FALLING ON DEAF EARS is a site-responsive sound installation situated in the protected natural area surrounding Dwejra Tower. The work translates the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats into human-audible frequencies as an invitation to consider other ways of sensing, communicating, and coexisting.
Drawing on the ecological presence of local bat populations, the installation activates a generative soundscape composed entirely from bat echolocations. These transformed signals are played into the environment — but only when no humans are present. As visitors approach, the system detects their presence and immediately silences itself. The work becomes absent and inaccessible, mirroring the way human presence so often displaces or silences non-human life. In this way, the piece resists passive consumption and instead offers a speculative exercise in de-centering the human.
Installed in the ecologically sensitive Dwejra Tower, a former colonial outpost turned heritage site, the work occupies a space shaped by layered histories of extraction, control, and observation. Using a combination of ultrasonic microphones, motion sensors, and a solar-powered audio system, the installation creates a sound environment that is alive, autonomous, and deliberately evasive. The bat calls, recorded on-site, are generatively processed but remain rooted in their original structure and rhythm forming an evolving acoustic ecology that only unfolds in human absence.