Description
Beecause is an MFA Thesis project that deals with the focus on encouraging people to support the cause of declination of Bees. Bees are super pollinators and help us immensely indirectly as they're one of the few reasons why there is food on our plate. In 2013, The White House introduced a “National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators”. We are being alerted at a national level and we as a group decided to take an initiative by developing a project and bringing awareness to the general public about the impact and importance of the pollinators. Researching on bees and its effect in the environment, their value kept growing immensely. There have been researches on this topic but mostly honey bees were being targeted amongst many species. For the purpose of this project, I was mainly concerned about how we as a community can help increase the number of pollinators which made me look into different species. Upon further research, I came across “Mason Bees” which turned out to be a perfect species to focus on. We gathered a lot of data from the experts (beekeepers, farmers, gardeners, the general public, etc.) through our months of research. We have decided to design a mason bee hive in a way that can encourage people to make their outdoor spaces home for bees and improve their garden economically and visually.
We are working with Human Centered Design guidelines for this project to encourage people who have gardens and backyards to use their space to create a better habitat for bees(pollinators). To further enhance our research, we worked with bee experts and participated with them in handling bees to understand different aspects and challenges we might face. We have designed a hive along with packaging and few collaterals like brand guides, a coloring book that ships with the packaging. Along with the product, my main focus has been towards encouraging or making people aware of the ongoing issues about the bees. During my research, I have come to a conclusion that most of the people I have talked with did not know about the problem and as I delved into it more, I started to see a pattern as to why this is happening. I slowly started to expand the scope of this research to awareness as well.
Bees have much to teach us, they fascinate us, they are beautiful, and their importance to mankind is beyond measure.