Bug Hotel

Live sculpture, with Sara Heitlinger, 2013 - ongoing

The Bug Hotel is an experiment in inter-species cooperation. Adjacent to the City of London, at Spitalfields City Farm, the Bug Hotel is a place for rest, meditation, contemplation and education. A living sound sculpture that provides a habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators, and for humans a place to get away from the stresses of modern living, slow down and take time out.

View from the living roof to the City of London.

The Bug Hotel has enough room for 2-3 people to sit inside. It is filled with different natural materials to encourage different beneficial insects and pollinators to take up residency. Most of the materials used were recycled from the farm and elsewhere.

Inside the cavities are 18 contact microphones. Visitors can sit inside the bug hotel and listen to the insects living all around them. The structure itself becomes a musical instrument that one can play by touching its surface, or listening to the rain fall on the gutters.

 

One of the 10 stereo channels is a live feed from the farm's beehive, which is located around 30 metres away from the bug hotel in an area that is off-limits to visitors.

The project was developed in collaboration with Esther Pozzani at the farm, and with the help of around 150 volunteers who helped to build the structure.

We held a participatory consultation meeting with the community to elict ideas and concerns about the project.

The first group of volunteers who helped to move the metal structure to its final place.