ECHOLOCATION

ECHOLOCATION


One of our flagship programmes this year is a collaboration with artist Hermione Spriggs. Echo are working with her to create the music for a public sculpture which will be based in Jesus Green, Cambridge, at the heart of the Cambridge Nature Network, an initiative since 2021.


The sculpture will use technology to translate the inaudible frequencies of the bat population in Jesus Green into human hearing range. As part of the project, Echo will spend time creating music inspired by the techniques bats use to communicate; including Echolocation, in which they use the reflections of their own calls to work out the shape of the space they are in. We developed these skills at the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College London.

Some thoughts from Hermione:


"Bats are mysterious and inaccessible mammals that share our human cityscape. They are nocturnal and they hunt, navigate and communicate using sounds that are largely inaudible to the human ear. Bats in Cambridge are under pressure from environmental changes, including loss of habitat and suitable roosting sites. They rely on human structures, choosing to roost in roof spaces in old buildings, hollows in park trees and dark basements – and they benefit us in turn by eating moths and other insects, thereby helping to maintain a balanced ecosystem. We have chosen to focus this project on the bats of Jesus Green, and their medium of

communication: sound."

Here some snippets above of Echo's improvisatory work as part of the first workshop day


"We are investigating technologies that translate the ultrasonic frequency of bat “clicks” and “chirps” (emitted when navigating using echolocation, hunting and communicating) into human hearing range. We hope to utilise this bat locator technology developed by scientists to create an interactive public sculpture for Jesus Green that enables the sound of the bats to be felt and heard. In working with Echo Vocal Ensemble, we've enabled the human voice to "jam" with the bat’s echo-locative sounds".


Team

Hermione Spriggs, lead artist

Sarah Latto, musical director

Sally Carr, Lucy Cronin and Margaret Lingas, sopranos

Anna Semple, mezzo soprano

Sam Oladeinde, tenor

Sam Gilliatt and Gus Perkins-Ray, bass

Natascha Nanji, video capture

Rebecca Huxley, sound capture


UPCOMING EVENTS


Bat Sounding


As part of our focus on bats and echolocation this year, we invite Cambridge Residents to join a session with the Bat Choir, exploring what it is like to communicate in a “bat-like” way. This workshop begins with simple vocal exercises and scores for deep listening on Jesus Green.


We will learn the different calls of bats that live locally in Cambridge, and experiment with strategies for human echolocation. No prior singing experience required! 


25 OCT 2023

JESUS GREEN, CAMBRIDGE

BOOK TICKETS


PAST EVENTS




Echo Sounding: A Performance

9 March 2023, 6-8pm

Hypha Studios, 56-60 Conduit St, London W1S 2YZ

Free Entry


Join Echo Vocal Ensemble for a performance inspired by the echolocative strategies of different British bat species. Curated in collaboration with the artists Hermione Spriggs and Harsha Balasubramanian, as part of
'Behold - a group show about touch' at Hypha Studios, London.


BEHOLD is an innovative exhibition that draws attention to touch – providing unusual and playful ways of experiencing artworks and reaching beyond the visual to activate our other senses. A series of touch-sensitive workshops will run as part of the show. Visitors are invited to become participants in the show, encouraged to behold artworks through a collaborative multi-sensory tour designed by artists, writers and academics, who are either blind, visually impaired or sighted. BEHOLD seeks to help reframe access to art by disrupting the hierarchies of perception and art education, by providing unusual and playful ways of experiencing artworks – beyond the visual and with the effect of heightening our other senses.


More about the exhibition

New Paragraph

Echo Sounding in the Grant Museum

A Voice and Listening workshop

A workshop with Echo Vocal Ensemble director Sarah Latto and artist and anthropologist Hermione Spriggs. Beginning with simple vocal exercises and scores for deep listening, and inspired by the echolocative strategies of different British bat species, we will work together to open up our senses, experiencing the Grant Museum of Zoology from a new, more-than-human vantage. 


Suitable for all voices of all ages; no singing experience needed.


GRANT MUSEUM OF ZOOLOGY, LONDON

WEDNESDAY 8TH FEBRUARY 6PM


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