Client: Thread Collective | The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics | The Royal Bank of Canada

Overview

Lifelong Radar Tracks of Bumble Bees (2017)​ is a series based on primary data bumblebees. Researchers at Queen Mary University in London placed harmonic radar devices on four bees, for the purpose of monitoring their movements, tracking each flight,recording all coordinates in a spreadsheet, sharing this information with me for the purpose of making art.

Extremely fine lines define areas visited by a single bee, using a geometry called voronoi. Imagine the x,y coordinate of each flight is the seed, or center, of each cell. These endpoints were removed from the image to create the likeness of a world. The second image looks like a night sky with a shooting star. The third and fourth images resemble an ocean and web. The frequency of flights in the bee dataset creates dense and open areas in the image. The differences between one image and another are remarkable, almost perverse in that these images present an unforeseen view of a bee.

Goals

Meet people where they are;
Take them somewhere else.

Process

The lines in these works are primed canvas. The pigment is applied to the central areas of the image, leaving the white exposed. The lines look like physical things; they seem unbelievably taught. Extending lines to the edge draws the viewer closer to each image. Voronoi is a kind of geometry used to visualize spatial concepts that can’t be explored in other ways. The series was made with an open-source scientific programming language called R. They seem mechanical; they also seem to belong to the natural world. This paradox is part of why they provoke thought, which is ultimately the point.

Additional Information

All four works in the series (1/ed.3) were installed at The Perimeter institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo from June 2018 to December 2020, in a third floor hallway connecting two wings of the research institute that itself hangs in space. In December 2020 the first two images (1/ed.3) in the series were acquired by the Royal Bank of Canada. These works were included in an exhibition in The Community Gallery in 2022-2023. The third and fourth (1/ed.3) from the series are in the private collection of Barry Isenor, an architect whose firm, Team Projects, is based in Toronto Canada. Image 2 (2/ed.3) is in the collection of Elliott Maltby a landscape architect whose firm, thread collective in Brooklyn New York. This series of four images exists in an edition of three archival inkjet prints on canvas, with one artist proof, available for viewing at Lovitt NYC by appointment. It is possible to scale this work for interior or exterior applications.