illumination
For my bat piece I am also making use of some spotlights that shine across the river alongs the flightpaths of the various bat species. For the Daubentons, the lights skim the surface of the water, whilst for the pipistrelles and serotines it is the are just below the the overhanging branches of the trees that are illuminated. These lights do not affect the whole river, but instead provide just enough visibility for viewers to pick out the bats as they listen to the resulting music.
Another effect that the lights have is that they appear to attract insects, which of course is what the bats are there to feed upon, and, in turn, they probably help to increase the concentration of bats providing more data for the sound installation. I had the idea for this after noticing that (at home) bats were often in close proximity to streetlamps – probably because they attracted the larger moths. Usefully therefore, my lights along the Botanic Garden river bank also help link my sound installation to the Botanic Garden location and to the flights of the bats, and thus help to ground the piece, or at least one’s experience of it.
