Artist Dickon Stone Harnesses Honeybees To Make Music

Finally, I found some inspiring project relating to sustainability and yes, you guessed it, music!

Dickon Stone is a young artist I have met a while ago in the nightlife of Berlin and I had an eye on his musical development with Creed & Stone so far:

(Oh, that was a crazy party and one of the first times I saw them playing together)

I must admit it took me a bit by surprise that this guy made it to quite a long roundtrip to India, backpacking with his friend last autumn – I thought he was  only digging music and was a workaholic. At the moment, he is doing actually something really challenging, and I thought the project is worth supporting:

The following is the baby he is currently planning and fundraising for, have a look and spread the word!

Here is the link with direct informations:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Artist-Dickon-Stone-Harnesses-Honeybees-To-Make-Music

Dickon Stone:

What am I doing?

filling a traditional Indian sitar with 10,000 honeybees and taking recordings of the sounds that result from their vibrations of/movements across the strings

Rather ambitiously filling a traditional Indian sitar with 10,000 honeybees and taking recordings of the sounds that result from their vibrations of/movements across the strings. Documenting the entire process as both audio and video. Making a vinyl record of the recordings available to the world. Being left with an empty sitar hive to be presented as a sculpture alongside the audio work and video documentation in galleries and conventions worldwide.

Why am I doing it?

“To challenge the role of the composer (a typically human-filled position) by giving honeybees the ability to create music of their own. To take the concept of “artist” and place it in a context of unconscious or unknowing creativity (ie. the bees are making music, but they don’t know they are, and so they can’t make conscious decisions on how they would like it to sound…)

I suppose this is “sustainable art”

I suppose this is “sustainable art”; the bees are not under duress, and just go on happily doing their thing, while I hang about taking recordings and trying not to get stung.

If this raises awareness about the power of bees, and their importance to the survival of our species, then that’s awesome. Bees pollinate 70% of the planet’s plants, so no bees = no plants = we join the Dodo in extinction.”

If this raises awareness about the power of bees, and their importance to the survival of our species, then that’s awesome. Bees pollinate 70% of the planet’s plants, so no bees = no plants = we join the Dodo in extinction.

Why do you care?

Bee-cause you get to take home a load of goodies that result from the project if you help me make it happen, because you love honey, because you don’t want to become extinct…

From the audio recordings, to a photo of me being stung, from honey, to live webcam feed of the bees building and composing their masterpiece; check the perks on the right-hand side for more detailed info, and don’t forget that for each step up in the perks, you get all the previous perks too – so if you go for the highest perk, you get all the others as well.

NOTE:

This is the second time I will have attempted this piece, as it was unfortunately destroyed by vandals in 2011, unfortunately before I was able to take any recordings. I got some lovely footage and photos though, you can see them in the gallery!

What I Need To Make It Happen!

I am aiming to raise $3000 (This website only does $$$, but that’s €2222 to us Europeans)

With this amount I hope to achieve the following:

– Purchase of a new Sitar – €500
– The customisation of the Sitar in order to allow sound recording and video streaming both inside and outside the body of the instrument – €300
– Digital mastering of audio files – €120 per hour
– Cutting and pressing of vinyls – €150 + 250 x €3
– Miscellaneous (guitar pickups, webcam, internal lamps, private stream, HD camera rental etc) – €300
– Distribution of vinyls to potential Noise or Drone labels (and to you wonderful people!) – €200
– Web hosting in order to promote online for exhibition potential – €60

Other Ways You Can Help

Share this project! HELP ME MAKE A BUZZ ABOUT IT!

Facebook it, Tweet it, email it to your grandparents, whatever, just please shout about it!

www.facebook.com/dickonstoneartandsound

Come on, guys, do something good and support the project! Keep you updated about the outcome!