Artist Kathy Hinde joins Bedford Creative Arts for audio bat project Vocal Migrations

By Ruth Hazard Published: 25 September 2012

The team at Bedford Creative Arts say their new project will “inspire your inner geek” as it involves changing sounds and vocals using computers the size of credit cards.

Kathy Hinde has been chosen to lead BCA's autumn commission. She will use local singers to develop a composition that combines live performance with electronically altered voices, inspired by how bats use echo-locate to ‘see’ their surroundings.

The micro devices will affect the sounds of singers’ voices differently, based on where they are positioned in a performance space.

The hand held device enables vocal performances to be altered electronically
By changing the locations of the devices, Hinde will create a "sonic and spatial experience" to be shared at a public event in December.

She has worked in collaboration with technologists to create the new device from sensors and mini-computers, and will also seek guidance from the Bedfordshire Bat Group to enable her to use bio-mimicry (the study of nature to influence designs and processes) as a creative method.

Willing participants are invited to take part in artist-led workshops during October 2012 to help produce audio for the project. Hinde will use an open composition that enables performers to make their own decisions about the sounds they create.

Bedford Creative Arts’ Dawn Giles says the projects is a way of “celebrating your creativity, but most of all your voices”.