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ELBBIENEN
A dialogue: Elbbienen und Brüsselbienen
artwork for public space, Hamburg
concept of the artwork
The Intelligent Guerilla Beehive is a research project on the edge of art and science. It evokes issues of sustainability and biodiversity, giving viewers an artistic experience of my ongoing research related to the disappearance of the honeybee.
The goal of the Intelligent Beehive is a double one. At one hand it offers a safe refuge for city honeybees, and at the other hand is is a biosensor that interacts with the environment and that measures the pollution of the foraging fields around the beehive.
The commisioned version of the IGB (working title) is a bio-tech installation customized for public space in Hamburg. The IGB will be populated with a living bee colony and the beehive will be installed (with reservation) at the Entenwerder1 at the Golden Pavillion on the banks of the Elbe.
The IGB will remain on the spot for at least 1 bee-season (1 year). The behaviour of the bee colony will be monitored with a camera and the images will be streamed to a monitor that is placed in the exhibition displays (in the Golden Pavillion house). The conditions (Temperature and Humidity) in the bees’ habitat as well as outside in their foraging fields, will be recorded and the data will be streamed to and displayed in the exhibition. The beehive will act as a cradle to cradle device, meaning that it provides its own energy from solar panels placed on top of the beehive, and that it is made out of materials that are renewable. The solar energy will be stored in a battery before powering a microcomputer on which the camera and sensors are connected. A second (?) microcomputer will take care of the streaming of the camera- and sensordata.
The Golden Pavillion will host a small exhibition, where artifacts from different phases of the installation research will be displayed.
Connected Open Greens: ein Dialog zwischen Elbe und Brüsseler Bienen
Connected Open Greens
The synonyms for an OpenGreen are many: the experimental Hortus, the OpenAir Laboratorium, the Vivarium, the Kabinet of Wonders. But all OpenGreens are zones where culture and nature overlap and where these two enter into a symbiotic relationship with research and experimentation. In the OpenGreens, I document the beauty of nature in data. I classify and archive my notes and findings in OpenGreens databases. I compare and develop concepts, interpret complex biotic shapes and research repetitive natural patterns. I connect nature with bio-art.
…
The foraging areas of the honeybees are a fascinating research topic. Is it possible to reconstruct the bees’ flight routes over the city and map out their food sources? Their fast take-off from the landing platform gives us only a vague indication of the direction. Flying back on cloudy days, the small bodies struggle against headwinds and they persist to reach the hive before the rain bursts through the dark skies. Sometimes the bees just seem to be downy feathers carried by the wind streams.
possible titles
BienenFrequenz
Das Bienenhaus auf dem Wasser
Connected Double Dance
Witnessed Double Dance
The honeybees' Double Dance
Waltzing Honeybees - der Walzer der Bienen
Bees on the Water
Elbbienen / Elbe Bees
Bienen an der Elbe / Bees on the Elbe
A dialogue: Elbbienen und Brüsselbienen
exhibition in Golden Pavillion
elements of the exhibition:
flatscreen streaming: bees from camera hive, Hamburg + Brussels
flatscreen sensors in hive and outside environment (temperature and humidity) Hamburg + Brussels
drawings, maquettes, models, tests - research on design beehive and production beehive
tests laser engraving outside hivebody + growth of algae, mosses and lichen on it + the importance of all this (pollution sensing)
foraging fields, plant samples, herbarium
books in context: Beuys Gesammkunstwerkt Hamburg, Maurice Maeterlinck (the life of the Bees), other books
moon gees streaming
location hunting Hamburg
6/11/2018: meeting in Hamburg with Dirck and Gunnar
Locationhunting in Hamburg. Discussions on Art in Public Space-program with Dirck (cfr. Beuys Gesamtkunstwerk Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg and bee-information with Gunnar.
We should make a decision asap in order to plan the wood-production part of the Beehive in February the latest (check Vienna, Barcelona, Hamburg, Brussels - possible production places).
After the wood production, there will still be a lot of arrangements to make for
1. the installation on the site and especially for
2. the technology-related stuff (solarpanels, battery’s etc… but also connection to internet/router/wifi/ screens/display/sound/ ….). And as last there will be
3. Make the installation with all the research material and than, as cherry on the cake:
4. the introduction of the bees in the hive, on Workers’ day - the fist of May.
Maybe we can ask Oliver to read out loud from his CD/books Das Kapital???? A performance?
plants on location
Hamburg has a perfect digital service where you can see all trees in public space: strassenbaeume online. It is a perfect tool to find trees that bloom in spring and in autumn.
literature
- D'Arcy Thompson: On Growth & Form
- The Social Behaviour of the Bees (Comparative Study) - Charles D. Michener
- Animal Architecture - Karl von Frisch
- Bee Democrcy - Thomas Seeley