Co-Creating With Bees: Interactive Sound Sculpture, "The Translation Machine" Original

"The Translation Machine" is a sound installation & interspecies co-creation with honeybees. It discusses those delicate moments that oscillate between purpose & compromise, precision & chance, where different ecosystems are presented with an opportunity to blend through adaptive problem-solving.

A set of wooden hexagonal tubes act as acoustic chambers for speakers that play recordings through honeycomb that cling to the inside of amplifying horns. When activated by motion, the sculpture plays recordings taken from the artist's global travels, with the volume increasing as the viewer gets closer to the honeycomb. This is achieved using an artist-programmed microcontroller, a passive infrared sensor, & sonar sensors housed in a hexagonal box at the sculpture's center.