Designed to raise awareness of the critically endangered Adriatic Marbled Bush-Cricket, the installation features Floating Ecosystems aimed at supporting the recovery of this species, which once thrived in Venice. The Floating Ecosystems are surrounded by orange floats that bring attention to the endangered nature of the crickets. On land there are specially designed cricket breeding stations.  Once the crickets have multiplied they will be moved onto the Floating Ecosystems and towed by boat into new locations where they can establish themselves.  Led by the University of Melbourne’s Urban Ecology and Design Lab and Professor Alex Felson, from the faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, alongside Italian entomologists Filippo Buzzetti and Enzo Moretto, the project is both a living artwork and a piece of ecological research.

“This is not just a temporary installation — it’s a step toward reconstructing vital cricket populations in the Venice lagoon.”

-Professor Alex Felson

Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
University of Melbourne

Alongside the Floating Ecosystems, a unique sound installation creates an immersive, sensory experience. The sound component of the project was led by Associate Professor Miriama Young from the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.

It brings the crickets’ song to life through a blend of natural, interactive, and synthesized elements. These include a ‘sound garden’ evoking the ambience of a thriving wetland, and an interactive global cricket choir layered over a magnified arrangement of Vivaldi’s Summer. Song of the Cricket offers a tangible, hopeful vision for habitat rehabilitation in a time of global ecological crisis.

The installation transforms the site of a 16th-century Venetian shipyard into a space for reflection on ecology, belonging, and the future of biodiversity.