Bat Experience

Pollination through Sound 2020/2021

〔29.6.〕 – 〔2.7.〕  11:00-20:00
VZA
4. OG, B 13
Exhibition
at the university
Art & Science
Marthin Rozo Castaño

This collaboration in art and biology aims to make visible the sound communication between pollinating bats and some plants. Bats use ultrasound to see the world around them, which is an active kind of perception. This is especially difficult to understand from a human perspective since our senses are passive. We don’t have to do anything to see or hear. On the other hand, bats are in constant communication with their environment to perceive it. From this acoustic way of navigating, some plants developed different strategies to reflect the ultrasound more clearly and attract these winged mammals. Hundreds of years of coexistence were needed to achieve a sophisticated form of communication, between the vocal-auditory organs of the bat and the sexual organs of the plant. Living together and shaping each other.