I first heard about the “Conversations With Bees” project via an email from the Bristol Beekeepers Association and since then I have seen articles and adverts in the honeybee press. In essence, they (Brunel University, The Honey Project, researchers, designers, do-gooders and young-media-trendy-types) are looking for beekeepers to engage in a conversation about honeybees and a collaboration in designing a beehive. I am not quite sure what is in it for them and I was even less sure what was in it for me but it felt like a worthwhile and interesting project to respond to.
Their covering letter is fill of social media jargon which didn’t make sense to me. “The principal aim of the project is to research the environment of beekeeping from an ethnographic standpoint … We are examining the effectiveness of currently available digital and fabrication technologies for the potential of creating a mini-revolution in user-led open design and the ways in which products and services are designed and consumed.” After reading two more pages along these lines I was still none the wiser but luckily the actual questionnaire was fun and included amusing cartoons which was akin to my sensibilities.
The questions have an emphasis on stimulating our imagination through considering what we would like the bees to be able to tell us and how we would use sensors inside and outside the hive (touch, smell, sight, sound, taste). I saw this project as an opportunity to unleash my madness and put down every crazy idea I have had about beehives. It also made for another reason not to build flat packs (due to the housemove).
This is the advert I saw and has their contact details:
Postscript: I am now conducting Beekeeping Surveys. What is your attitude to beekeeping? Please vote.
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I would like to be involved in the research project. I am a novice beekeeper, my hive is two weeks old now!
Lisa
They might have closed their research now, but do drop them an email. Good luck in your first year. Do let me know how it’s going. You seem very keen. Perhaps do the Attitude Survey now and again in a year?