Sonic Room: Translating Animals

The Sonic Room is a crucial element within my long-term research into the complex and historically constructed relationships between humans and nonhuman animals. In the early stages of working on ‘The Lives of Animals’, I recognized the significant absence of animal voices and perspectives within the narrative framework of the project. Addressing this gap posed considerable challenges, as representing the standpoint of animals requires not only imaginative and ethical engagement but also an expanded notion of responsibility.

A significant influence on shaping this new research perspective was Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson’s pioneering publication Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (2005), which explores the profound connections between autism and animal cognition.11.Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson, Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior, New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 2005.  Grandin, an expert in animal behaviour who herself is autistic, argues that her neurological differences give her unique insights into animal minds, behaviours and emotional lives. She emphasizes that animals primarily perceive the world through visual and sensory details. Unlike humans, who often overlook subtle visual cues, animals are extremely sensitive to even minor changes in their surroundings, such as shadows, colours or slight movements. These sensory details can significantly impact animal behaviour, leading to stress responses that humans typically misinterpret or ignore. Grandin highlights the importance of observing the environment from the animal’s perspective – literally positioning oneself at animal-eye level.

Contributors to the field of animal studies have long questioned the traditional anthropocentric belief that language defines the essence of humanity. In Animal Languages (2008), Eva Meijer draws from philosophy, linguistics and ethology to provide evidence that many animal species possess complex and meaningful communication systems.22.Eva Meijer, Animal Languages, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. By combining empirical research with philosophical reflection, Meijer encourages a critical revision of the boundaries of language and the implications of interspecies communication. Animal languages often refer to sophisticated systems used by various species, frequently exhibiting remarkable creativity. The concept of ‘animal languages’ therefore encompasses communication systems demonstrating human language-like characteristics such as syntax, semantics and intentionality.

Recordings from the fields of zoomusicology and ecoacoustics presented in the Sonic Room partially fill the gap concerning animal cognition, even if, as humans, we do not fully understand animal communication and our imperfect ears are not adapted to receiving certain stimuli.

Birds, whales, primates and bats are renowned for their intricate vocalizations. Humpback whales create structured songs that differ geographically and evolve over time. Insects and mammals specializing in chemical communication use pheromones. Elephant trunk movements, primate facial expressions and bee dances are forms of body language. Dolphins use individual whistles resembling names, allowing mutual recognition within groups. Such systems support complex social interactions and group coordination.

Understanding animal languages and conducting ecoacoustic research can support the idea of rewilding and environmental conservation efforts, for example by analyzing how species communicate in fragmented habitats. Combining these studies with contemporary technologies can lead to a deeper understanding of the natural world.

Laughing rats, inaudible frequencies and humpback whale songs are just some of the sounds featured in the Sonic Room. In addition to field recordings, the programme also includes sound compositions created by artists and researchers in fields such as zoomusicology and ecoacoustics. Artists utilize field recordings to craft unique sonic compositions, while also critically engaging with the theme of multispecies communication.

A selection of sound works from Sonic Room at Salt:

Cevdet Erek, Barking Drums, 2010

Stray dogs have long been a part of Istanbul’s urban fabric, often cared for by locals. However, a 2024 law now requires their removal to shelters, with euthanasia for those deemed aggressive or ill. Critics, among them animal rights groups, have criticized this precautionary approach as inhumane, advocating instead for sterilization and vaccination programmes. Dogs take centre stage in the Istanbul edition of ‘The Lives of Animals’, the intertwined history of animals and humans creating a complex sociopolitical portrait that reflects broader dynamics within Turkish society.

The programme opens with recordings of barking dogs, captured by Turkish artist Cevdet Erek and transformed into a musical composition. Titled Barking Drums, the sound piece was originally created in 2010 as a 24-minute, eight-channel installation at La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris. It combines drum recordings played and programmed by Erek with the barking of dogs in Istanbul’s Maslak district. With his longtime collaborator sound engineer Murat Gülbay, Erek performed and recorded the percussion at Maslak 1024, located at the Maslak Atatürk Industrial Site where the stray and guard dog sounds were captured. The piece explores the rhythmic and sonic interplay between human percussion and canine vocalizations, reflecting Erek’s ongoing interest in blending carefully selected environmental sounds with primitive musical elements from everyday life.

Nathan Gray, Critical Flicker Frequencies, 2019

I’ve been following Nathan Gray’s work for over a decade. Through his projects that fuse sonic art and linguistics, such as The Weirding Module (2018–), The Mouthfeel (2019–) and Rogue Syntax: Primer (2021–), I’ve expanded my perspective on language, especially in the context of multispecies communication. Gray explores the voice as both a sonic and conceptual medium, using experimental formats such as performative lectures, radio plays and innovative narrative strategies. By employing microphone technology and digital sound processing, Gray reveals perceptual and scientific phenomena in ways that are both surprising and humorous.

In neuroscience and psychology, the concept of critical flicker frequencies (CFF) is used to study visual perception, attention and brain processing speed. In animal studies, different animals have different CFFs, which can tell us a lot about how they perceive the world. Gray’s radiophonic piece Critical Flicker Frequencies guides the listener through various sound frequencies and altered perceptions of time. It invites brief immersions into the sensory worlds of different species, allowing little time to acclimate before shifting to the next. Each sonic space is tinged by the previous one, their differing speeds, logics and temporalities blending and bleeding into each other. When they return, they do so with uncanny shifts. In ths way, Gray explains why television makes no sense to dogs and how flies perceive the human voice.

Kathy High, Rat Laughter, 2009–

While exploring examples of animal communication, I was particularly fascinated by the idea of rat laughter – especially since rats are animals that people typically find frightening. In A Thousand Plateaus (1987), Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari refer to rats as nodes in a conceptual apparatus, their subjectivity not fixed but fluid, multiple and always becoming something else.33.Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (trans. Brian Massumi), University of Minnesota Press, 1987.  For them, rats symbolize resistance, multiplicity and transformation.

Neuroscientist Dr Jaak Panksepp, known for studying the brain’s emotional systems, discovered unusual vocalizations by laboratory rats that, he suggested, might have ancestral connections to human laughter. While studying the behaviour of juvenile rats in the late 1990s, Panksepp and his team used specialized microphones to detect high-frequency ultrasonic vocalizations (around 50 kHz) that rats emitted during playful interactions such as chasing, wrestling and even when being tickled by humans. These chirps, inaudible to the human ear without technological assistance, were associated with positive emotions. Rats that ‘laughed’ more frequently were also more socially engaged and displayed signs of being more resilient to stress. Panksepp suggested that this form of vocalization – expressing joy and play – represents ancient emotional systems shared across species. His findings not only reshaped how scientists understand animal emotions but also had wider cultural and ethical impacts, influencing artists and researchers interested in animal sentience, cross-species empathy and the emotional lives of animals. The idea that rats could laugh brought new depth to ways of thinking about emotion, communication and connection beyond the human world.

The recordings of laughing rats in the Sonic Room programme originate from Dr. Jeffrey Burgdorf, a former student and later collaborator of Jaak Panksepp, and are preserved in the archive of Kathy High, an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose practice lies at the intersection of art, science and technology. Through collaboration with scientists, she explores living systems, animal sentience and the ethical dilemmas of biotechnology. Her ongoing project Rat Laughter involves recording the ultrasonic vocalizations of laboratory rats – high-frequency ‘chirps’ associated with a state of contentment – which she uses to create musical soundscapes. Developed at SymbioticA, a bio-art research lab at the University of West Australia, the project investigates the contagious nature of laughter, hypothesizing that playing back these recordings might elicit positive responses among the laboratory rats. As High admits, the process of recording laughter is not easy. It’s entirely possible that laboratory rats don’t laugh all that often.

Jana Winderen, The Noisiest Guys on the Planet, 2009

I was searching for unique field recordings related to the field of ecoacoustics. Having already gathered whale songs, bat echolocations and various bird vocalizations, I still felt that something unconventional was missing from my collection. It was then that artist Nathan Gray introduced me to recordings of shrimp sounds by Norwegian sound artist Jana Winderen, whose academic background spans mathematics, chemistry and fish ecology. Her practice focuses on sound environments and creatures that are difficult for humans to access, both physically and aurally – deep underwater, inside ice, or in frequency ranges inaudible to the human ear.

The audio piece The Noisiest Guys on the Planet was created from two years of underwater recordings. Winderen explored mysterious crackling sounds produced by decapods – ten-legged crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp – recorded off the coast of Norway. Although the snapping sounds of pistol shrimp are well-known, they don’t live that far north, raising questions about which creatures were responsible for these sounds. Consultations with marine biologists did not yield clear answers, highlighting how little we know about underwater soundscapes. Winderen’s work is a sonic investigation into the hidden, noisy world beneath the waves.

Apian, Shared Sensibilities, 2020

My conversation with Aladin Borioli in Amsterdam was one of the most interesting I’ve ever had about the animal world. We spoke about his research on Bannkörbe, a historical form of beehive, as well as about dreaming bees and the waggle dances performed by bees to inform other individuals about the location and quality of food sources. Borioli is the founder of the collaborative initiative Apian, also known as the Ministry of Bees. Combining anthropological and philosophical methods with practices of art and beekeeping, Apian explores the age-old interspecies relationship that humans have developed with bees. Through polymorphic ethnographies that merge photography, video, sound and text, it offers a space to encounter bees on more egalitarian terms.

The piece Shared Sensibilities is the result of a long interview with Dr Lars Chittka, during which we discussed the cognitive abilities of bees and how they perceive the world. Chittka is a renowned expert in sensory ecology and animal cognition. His lab explores bee behaviour, navigation and pollination through interdisciplinary methods, combining behavioural experiments, robotics and computational models to study how bees navigate complex environments. This work has reshaped our understanding of insects’ intelligence and their role in ecological networks.

The interview was edited and combined with music by Laurent Güdel and recordings made directly inside a beehive. The piece was co-commissioned by ICA, London, and the BBC, produced by SPACE, and first broadcast on BBC Radio in 2020.