Our first performance of the year was at the Festival of Tomorrow, in the great hall of the Steam Museum, Swindon, February 18th 11- 4pm
The Spider was, appropriately, next door to the Gaia installation. We had lots of audience, including many families with fascinated children.
The Spider hibernated a bit until August when she appeared for the first time out of doors in Knighton, at Pinners Hole. It was a wonderful sunny day and around 70 people came and stayed for the entire 40 minute performance. For the first, time, we featured a chorus of flies, who stole some of the show.
Link to film of the performance here: https://vimeo.com/1111087374
More about it at the spider’s own website: http://www.sonicspider.co.uk
Sonic Spider 2024
An extremely successful tour of Wales, thanks to funding from Arts Council of Wales. The Spider visited the Royal Botanic Garden Wales, 22nd – 23rd June; Narberth Civic Week festival, supported by Span Arts, 27th – 28th July, Wrexham Ty Pawb and the Darganfod Discover festival, 3rd and 4th August, and finished nearer home at Hafan yr Afon, Open Newtown, August 17th – 18th. At each venue, we were joined by local musicians. Audiences of all ages enjoyed both listening to and playing the spider.
We ended 2024 with an appearance at the British Science Festival at the University of East London, with big audiences and energetic participation.
Billed as the world’s first eight-legged instrument, the Sonic Spider premiered at the Oxford IF Science + Ideas festival, Saturday October 7th, 2 -5pm at the Baptist Church, Bonn Square.
Go to https://if-oxford.com/events/ to read an article about it on page 33 of the festival magazine.
The Sonic Spider is the brainchild of biologist and science writer Dr. Alun Anderson, musician and maker Charlie Beresford – who designed and built the final instrument, and myself as composer and co-ordinator, attempting to build bridges between species on this planet through the medium of sound.
The performances are intended to convey the drama of the world of an orb web spider.
These spiders – always female – spend a lot of time in their webs, waiting for prey. They have very poor eyesight, so rely on the vibrations that their legs – acting as ears – pick up. They can tell the difference between small prey that they can catch and eat without risk, larger prey that might fight back (eg a wasp) or a male suitor. This last makes especial effort to sound different to a prey animal, as he wishes to avoid being eaten (though sometimes, even after a romantic encounter, the female may still eat him).
Watch this space for more information about Sonic Spider activities next year. Below is a short film of the Spider in different settings.
Download publicity pack here
https://littleweed-music.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/The-Sonic-Spider-1.pdf