Resonating Bodies’ projects illuminate aspects of Canada’s biodiversity through focusing on pollination ecology, with special attention paid to the intersection of native bees, habitat and coevolution of plants and pollinators of the Greater Toronto Area. Art installations and other activities reveal aspects of local biodiversity through investigating bumblebee colonies and their foraging activities, ultraviolet bee vision, pollinator/plant co-evolution, solitary bee and wasp nesting and life cycles, and colour-coded DNA barcodes (a novel new technique for species identification pioneered by Canadian researchers).
Resonating Bodies does not focus on honey bees or other bees non-native to North America. We recommend you first check out the Bee Biodiversity page to get familiar with our native bees, who don’t make honey or wax, don’t usually live in groups and don’t usually sting (much). All contents are listed at right.
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Audio Bee Booth
The Audio Bee Booth is an amplified habitat installation for solitary bees.
Audio Bee Booth prototype in action (best viewed with headphones):
More info
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Odes to Solitary Bees
Video poems by Stephen Humphrey and Sarah Peebles
Wild, solitary-dwelling bees of Toronto create nests, manipulate pollen and hang out in the “Audio Bee Booth” and other amplified habitat structures. Macro video with micro audio!
More info
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Solitary Dream Homes (for bees)
A grass roots initiative for Toronto and beyond
Create your own, safe “bee house”, sculpture or other structure for wild, solitary-nesting bees and post it to our web gallery on Flickr!
More info
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Bee Plank and Deluxe Log (below) are works-in-progress.
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“Window Mini-Gallery” [2009] is a work-in-progress.
“Bumble Domicile” highlighted distinct features of bumble bees through an observation hive, garden, visual and audio transformations, scent, touch, and biological information. This installation / community outreach project featured works by Sarah Peebles, Rob King, Anne Barros and Robert Cruickshank created in collaboration with bee biologists and other researchers in Canada and the USA.
Bee Trading Cards were created as part of the Bumble Domicile show and were available in the gallery.
The following video shows flowers that grow in a virtual garden triggered by choices made by real world bees in the observation bumble bee colony elsewhere in the gallery. The images were projected on the gallery wall during the Bumble Domicile.
Credits
Resonating Bodies projects have developed in consulation and/or collaboration with biologists Laurence Packer (York University), James Thomson Lab – Jessamyn Manson and Michael Otterstatter (University of Toronto), Peter Hallett (University of Toronto and ROM), Peter Kevan (University of Guelph; CANPOLIN), and Stephen Buchmann (NAPPC/Pollinator Partnership, the University of Tucson, Drylands Institute). Artists, technicians and designers have included Sarah Peebles (project lead), Rob King, Anne Barros, Robert Cruickshank, Kevin Steele, Anneli West, Kat Cruickshank, Amro Zayed and Stephen Humphrey. ALL participants are listed at the bottom of the Art page.
Resonating Bodies projects have been generously supported by InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, New Adventures in Sound Art, the Drylands Institute, NSERC-CANPOLIN, TD Friends of the Environment, The Canada Council for the Arts & the Ontario Arts Council through the Tree Museum, and, Franklin Children’s Garden and Dufferin Grove Park through the City of Toronto Parks and Recreation. Assisted also by Pollinator Partnership / NAPPC, Pollination Canada, The Barcode of Life Data Systems, The Toronto Zoo, and The Pollinator Garden Project.
