Suzie Simpson would like us, over the next few days, to whisper sweet nothings to the world.

To be more precise, Simpson – who founded and curates the New Works New Worlds Festival that is opening at the Arches tonight – would like audiences to take time out from the various live performances on offer and engage with a wonderfully romantic installation by the Dutch group, White Horse Collective.

It’s called Locus Amonus: The Institute for Matters of the Heart, and at its heart are declarations of love – gathered from audiences all over Europe and beyond, and now sent over to Glasgow so that listeners can indulge in some gentle eavesdropping ... and then, Simpson hopes, record some declarations of love themselves.

“I really love the idea of people – strangers from different cultures, strangers you’ll likely never ever meet – sharing moments that are all about tenderness, love and romance,” says Simpson, full of genuine delight at the prospect of Scottish voices adding into this mix and going on to murmur of love and devotion wherever the installation travels.

Simpson’s words make you want to grab a mic and immediately declare your love for the person, place or object that makes your heart throb. You then suspect that her own declarations would have to include the kind of work she has been steadfastly championing since she left Glasgow University in 2005 and promptly plunged into staging a showcase called New Writing New Worlds.

She’ll tell you it was “just the three plays”, but it was in fact a springboard for subsequent programmes that opened the festival out to radical artists from other disciplines. The 2010 New Works New Worlds roster now embraces

experimental performance work, visual art, cinema, music and new writing.

And while many of the events reflect the strong political, social and global concerns that prompted the artists in the first place, Simpson herself thoughtfully

connects the universal issues to a theme that has emerged from within the festival as a whole: our need for communities in a time when many people find it hard to make close and meaningful connections with others.

Simpson harks back, briefly, to her own upbringing in a semi-rural, small-town environment where folk did know the who’s who of their neighbourhood – and, more often than not, knew much more than just names and faces to nod to.

“As soon as you move to an urban environment,” she says, “you really have to search out communities for yourself. They’re not necessarily there, on your doorstep. When I looked, for instance, at what Lucy Gaizely is exploring in her work called Stay, it really is questioning how we connect with others in society nowadays, and how we go about caring for others.

“Not just children – although as a mother, Lucy has an interest in nurture, shared parenting and collective responsibility. But actually raising the whole issue of how we regard the family unit, which is really very topical, if you think about the economic pressures and the decisions the Government says have to be made in terms of child support.”

Elsewhere, Tam Dean Burn – with Linda Duru – is fielding his own challenge to our sense of 21st-century politically correct compassion with what he describes as a “digital-agit-punk-soul kabaret combo” entitled The Black and White Minstrel Show: Vex and Burn.

‘I’m just so chuffed that Tam wants to keep coming back to the festival,” says Simpson. “Not just because of what he offers audiences, but because I feel he is a real inspiration to artists who are emerging. Tam so believes that art can generate change.

“And I truly believe that too. Maybe not in directly tangible ways, maybe not immediately – but if you can bring people in, show them work that leaves them asking questions, then I think that absolutely has real value.

“By giving artists a chance to ask questions about our choices and how we behave, about how we live our lives in a consumer-driven

society ... I think, I hope, we’re bringing people into a community where sharing in ideas, sharing in the art that is being made now, opens up all kinds of dialogues and discussions in an exciting and enjoyable way.”

New Works New Worlds is at The Arches, Glasgow. from tonight until Saturday. Full details of shows on www.newworksnewworlds.co.uk