2015 – RENEWABLE FUTURES – conference Riga

Renewable Futures
Conference in Riga, from 8-10 october 2015

The Renewable Futures conference aims to invent new avenues for more sustainable and imaginative future developments. It will shape new contact zones between traditionally separated domains – art and science, academic research and independent creative practices, sustainable businesses and social engagement in the 21st century. The conference of this year will focus on exploring the transformative potential of art in the post-media conditions.

It will share two main perspectives of potential of art in post-media age – techo-ecological and big data.
AnneMarie Maes will present the ‘Sound Beehive’-research and give a summary of the documentation and artworks on bees, art & ecology.

 

cycle_fondamental_de_la_documentation_web
Le cycle fondamentale de la documentation, par Paul Otlet (1920, collection Mundaneum Mons)

The Sound Beehive is an immersive multi-media installation which provides viewers an artistic visual and audio experience of activities in a beehive. Data were recorded in urban beehives and processed using sophisticated pattern recognition, AI technologies, and sonification and computer graphics software. The installation includes an experiment in using Deep Learning to interpret the activities in the hive based on sound and micro-climate recording.

Since 2008 AnneMarie Maes studies urban bee colonies as a vehicle for developing novel artistic practices that raise ecological awareness.
Together with the crew of BUBL (Brussels Urban Bee Laboratory) she uses artistic, scientific and technological research approaches to tackle challenges related to sustainability and the monitoring and survival of city honeybees.
An extensive rooftop garden in the centre of Brussels hosts the headquarters of the BUBL laboratory. It allows the installation of several experimental beehives and instrumentation equipment. From this laboratory, data is continuously being broadcast through streaming technology. The beehive installations were recently exhibited in Brussels, Riga, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Mons.