Bees communicate with each other where good food lies through a dance. They dance an infinity sign ∞ to the position of the sun on the honeycomb. The duration of the dance tells something about the distance, the spot on the honeycomb to the position of the sun tells in which direction the bees should fly. The way they communicate with each other and the knowledge that comes together among the hive is one of the things that should fascinate us more about bees. So when you map out where bees get their food from, what does that tell you about that environment? Where is the soil most fertile?

During this online event, we will be taken into the world of bees and what we can learn from her. Together we will engage in conversation with beekeepers Annelieke van der Sluijs and Sandira Belia of The Bee Wisdom Network. The Bee Wisdom Network is a meeting space of inspiration and support for bee companions on their journeys co-creating a world that emodies more love and beauty. Through this conversation, we hope to gain a better understanding of how we can cohabit more with the non-human organisms in our environment.

We would love to see you during our online gathering.

About the initiative:

This event is initiated by Robin Kersten. At the end of last year we put out an open call for contributors and we got some lovely responses, among others the program ideas by Robin. For our program Robin is creating events and expeditions around this theme to see what more we can learn from bees (and each other!)

My wonder about intangible situations raises issues that I explore through the making of work. Bees are central to a layered and complex system (social, ecological and scientific) that we humans still know (or want to know) so little about. By observing bees, we can learn more from these layers and in this way also about our environment. – Robin Kersten