Current Projects

This project consists of a series of mixed media installations which focus on the critical importance of North America’s apex pollinator – the honeybee. The installations consists of an on-site self contained honeybee observation hive that allows the viewers to safely study honey bee colony structure and organization, see different honey bee castes and their duties within the hive, follow the development of honey bee larvae, watch comb building, honey production and storage, and observe their communication with the bee dance displays. The hive also displays audio and magnified video of the internal activity allowing the viewer to hear and see the inner workings of the hive from the bee’s point of view in real time.

I have also been experimenting with simulating “bee vision” by exposing specific plants and flowers containing pigments with ultraviolet absorption to black light. The pigments belong to a group of organic compounds called flavanols. Black Lights emit UV light exclusively in the soft near ultraviolet range that is only partially visible. Commercially available Black lights are designed to be a low power UV source in order to make them safe. To compensate for the low power and limited range of the black light sources that I have access to I have been accentuating the glow of white flowers under a black light by feeding them tonic water, which contains quinine. The quinine glows bright blue under a black light. In order to create an approximate simulation of what bees are capable of visualizing I have the same plants and flowers arranged on each level of the stand. The plants on the top level haven’t been manipulated in any way and are under regular fluorescent growing lights, while those on the level below have been manipulated in order to accentuate the effects of the Black Light.