The Bee Monitoring project probes deeply within a network of ICT-enhanced beehives. Between may 2011 and april 2012, a complete cycle, from the awakening till the hibernation of the bee population, was recorded in a continuous stream of pictures, sound and sensor data. All this information is readily available online for beekeepers, scientists and other artists, offering an opportunity to study the bees as bio-indicators.

Two webcams were placed into the beehive, and the bee colony’s action were monitored and registered from the very moment that the swarm arrived into the beehive. We were filming the actions in real time, during 365 days, spring, summer, fall and winter. All images have a timestamp.
The webcams registered at 15 fps and the images were stored on the server, but also streamed in realtime. The final product is a video were the 365 days are compressed into 12 hours.
The same time, sensor data were recorded inside and outside of the beehive. Inside the values of temperature, humidity and Co2 were registered, outside the temperature and humidity values were noted.

The Bee Laboratory displays the artistic research on one year of monitoring -/outside- of the hive of a city bee colony. Beekeepers, scientists and artists were collaborating to collect data on the colonies’ behaviour to its urban surroundings.
The monitoring project is located in the open air laboratoria of our urban rooftop gardens. It offers the opportunity to study the bee colonies as bio-indicators. In this documentary installation we give a research survey of the timeslice may 211 – april 2012 in data, sound and images.

The ‘Webcam 365 days’ video was presented
– as part of the Foraging Fields installation in the exhibition FIELDS, Riga – Latvia, from 15 may 2014 to august 4 2014 – the Peephole (dancing bees).
– as part of the Scientific Inquiries exhibition in Istanbul at Koç University, from 7 november to 7 december 2013.