"Darker Than Night" is a telepresence artwork which explores the human-machine-animal interface and telepresence as a means of mediating relations of empathy. In this interactive piece, participants, a telerobotic bat (batbot) and over 300 Egyptian Fruit Bats share a cave at the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam. This work brings the participants together to foster an interspecies, dialogical experience. The behavior and the biosonar of the Egyptian Fruit Bats in the cave will affect the participants, while the behavior and the telerobotic sonar of the participants in the body of the batbot will affect the Egyptian Fruit Bats. Both groups will become aware of their mutual presence and actions, since they will be able to hear and track each other. "Darker Than Night" emphasizes the barriers that prohibit each individual to move beyond one's insular, self-reflective experience. The bat, a rarely understood, enigmatic, flying mammal, represents the mystery and nuances held within each individual's consciousness. http://www.ekac.org/darker.html