Interspecies Communication Theater and Audio Spatial Larp

Ash Eliza Smith and Robert Twomey

(all pronouns, he/him)

SAT, JAN 6 | 4:30 PM - 5:15 PM (MST)
SUN, JAN 7 | 3:45 PM - 4:30 PM (MST)
Large Flex 3 (MIX 324)




Interspecies Communication Theater is a geospatial interactive audio and storytelling project in development with the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Without Walls at the La Jolla Playhouse, reframing the science and maintenance of aquarium operation as a sonic experience and site for theater.

Interspecies Communication Theater is a geospatial interactive audio and storytelling project in development with the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Without Walls at the La Jolla Playhouse. We are working with scientists, data, and potentially machine learning (AI) to engage the public with ocean acoustics, a broad field focused on studying sound, its propagation, and behavior underwater. Akin to sound channels occurring underwater, we are experimenting with an always-on audio-driven sonic experience that uses sounds from a kelp forest to marine life—which, at times, use smell, sight, and touch as cues, their most effective mode of communication is through acoustic cues, or sound – both vocal and non-vocal. Like using a hydrophone underwater,  the audience may tune in to different listening posts throughout the aquarium. Voice interaction could allow players to choose narrative flows and soundscapes. This layered, participatory audio structure echoes the hydroacoustic ecology of the ocean itself. It aims to engage the public in a deep understanding of oceanographic research, potentially informing interspecies design—a multiperspective design approach.

From the Artist