Marcus Coates (UK), along with Geoff Sample (birdsong expert and wildlife sound recordist) used fourteen microphones to record birds in their natural habitats for two weeks. Each song was slowed down up to 16 times from the original recording speed. Human participants were then asked to listen and mimic the birdsong while being taped. Then the human recording was speeded back up to its original recording speed and thus human voices are transformed into birdsong. This is how Dawn Chorus was created in a process of technological dismantling and reconstruction. Besides the similarities between human and bird voices, there are also similarities of behavior and body language. In order to emulate the sound and melody of birdsong Coates and Sample needed to slow it down, to warp it into human range, in order to take it apart and build it back up again. The translation at work here is purely technical and has no interest with content.
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