EVERYBODY knows environment can alter and affect human behaviour, but what happens when that process is reversed?

That’s one of the questions running through Peter Hudson’s installation In Colour, showing at Fabrica from tomorrow. By placing sensors and microphones in the cavernous space of the gallery – formerly a church – he will transform the atmosphere itself into a colourful spectacle.

The shade of colour that fills the church at any given point will be a direct result of what the recording devices pick up, and, specifically, the pitch of visitors’ voices.

For instance, a very low voice would manifest itself in a vibrant red, while a high pitch would turn Fabrica a deep blue.”It’s not mapping a rainbow exactly but it’s approaching that,” says Peter. “It radically changes the environment. One or two people can effectively control the whole experience.” Peter’s background is in music – he has composed for the BBC and Channel 4 as well as touring the country and performing at festivals such as Bestival and Jarvis Cocker’s Meltdown in London. He still teaches ukelele.

Last year he completed an MA in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Arts. While you might think that music is a world away from the visual art Peter now produces, he points out one clear similarity between composition of sound and his Fabrica installation.

“This is like making a big instrument through which people express themselves.” Once one person has spoken into the microphone at Fabrica, the colours that fill the room will shift and morph depending on every new input. In Colour is hosted in conjunction with Project Art Works, a Hastings-based organisation that seeks to find new ways to involve people with “complex impairments” in visual art.

Peter says: “They do a lot of work with people with autism, for example, who have difficulties expressing themselves verbally.

“In society they can often be told not to shout or make a space, but Project Art Works is a space where they can indulge those things.” In Colour came about as a result of working with those people with “complex needs”, and it is aimed at people who are “highly sensitive to sensory stimuli”. Peter’s work highlights not just the connection between environment and behaviour, but how we can communicate with our surroundings and each other.

In Colour, Fabrica Gallery, Brighton, tomorrow to August 28, For more information visit fabrica.org.uk or call 01273 778646