July 4-27, 2008 *new* gallery, 906 Queen W., Toronto.
Bumble Domicile weaved observation of an on-site bumble bee hive containing live video and audio of its internal activity with the hive’s pollen-collecting activity, and, real-time ultraviolet video of flowering plants in the building’s communal garden adjacent to the gallery.
A co-presentation between InterAccess Media Arts Centre and New Adventures in Sound Art
Download: Bumble Domicile Gallery Notes ⌸
Above: A view of the installations at the *new* gallery in July, 2008. The ladder leads to the observation bumble bee colony, to which all of the pieces that make up the show are connected in some way.
Below: The top of the ladder to the colony, the peephole and a glimpse of the colony through the peephole.
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Visitors could look through the peephole into the hive, and listen to live audio from the hive with volume controlled head phones. Speakers in the gallery continuously played audio transformations of bees and shõ .
Watch this video of bees in the colony, and listen to sound of bees.
Below: The far wall of the gallery featured a projection of live data visualization based on genetic data (DNA) sequences of plants in the real world garden outside the gallery and pollen collected by bees as they return to the gallery hive.
Youth involved in Art in the Park at Trinity Bellwoods regularly swabbed anthers of various flowering plants in the adjacent Artscape tenants’ garden and in Trinity Bellwoods Park with the colourful fluorescent tracking powders and are kept a log of their activities in the gallery. (See F.A.S.T.)
Below: Ultraviolet video was projected into a silver bowl in the gallery, from a camera placed in the garden outside.
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Below: Gallery visitors were invited to place aromatic offerings of beeswax and pine resin into a heated copper tray that featured an electroformed bee hive.
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Below: Bee trading cards produced for the show and other goodies were available, including an introduction to bees, habitat, and coevolution.
Bee pin and business card:
- Kat Cruickshank – bumble bee cartoon
- Robert Cruickshank – bumble bee hive image
- Anneli West – design
The bumble bee hive in the gallery was not reared from wild, locally-caught bumblebees, but was a commercial Bombus hive. In the upcoming month, Sarah Peebles (project lead) will write more about art and ethics and about what the fate of our bumble bee colony was. Here are her thoughts along with a cautionary note thus far.
Garden assistance generously provided by Gene Threndyle and resident gardeners of 900 Queen W, Michele Bakic, and Trinity Bellwoods Art in the Park and CARE youth. Plant Swabbing assistance by F.A.S.T.
Collaborating researchers: Laurence Packer (York University), Jessamyn Manson (University of Toronto), Peter Hallett (University of Toronto), and Stephen Buchmann (University of Arizona).
Link: Rob Cruickshank’s Resonating Bodies Documentation photo set on Flickr. View set as a Slideshow.
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