8:00 – 10:00 PM
By Donation
Limited to 40 participants
All ages
There will be snacks and drinks for sale at the Golf Course Clubhouse.
This is an active workshop that includes a walk and being on your feet for over an hour. The spaces are not wheelchair accessible. As sundown approaches we'll walk around the treed area of the golf course, so please wear suitable footwear and be prepared for mosquitos.
Bats are fascinating crepuscular creatures, producing sounds in the ultrasonic frequency range to navigate and find their nightly meal of flying insects. Specialized technology, known commonly as a bat detector, makes possible for listening in on the bats ultrasonic calls, blips and chirps. With the aid of UV light in order to draw bugs which in turn draw bats, participants will have the opportunity to witness the sights and sounds offered by nature at night.
Beginning with a land acknowledgment by Rosemary Georgeson, a welcome by bat enthusiasts and artists Sara Gold and Ron Luther, then a brief talk from Frieda Weinert, our bat conservationist and expert, We will walk at sundown to find a group of bats, also known as a cauldron. There we will await the bats arrival while listening to an original sound art composition of gentle, layered, nature based field recordings by Sara Gold.
As the bats emerge, Ron Luther will take over the sonics with an interactive set up that will react to the bat noises in real-time. Participants will be offered the opportunity to play with this set up, sending the sounds of bats and noises from a modular synthesizer that are triggered by the bat signals, around the quadraphonic speakers set up.
Agile and skilled, bats are very good at navigating and won’t touch you. Rabies rates are extremely low in bats (0.5%) and the stigma surrounding them is a barrier to understanding these nighttime pollinators. White nose syndrome, a spreading disease amongst bat populations puts bats at risk of endangerment, amongst other factors like extermination, wind turbines and loss of habitat. Let’s celebrate our nighttime friends, together, with a deep listening experience.
We're grateful to collaborate and produce on the shared, stolen, unceded, ancestral and traditional territories of Penelakut, Lamalcha, Hwitslum and other Hul’qumi’num speaking peoples, as well as the ceded territories of Tsawwassen First Nation, on what is now known as Galiano Island, British Columbia. We recognize the complex impacts that hosting settlers and non-settlers has on the Indigenous land and peoples of this area, and we aim to be responsible and accountable for these impacts and our footprint—whether cultural, environmental or social.
We acknowledge the generous support of our partners and funders:
