The Bat Cloud is a proposition for interspecies encounter, installed in the wooded area surrounding the SFER IK museum in Tulum, Mexico. The work is an artistic offering to bats in the form of water, fruits, and insects, and an opportunity for humans to ask bats a question, with the help of an artificial intelligence oracle trained to listen to bat conversations.
The artwork was conceived by attuning to the echoes of the Mayan forest, following intuitions that led toward the resonances of cenotes. These ecosystems, home to many bat species, are known locally as paths to the infraworld, where mineral, vegetal, and animal have listened to one another across the deepest horizons of time. In these places, bats are regarded as messengers.
What if we could understand the languages of other-than-human species? What might we learn from forms of knowledge that reach further into the past than human memory? If you could speak to bats, what would you ask? And if they chose to speak back, what might they reveal about themselves, the forest, the universe, and about you?
Part human, part bat, part machine, the Bat Cloud is above all a listening experience. If you follow the trail through the forest toward the artwork, you will first be invited to settle into the rhythm of the sounds around you. The path leads to a body of water where, as the forest grows accustomed to your presence, you will have the opportunity, if you wish, to ask the bats a question.
The artwork is best experienced at dusk when bats come to the jungle.
As you follow the trail to the artwork, notice the sounds that rise and fade. Before you formulate a question you might like to ask, let the forest grow familiar with your presence. Give yourself time to settle into its rhythm.
Throw a handful of seeds into the water to prompt the Bat Cloud algorithm. Remember the number of waves that rise in response. Bring this special number to the divination area to receive your answer.
We are looking forward to welcoming you at Sfer Ik Basin.
An artwork curated by Marcello Dantas.
Made possible by the Sferik Art in Nature Award.
We thank the Jardin Encantado and Cristina Ochoa for welcoming The Bat Cloud at the heart of its unique ecosystem.
Thank you everyone who brought this project to life:
Bat biolinguist: Mirjam Knörnschild
Estefania López Barrera, Manuel Sandoval, Doria Reyes, Anastacio Gaona, Pedro Alejandro Cupul Uc, Marcos Pat, Nicasio Kumul Kumul, Galdino Kumul Herrera, Ivan
Benjamin Cabral, Cesar Salgado, Dorian Valencia, Gamaliel Garcia
Marina, Elliot, Dani
Special thank you to: Roth, Marcello, Cristina Ochoa, Pierre-Henri Samion, Juan Francisco Garcia Nuño, Marlène Huissoud, Ohm Dive, Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez, Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute.
This artwork is dedicated to bats, and to the memory of Karen Bakker.
