Bat Night Market - London premiere 2024 - LIFT Festival

Bat Night Market
Legend of the image, photographed by Name Last Name, 2023
  • Lead

    Robert Johnson

    Kaung-Yi-Ku

  • Team

    Dramaturg Ding-Yun Huang
    Food Artist Rain Wu
    Soundscape Design Guildhall School of Music and Drama

    Scientists: Gemma Bowsher, Martha Gallardo Galaviz, Lucy Di-Silvio

    Motion Graphics Director: Chia-Hua Lee
    Motion Graphics Designer: Xuanjie Huang, Deer Sheng
    Graphic Designer: Po-Chun Chou
    Soundscape Design and Music: The Electronic and Produced Music Department, Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
    Music Director: Barbara De Biasi
    Lead Sound Designer: Bronte Tucker
    Composers: Oliwia Radomska, Tongyu Wu, Eleanor Fineston-Robertson, Annabel Brooks, Theo Lees.
    Sound Designers: Oliwia Radomska, Taha Kagzi, Chester Tribley
    Game Design Engineer: Chia-Hung Lin (Mick Lin)
    Chef: Luke Keyte

    Performers: Vinna Law, Steve Lok, Robin Khor Yong Kuan, Marian Lee, Diana Feng, Sigi Moonlight

    BSL interpreter: Rachel Rebecca Jones

    Co-Commissioned by LIFT and Taipei Performing Arts Center.

    Presented at Science Gallery London.

    Image credit © Rain Wu. This is an AI-assisted image created with the support of Midjourney.

    Supporters

    Funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants and the ARTWAVE project of the National Culture and Arts Foundation (NCAF), Taiwan, which are designed to support UK and overseas organisations to collaborate on international arts projects.

    Also generously supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts & The London Community Foundation (LCF) and The Taipei Representative Office. The composition and production of the original soundscape is supported by Garrick Charitable Trust and The Leche Trust.

    Research and development supported by Science Gallery London, part of King’s College London, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the UK. Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Bao, Goldsmiths University of London, and Taipei Performing Arts Centre (TPAC)

    With thanks to

    Robin Collective

    Wheelcake Island

    Deafinitely Theatre

    Donmar Warehouse

    Kiln Theatre

  • Partner

    LIFT & TPAC

  • Date

    2022 – 2023

In the face of global food shortages, humans need to re-examine our food sources. One presenting itself as a sustainable and nutritious option is the unassuming bat. These flying mammals have been a delicacy in some cultures for centuries, but this ancient dish is often viewed with disgust in the Western world.

Yet with some bat populations declining, is it problematic to consume them? Should they instead be revered for their vital impact on our ecosystem? How do we navigate notions of delicacy, disgust and interspecies empathy as we radically rethink the norms of global consumption?

Set in an imagined night market where bat species are extinct, BAT NIGHT MARKET intersects performance, speculative design and science. Audiences are invited to celebrate these enigmatic animals in an evening of discussions, games, tastings and sensory experiences.

Creative R&D for BAT NIGHT MARKET took place in Taiwan at Taipei Performing Arts Center and here in the UK at Science Gallery London, where artists Kuang-Yi Ku and Robert Johnson collaborated with a number of King’s researchers. These included Lucy Di Silvio, a Professor of Tissue Engineering; PhD researcher Martha Gallardo Galaviz; anthropologist Ann Kelly; and Gemma Bowsher, who works at the interface of health security and biological threats. Together, their combined expertise and scientific knowledge have helped design this imagined future.

Images