Bees Evaluation

 Evaluation

                  

            

Light

Once installed into the museum, I realised that once pictured, the bees could not be seen very clearly due to the light from the window behind. However, in person, this light affected the bees differently. The light would move around the bees, making them go in and out of view whenever you moved your head. This gave them a sense of visual fragility, one moment they were clearly visible, the other they would disappear into the light as quickly as they appeared. 

I loved this result so much as it represented perfectly the nature of bees, they fly around so randomly, you can easily lose them within the flowers, or you can concentrate on following them as they go. Just like how a small movement with my bees and some would disappear out of view, but if you concentrate on them and stay still, they stay in view. 

Site Specificity

After thinking about how the light effected the bees I realised how the finished product was very site specific. Although it was made with a very definite idea in my head, the outcome would have been very different had the light not been shining from behind. If it was placed in area without this light, my evaluation would be very different, my points about fragility or its connection to the nature of bees would be irrelevant. This made me wonder what else could change if my piece was placed somewhere else in different conditions. 

If I placed the dowels still parallel to each other, but following a diagonal instead, the final view of the hexagon would still be there, but you'd have to view it from a different angle. 

               

The same sort of thing would happen if I was able to lower the bees and allow people to walk through them. The only reason I couldn't was safety as the wings had exposed points so they had to be above head height. However if I was able to reduce these, or if they were made out of something less sharp, then they wouldn't pose this danger. Walking through them would create a whole different experience. As well as viewing them from the side or below, you could see them surrounding you from all angles, touch them, see them move. 

A lot of things would change if it was placed somewhere else, maybe instead of light obstructed the view of the bees, it could create shadows, projecting the bees onto the walls, surrounding the viewer, or maybe the light would have no affect at all, they wouldn't be obstructed or magnified. Although this was unexpected, I like how this happened because in the same way that the piece is adaptable, bees are very adaptable, working together to overcome obstacles and obtain the resource they need to reproduce and stay alive. I think it encapsulates the very nature of bees brilliantly. 

Personal Reflections

Although I could see my vision come through, the hexagon shape with the bees, not many people made the connection without me talking to them. Unless they stood in the exact right place they couldn't see it, therefore in reflection I believe I could have done a better job at displaying this. I have two ideas of how I could have shown the shape better, one is repeating the hexagon multiple times. This would not only make the hexagons easier to see as the pattern would grab your attention more, but it would better represent the shape of honeycomb.

The second idea is to keep the original idea of one hexagon, but make it much bigger, and surround the shape with lots of random bees, making sure that the viewer only sees it from one angle. This could be done by placing it at the end of a room, only allowing it to be viewed from the front. 

Although I feel like both of these designs would have executed my plan better, they both would require a much larger space, and many more bees. Its because of this that I feel as though I did the best I could considering my time, space and safety requirements. 

As well as the arrangement, the method of hanging could have also been done differently. The fact that I had to attach them to the ceiling beam, reduced the width I was able to spread out the bees. This is why I chose to attach them to a dowel first, and attach the dowel to the beam. The beam allowed my to spread out and use as much space as possible in order to create a less constricted piece. However, the only dowels I could find were cheap light softwood. Because of this they stood out against the dark hardwood of the beam, and didn't blend as much as would have liked. If I were to do this again I would paint or stain the dowels, or find a different method of hanging them, for example, individual eyelet screws in the ceiling. 

I also wish I could have included more detail into the bees. One way for this was to include antennas and legs. I had placed antennas onto two of the bees I made, however the wire I had found was a little flimsy and wasn't quite holding the shape and position I tried to put them in. Because of this I left these out of the subsequent bees. If I had been able to include these details however, I believe it cold have only added to the overall affect and not taken way, so it is something I wish I was able to do.