Explore Like a Bee was the result of a research project into the activities of the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden honeybees, concluding in the creation of maps and a week-long installation helping to guide the public around the Garden, visiting plants whose pollen grains were found in honey samples taken during the previous summer.
Charli sees honey not just as a food bank, but as one of the ways that bees share information and create knowledge concerning their local environment. Through the act of creating honey, the summer bees leave behind a record for the bees born later on, creating a library containing vital pieces of the bee colony’s societal history. Departing from the analysis of honey from beehives in Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden from July and August 2015, Charli created foraging maps and a discovery station in Kaisaniemi, offering to guide visitors along the paths that hosted the flowers the bees had foraged the previous year.
The exploratory event happened daily during 15-21th August 2016 in Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden, as part of Melliferopolis Fest. Charli was available to take tours, answer questions, give out maps for people wanting to tour the garden by themselves, and to discuss the different honey samples and the pollens they contain for the duration of the event.
A link to Charli Clark´s website.
melliferopolis.net 