A sun sets over the grounds of Boomland, Portugal,
A bassline rips through the air like distant thunder,
A quiet rhythm hums beneath our feet, the working of wild bees,
The original sound engineers.
Hanging above the dance floor like a swarm from a branch is a nest of wild honeybees dwelling inside a geometric sculpture of minds and hands.
Entering the palms trax
Into a hive mind.
The 35mm film struggled to capture the 30km/ph flight speed of golden rays as they weaved seamlessly with the light of a setting sun.
Inside, constructing only more superior and refined geometric masterpieces, described in no finer words than from one of our favourites from Maurice Maeterlinck in his work titled The Life of the Bee, 1901:
"There is one masterpiece, the hexagonal cell, that touches absolute perfection; a perfection that all the geniuses in the world, were they to meet in conclave, could in no way enhance. No living creature, not even man, has achieved, in the centre of his sphere, what the bee has achieved in her own; and were some one from another world to descend and ask of the earth the most perfect creation of the logic of life, we should needs have to offer the humble comb of honey. P 336.
Each of the cells is an hexagonal tube placed on a pyramidal base, and two layers of these tubes form the comb, their bases being opposed to each other in such fashion that each of the three rhombs or lozenges which on one side constitute the pyramidal base of one cell, composes at the same time the base of three cells on the other. It is in these prismatic tubes that the honey is stored; and to prevent its escaping during the period of maturation - which would infallibly happen if the tubes were strictly horizontal as they appear to be- the bees incline them slightly, to an angle of 4 - 5 degrees”. P 154.
“There are only,” says Dr Reid, “three possible figures of the cells which can make them all equal and similar without useless interstices. These are the equilateral triangle, the square and the regular hexagon. Mathematicians know that there is not a fourth way possible in which a plane shall be equal, similar and regular, without useless spaces. Of the three figures, the hexagon is the most proper for convenience and strength. Bees as if they knew this, make their cells regular hexagons.
Again, it has been demonstrated that, by making the bottoms of the cells to consist of three planes meeting in a point, there is a saving of material and labour in no way inconsiderable. The bees, as if acquainted with these principles of solid geometry, follow them most accurately”. P 156.
