Beginner Hive Mind

Beginner Hive Mind from Juan William Chavez on Vimeo.

Filmed at the Pruitt Igoe Bee Sanctuary pilot site, the footage explores the hive as a superorganism and demonstrates the bees collective goal bringing in pollen. Beginner Hive Mind references the Zen Buddhist practice of learning as a beginner and keeping your mind empty of preconceived notions in order to be open to the many possibilities that may be. Chavez’s close observation of the bees allows him to reconnect to a deeper ecology to view nature, food and architecture as a whole, which provokes the question: Are we as a community able to learn from the bees and function as a superorganism?