Brett Westwood investigates our obsession with bats. From Dracula to Batman and Goth, bats have infiltrated our culture and our psyches.
Brett Westwood investigates our obsession with bats, at a Gothic mansion at night where bats swirl around him. From Dracula to Batman and Goth, bats have infiltrated our culture and our psyches, despite the persisting sense that they are in some way alien and unknowable. But they are in fact one of our most successful and social mammals, and those who work with them have a passion for them. Contributors: Jeremy Deller, Christopher Frayling, Darren Mait, Daniel Flew, Will Brooker, Merlin Tuttle, The Neighbours are Bats performance project. Location recording at National Trust Tyntesfield.
Original Producer: Beth O'Dea
Archive Producer: Andrew Dawes for 大象传媒 Audio in Bristol
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Darren Mait
Darren Mait聽is a National Trust Area Ranger聽at the Gothic Revival mansion near Bristol.
Photograph: 漏 National Trust Images /聽Rob Stothard.
Sir Christopher Frayling
Dan Flew
Dan has an MA in biological recording and was a grave digger for South Gloucestershire Council. He's been an ecologist for 6 years and has studied bats for 8 years.聽He's into goth culture and was a DJ on the Bristol scene back in the early noughties.聽His love for the darker side of life has led him to leading bat walks in Bristol's famous Arnos Vale cemetery, where his grave knowledge, goth influence and bat expertise help punters have a spooktacular time.
Photograph: l-r Darren Mait, Dan Flew and Brett Westwood.
Merlin Tuttle
is an American ecologist, conservationist and wildlife photographer who has specialized in bat ecology, behaviour and conservation.
Tuttle has led bat conservation efforts for nearly 40 years and is especially well known for his research on bat behavior and ecology. His advice and thousands of photos are available at Merlin Tuttle's Bat Conservation.
His book,聽The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures With the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals,聽was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in聽2015.
The Neighbours Are Bats
Jeremy Deller
Jeremy Deller is a British artist known for works on political and social themes.
He has filmed bat caves in Texas聽for part of Memory Palace, which won the Turner聽Prize in 2004.聽He聽revisited the caves聽on numerous occasions after this to make a聽3D film聽installation capturing the experience.聽In late 2006, he instigated The Bat House Project, an architectural competition open to the public for a bat house on the outskirts of London.聽
In 2016 he collaborated with dub producer Adrian Sherwood to produce a track using bat recording samples recorded during his visits to the Texas caves.
Will Brooker
Broadcasts
- Tue 1 Aug 2017 11:00大象传媒 Radio 4
- Mon 7 Aug 2017 21:00大象传媒 Radio 4
- Sun 11 Oct 2020 06:35大象传媒 Radio 4
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