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Echoes of Interspecies Narratives

Echoes of Interspecies Narratives

Echoes of Interspecies Narratives: Exploring Bee-Human interactions Through Sound and Form

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ABOUT THE PROJECT

The main intention I have for this projects is to deepen my research on the interspecies relationship between bees and humans. My work revolves around non-hierarchical relationships between different species and domains. My use of organic materials like mycelium, beeswax, or natural substrates intends to highlight alternative ways to interact with matter and sculpt our surroundings. In recent years, I've begun using beeswax, as well as field recording from beehives, to create interactive installations and sculptural pieces. I would love to continue my research on speculative narration by constructing molds and sculptural pieces in ceramics, wood, or metal to use them as diffusion modules for sound compositions. My two main focuses right now are around the use of beeswax and the organic leftovers of beehives, such as dead bees, alveoli, and other insects, as primal matter for compositions, and how I can relate those "leftovers" to sound as the echo of what they were. In a way, I aim to narrate other species' stories by sculpting with them, as a means of sculpting my own reality.

The UK has over 250 species of bees, and just in London, there are at least 50 different species. I would like to explore the surroundings, record different sounds from bees to urban agitations, and sculpt my pieces inspired by the surroundings and the symbolic imagery that I'll find, as well as the different historical contexts, which I will alter to narrate different stories.

The use of local facilities and the curatorial support, as well as the company of locals, will be really important for this process, given the different historical contexts and the mapping of the surroundings, so my work would be in constant communication with the people. This is important because the narrative itself comes from people's experiences and these interactions.

Video

My multidisciplinary practice typically begins with an investigation of the terrain, materiality, and symbolic context of what will be used. I will employ the rhizomatic model, in the sense of a non-linear and non-hierarchical model, as a starting point to establish connections between the characteristics and parameters that define our species, our way of narrating stories, and our relationship with the physical world around us, and more specifically with the notion of idea creation and its materialization.

Considering that bees are one of the most important beings for the conservation of our planet, thanks to their pollination work, as well as fungi, which connect forests, jungles, and all kinds of organic terrain through their mycelium and mycorrhizae, I wish to create an immersive experience using speculative narrative in sculptural and sound form.

The main concept of this work is to weave interspecies relationships between the world of bees, different species around them, their environment, and our prism as a human species. This will be done in the form of an artistic installation with different sculptural and sound modules.

Artists

  • Pedro Riofrío

    My name is Pedro Riofrio. I was born in 1996 in Quito, Ecuador, and I currently live between Europe and Latin America. I consider myself a visual artist, musician, and researcher in the field of biomaterials and technological alternatives, with particular attention to the fungal kingdom and the physicality of sound resonances. I am a member of the "Maytu" collective and a member of the ROSA MARGA music group. My work is intended to address origins, the passage of time and changes in the cycles of life. I’ve set out to highlight the fact that we are all made of the same matter, that we are all resonances and that we interact with our environment according to a rhizomatic system that knows of no hierarchies. Our reality is the product of our own experiences, and creation is the mechanism that allows us to sculpt those experiences and weave connections to create, and ultimately share, different stories. I believe we go through two main stages in life; the first involves contemplation and the accumulation of information as an audience, and in the second, we become authors and bring this information to life in the form of independent entities. What interests me in the art of creation is the approach to the sublime, even if it is impossible to reach. I believe that this endless quest is the very essence of any creative process. It's important to accept that the sublime is not permanent, but exists in a constant flow of change and transformation. It exists out of true necessity and that is why it endures, transcends, and transforms history. To deconstruct language, we need to understand the physicality of our reality and the presence and contributions of other species. History is just a version we tell of the reality that surrounds us, but we have the ability to shape this reality ourselves.