Buzz Booth

Bees are clearly the makers of the insect world. And just like humans, some bees prefer working alone to working amongst the distracting buzz of social collaboration. Luckily, Toronto artist Sarah Peebles and a team of collaborators have created Audio Bee Booths, where native solitary bees (not honeybees) and wasps can take care of their industrious insect business.

Consisting of a wood nesting plank with different sized grooves routed into it, the booths are designed to accommodate a diverse array of tunneling bee and wasp species. The cutaway side of the nesting plank is covered with a piece of Plexiglas to give visitors a close-up look at the bees’ domestic lives. The booths also feature vibrational sensors embedded in the nesting planks that pick up the sounds the bees and wasps make and amplify them through headphones.

The result is that visitors to the pyrography-adorned Audio Bee Booths are afforded the uniquely intimate experience of hearing and seeing everything that the booths’ reclusive inhabitants are up to.

For more, visit makezine.com/go/beebooth. Or learn to make your own solitary bee condos: makezine.com/project/solitary-bee-condos.