Bioni Samp
Bioni Samp lives in London, where he´s been keeping bees for 11 years. He studied Audio-Visual Studies at Surrey Institute of Art & Design and Electronic Imaging and Sound at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee University.
His series of beekeeping themed performances – Beespace or Hive Synthesis – started about 7 years ago. It employs video with live or pre-recorded soundtracks created with home-made audio equipment - http://bionisamp.wordpress.com/artsandtechnology.
Hive Synthesis attempts to create a symbiotic frequency relationship, like pollination and nectar exchanges, or of beekeeper with bees. It was inspired by the desire to learn more about bee frequencies and create a work that raises awareness about the increasingly fragile system of bee ecology. The idea is to create an audio journey that explores sounds and frequencies inside the beehive. Drones, worker bees and queens – each of them have their own individual frequencies in the ranges of low (200 Hz or less), mid (200-400 Hz) and high (400+ Hz). There are many interesting facts about the bee frequencies, for example the same frequencies the queen creates are also used in genetic engineering to splice the DNA together. Hive Synthesis aims to create an immersive sound environment from the listening perspective of the different types of bees, i.e. what would queen, worker and drone hear inside the hive.
