Continuing our collaborative work with Wolfgang Buttress.

Reverie is a multi-sensory experience. The visitor makes connections to both nature and in turn themselves. The piece is visually beguiling, auditory seductive and meaningful. Sound and vibration help create a sense of the now. It is an immersive experience that invites the viewer to come and sit within a sculptural environment planted with wildflowers, plants and grasses. Using sound, scent and form the intention is to invite contemplation on the importance of sustainability and how we can protect and support pollinators such as the honey bee.

Along with the live stream Wolfgang Buttress worked with acoustic engineers Hoare Lea and Outboard to create an integrated 3D spacial soundscape that can be heard and experienced within the sculpture. The soundscape that you hear include some new vibrational sounds and communications of the honey bee recorded and discovered by scientist Dr. Martin Bencsik’s team which include: The begging signal, Quacking, tooting, whooping, waggle dance.

Wolfgang and Dr. Bencsik established that the European Honey Bee hums in the key of C. Working with the bee communications Wolfgang has  curated an ever evolving soundscape which can be experienced within and around the sculpture.

The sculpture which is planted with winter flowering plants which are essential for the health and wellbeing of the bee and pollinators. The bees are acutely tuned to their environment, they can be seen as a sentinel of the earth. As mass farming has spread across the countryside, the bees have been forced to move closer to cities where more bio-diversity can be found. The importance of planting wildflowers and looking after our green spaces is crucial to the keeping an environment in which the bee can thrive.

Live sounds from a beehive at the Eden Project will be sent to the sculpture allowing the audience to have a real-time connection to both the hidden and incredible world of the bee and the increasingly fragile environment that they and we find ourselves in. The hope is that the audience will take away a sense of connection from the experience and perhaps help the pollinators by planting more bee-friendly flowers and to resist from using pesticides.

Part of Plan Bee – On show at The Eden Project / Cornwall

26 January – 17 March 2019

Venue: Exhibition space, top floor of Core building