You are invited to the Melbourne launch of Song of the Cricket, featuring short talks by Miriama Young, Alice Kesminas, Ary Hoffmann, Natalie King and Alex Felson.
For the first time, Song of the Cricket will be displayed in Australia as part of Melbourne Connect Innovation Week.Created by a team of designers, ecologists, engineers, and musicians from The University of Melbourne - alongside Italian entomologists - Song of the Cricket explores how sound, science, and spatial design can converge to reimagine large scale species translocation and the aesthetics of experimentation.
Originally presented by a cross disciplinary UoM team led by the Urban Ecology and Design Lab (UEDLAB) with the Fondazione Museo Civico di Rovereto for the 19th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, curated by Carlo Ratti, this immersive ecological and sensory experience is focused on the endangered Zeuneriana marmorata, or Marbled Adriatic Bush Cricket. The exhibit focuses on the Land-Sea interface and Phragmites where the crickets live. CSDILA in FEIT alongside ARUP and the UEDLAB used geospatial planning to identify future zones to reintroduce crickets as sentinels for climate resilience. The crickets live in the same 1.4 - 3 m elevation that the newly constructed MoSE Defense system impacts across the Venice Lagoon. Crickets also have a cultural history, and working with GEAS, we are tying this back to Australia and Aboriginal culture and insects.
A composer from FFAM working with ARUP and SCIS combined music and wetland sounds to create a living sound garden supporting insect enclosures for breeding. The exhibition features a multi-channel composition using amplified cricket song and wetland soundscapes, highlighting the insect’s role as both sentinel and singer.
Mobile “life raft” habitats are exhibited and serve to translocate the insects and supporting the species' conservation and public awareness. Developed as a Designed Experiment with the UEDLAB and School of Biosciences, the project blends low-tech aesthetics with advanced urban ecological implementation for research and public engagement informing climate resilience.
The Melbourne installation will showcase and celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of the project, and the launch will feature short talks by Miriama Young, Alice Kesminas, Ary Hoffmann, Natalie King and Alex Felson.
