Urban bees

Urban bees are indicators of quality of the city where we live. In this sense, the project aims to capture and decrypt the information provided by the bees through open source sensors installed outside and inside urban beehives. The sensors provide data such as temperature (internal and external), ambient noise (inside), the weight of the hive or the entrance and exit of the bees, that can be related to the health of the urban ecosystem that surrounds us.

The urban bee project includes the participation of environmental scientists (bees and the environment), physicists of science of complexity (data analysis), technologists (web and electronics) and artists capable of working in this environment.

In December 2012, a multidisciplinary team of 30 people, scientists, beekeepers and artists built and installed the first prototype of urban beehive equipped with sensors in the Three Dragons Castle at the Ciutadella Park in Barcelona.

The short-term goal is to install in a building open to the public a new hive fitted with sophisticated sensors built on an open and low cost platform. The kit will send real time data about the state of the hive that will be accessible at least via the Internet. In addition, the permanent installation of the hive fitted with sensors wants to be an opportunity to raise awareness of the public about the importance of bees in the ecosystem as well as the perfect place for educational workshops on this topic.

Partners:

BarcelonaLab

Culture Institute of Barcelona (ICUB)

European Project “Socientize” in which participate OpenBeeLab, Bordeaux and Melliferopolis, Helsinki.

Mar Canet and Varvara Guljajeva