is vital for observing the reciprocal influence – how the performer’s body and the audience’s presence actively shape the data-driven environment.
The objective of the Open Lab was to gather critical feedback and real-time behavioral data, which will refine the final installation’s artistic and technological frameworks. By opening the creation process, Hush Glitches challenges traditional notions of artistic authorship, asserting that the most impactful cultural responses to ecological crises are those forged through active, shared exploration across art, science, and the unpredictable engagement of the public.
Photo credit: Andreea Săsăran
Luciana Andrei – biology researcher
Student at the Faculty of Biology at the University of Bucharest, who has shown coordination and time management skills through active involvement in the Biology Students Association (ASB), through which she has contributed to internal projects and university initiatives, developing her teamwork, conflict management and organisational skills.
Andrei-Codruț Petre – biology researcher
Student at the Faculty of Biology at the University of Bucharest actively interested in exploring and documenting biodiversity and ecosystems, using plant and mushroom identification applications as well as photography for scientific documentation.
Dr. Roxana Nicoară – scientific research mentor
Biology researcher, with a career dedicated to the study of Romanian plant biodiversity. Since 2019, she has been working as a scientific researcher at the Institute of Biology of the Romanian Academy, where she focuses her work on the identification and conservation of higher plant species, essential for the country’s natural heritage.
Alina Rusu – 3D modelling
Freshly graduated with a bachelor’s degree in animation, Alina enjoys exploring the bridge between 2D and 3D art. Passionate about illustration, storytelling, and 3D modeling, she strives to create art that brings joy, inspires laughter, and remains accessible to a wide audience in a warm and wholesome way.
Gabriel Stoiciu – 3D modelling
Gabriel is a digital artist, illustrator and animator who believes art is all about exploration and finding new ways to communicate with the people around us. In his work, he tackles environmentalism, mental health and societal issues through simplicity, irony and humour. Laughter opens the mind, after all!
Mirela Vlad – 3D animation mentor
Associate professor at UNATC at the Faculty of Film, Department of Animation and Digital Interactivity. With extensive experience in the field of visual arts, she is actively involved in media research and development, coordinating undergraduate programs, films, animation projects as well as undergraduate and dissertation works.
Andrei Raicu – sound artist
Former theatre director turned sound artist, interested in the research and development of new interactive technologies for media and performing arts who works with new media platforms (AR, VR).
Lorena Cocora – artist
Drawing on a background in computer science, Lorena explores the intersection of technology and art, leveraging her technical skills to create new forms of artistic expression, with a particular focus on environmental issues and ecological activism.
Denis Flueraru – interactive technologies expert
Interactivity artist captivated by the diverse outcomes resulting from the collision of analogue and digital dimensions, using sound, interactive technologies and interdisciplinary experiments to express the often unnoticed facets of the environment.
Ada Anghel – dancer
Performer, emerging choreographer and cultural manager, with a background in music and street dancing. She graduated from the Choreography Department at UNATC, participating in a series of contemporary dance workshops and residencies. Since 2024, she has been coordinating the performative direction of Marginal’s projects and programs.
Alexandra Necula – dancer
Emerging artist passionate about movement and artistic expression, currently pursuing her studies in Choreography at UNATC since 2024. She defines herself through empathy, connection and the desire to express herself through dance and create deep emotional bonds.
Simona Deaconescu – choreography mentor
Choreographer working across genres and formats, she examines social constructs on the border between fiction and objective reality – sometimes with irony and dark humor. Her work explores future bodily scenarios, creating spaces where nature, history and technology meet, and the notion of choreography extends beyond the human body.
Sabina Suru – artist
Visual artist exploring the entanglements between analog and digital technologies. She investigates themes such as object-oriented ontology, identity mutation, and the ecology of memory, reflecting on how technological artefacts carry traces of care, decay, and transformation across time.
Andrei Tudose – artistic director
Curator and cultural manager, with a background in marketing research, sociology and visual studies, Andrei facilitates transdisciplinary approaches, at the border between art, social sciences and technology, challenging the public to take a participative stance towards societal issues.
Hush Glitches is co-financed by the Timișoara City Hall through the Project Center and Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.