Restoring Elephant Migration Paths in South Africa
South Africa has an overpopulation of the African Savanna Elephant (Loxodonta africana) within its large, fenced conservation areas. This leads to unnatural population control, including the use of culling and contraception of this endangered species. However, these areas are usually surrounded by smaller reserves and private land that can accommodate migratory elephant movement if managed correctly.
Talking to Elephants restores the extinct ability of elephants to migrate across the Limpopo Province of South Africa. It features an ecologically sensitive, infrasonic "language" that can be used to talk to elephants, teaching them how to use a newly proposed 1000-kilometer wildlife migration corridor. This corridor links existing, fenced conservation areas that already house overpopulated herds of elephants. The route uses a prototype technology of Al-driven, elephant-only gates and water points that allow wild elephants to safely traverse fence lines between public and private land, without direct human interference. The technology allows for the return to the large-scale act of seasonal wildlife movement between grazing lands, but now along corridors that utilize smaller parcels of mainly private land.
Talking to Elephants has been designed to help rural communities understand these animals as assets by using elephants to increase local food security. Elephants can be used as seed dispersal agents of locally fruiting trees to help establish and maintain self-sustaining food forests along the route.
ASCENDO is partnering with award-winning Net Zero–accredited architect Marc Sherratt of MSSA (Marc Sherratt, Sustainability Architects), and infrasonic musician and sound designer Franco Schoeman, B1DR Laboratory, to propose a concept to solve the problem, which will be illustrated in an exhibit at Biennale Architettura 2025, open to the public from May to November this year.
Talking to Elephants Infrasonic Sound Exhibit at Biennale Architettura 2025
The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is entitled 'Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective,' curated by architect and engineer Carlo Ratti. According to Ratti, this international architecture exhibition explores how to face a burning world by harnessing all the intelligence around us. The exhibition will feature collaborative projects, design proposals, and experiments showcasing how architecture can adapt to the environment with limited resources.
The Talking to Elephants exhibit features three ASCENDO 24-inch sealed infrasonic subwoofers and an active coaxial 12-inch speaker for higher frequencies, plus the company’s high-quality DSP and amplifier for each subwoofer. Suspended from the roof of the exhibition space is a model of the flared horn shape intended for the wide distribution of infrasonic frequencies across the African landscape, designed by Sherratt. Beneath the model, a cymatic plate—a device that visualizes sound vibrations—illustrates how elephants change their environment and how infrasonic communication travels through the soil. Informed by his own compositions and research on elephant communications, Franco designed the soundscape to provide the audience with an experience similar to being inside an African elephant herd. Visitors can hear a 14-minute cycle of elephant rumbles accompanied by the sounds of the Limpopo province.
Geoffrey Heinzel, ASCENDO
“We feel fortunate to be part of this project to potentially help protect endangered elephants in South Africa using our infrasonic subwoofer technology, To be sought out by infrasonic musician Franco Schoeman and trailblazing architect Marc Sherratt, who proposes elephants as ecological partners, gives our technology a new purpose that is both unexpected and rewarding.”
Marc Sherratt, MSSA Sustainability Architects
“These types of projects, though radical, spend years in R&D, until someone puts their money where their mouth is,” says Sherratt. “Finding partners like ASCENDO that can support a project between proof of concept and scaled implementation is incredibly powerful.”
Franco Schoeman, B1DR
“Imagination brought together the most powerful team with which we can begin to open new discussions in wildlife management, including the animals themselves, through infrasound. The cross-collaboration between musicians, manufacturers like ASCENDO, and architects to shape a coexisting future for Africa make it so the sky isn't even the limit.”
How to help the Talking to Elephants project?
To help scale implementation by sponsoring or donating to the Talking to Elephants project, contact Franco Schoeman of B1DR at francoffee@gmail.com or +27 82 954 8864.
