Sonic Pareidolic Ceromancy
There’s a lot of data, perhaps even Big Data, about bees. Bees are having increasing difficulties to survive, facing threats such as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). A substantial part of the world’s food sources used by humans depend on animal pollinators, hence a reduction in the number of bees in the world threatens our food supply. Softday have worked with a number of bee-related sound art projects since 2010, for example Amhrán na mBeach (Song of the Bees) in 2013. In 2014, Softday created and performed a Swedish version that we named Sonic Pareidolic Ceromancy, performed at Harp Art Lab in Sweden the 5th of July, part of the BZZZ! International Soundart Festival. In this work we contrasted the Irish bee data and sounds with Swedish bee data and sounds.
The concept behind Sonic Pareidolic Ceromancy is a play on a psychological phenomenon and a mystic practice. When we see or hear vague patterns, we sometimes perceive that for example a cloud looks like an elephant or a figure of a divine entity of your choice appears on your toast. This is pareidolia. Ceromancy is a form of divination, where molten wax dripping into a bowl of water is used for fortune telling. We have looked at this in a metaphorically analogous context. For example, some ecologists try to interpret and create meaning from bee-data, e.g. that neonicotinoids (neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine) and monocultural farming may cause CCD, while some Big Pharma corporations are interpreting and creating another meaning from the same data, e.g. to prevent CCD, farmers should spray more chemicals, engineer more DNA or perhaps get artificial pollinators. As in most of our previous projects, we work with contested issues that we articulate through our art-science collaboration. Instead of molten wax, we make music and it is up to the audience to interpret what the stimuli means.
Performers
Softday (Sean Taylor & Mikael Fernström), laptops
Christer Ledel, Beekeeper
Monica Ledel, Readings
Lars Wallenäs, Flute
Audience = The BZZZ! Choir
Also participating, the sound of the bees of Lars Rosenquist and Harplinge Bivänner.
Gallery
Monica Ledel, reading extracts from her book "Honung - En kärleksförklaring till bina, honungen och livet".
Photo courtesy of Lars Wallenäs
Softday, sonifying bee data
Photo courtesy of Lars Wallenäs
Mikael Ericsson playing Millophonia
Photo courtesy of Lars Wallenäs
Audience or The BZZZ! Choir
Photo courtesy of Lars Wallenäs
Sean Taylor conducting the BZZZ! Choir, Ann-Louise Liljedahl on Hang.
Photo courtesy of Lars Wallenäs