Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is presenting an immersive sound installation, “Devon Turnbull: HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3.” The exhibition, which began December 12th and is running through July 19, 2026, features a large-scale, handmade audio system by multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull.
Experimental Sound Installation
Opening in full Feb. 13, 2026, and organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the next exhibition is the third of Turnbull’s listening rooms, which are experimental sound installations that were first launched in 2022.
Turnbull, who is also known under his creative pseudonym OJAS, is a Brooklyn-based artist and audio engineer who handcrafts high-fidelity audio systems designed to create sounds rich in both texture and emotion.
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“Created as a ‘shrine to music,’ this listening room series invites visitors to experience music in a space designed to slow down and reflect, bringing back the joy of experiencing and sharing music together,” Turnbull said. “My intention is to return to the kind of immersive listening we experienced when we were young, free from outside distractions. Presenting this work at Cooper Hewitt is especially meaningful to me, having grown up visiting the museum.”
The new listening room features Turnbull’s speaker sculptures, custom-designed to deliver natural, realistic sound, along with seating by USM Modular Furniture and textiles by Kvadrat. The latest iteration for Cooper Hewitt created a custom design for the museum’s Carnegie Library space.
“As part of ‘Art of Noise,’ Turnbull’s ‘HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3’ is an opportunity for visitors to have a rare and transformative dedicated listening experience and surrender to high fidelity and enveloping sound,” said Joseph Becker, curator of architecture and design at SFMOMA. “At Cooper Hewitt, Turnbull has taken inspiration from the incredible millwork in Andrew Carnegie’s library for the site-specific design of the custom speakers.”
The listening room will be programmed daily, and Turnbull, alongside prestigious music collectors, archivists, audiophiles, and musicians from the New York area and beyond, will operate live sonic experiences on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. And, apart from the live operator experiences, visitors can also listen to playlists curated by Turnbull.
