The Story of the Bee Cell
In 2012, we witnessed a wild beehive on the Santa Barbara Riviera in California and immediately knew we would design a video environment based on it. The hive itself was remarkable; five feet long and as thick as a human, it hung high amongst oaks, completely exposed to the elements. During the summer months the outside was coated with bees, providing ample opportunity to capture close-up footage of individuals against the backdrop of their extraordinary architecture. Our team produced a six-sided chamber on which macro-bees were projected. Visitors coming in through one of two doors essentially entered a hive at bee scale. This piece, “The Bee Cell”, formed the center of the “Swarm” exhibition at Ganna-Walska Lotusland in Montecito California and received critical acclaim. Afterwards, The Bee Cell moved to the Cartwright Insect Gallery at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Returning to the hive earlier this year, we discovered that the decade-old colony had died. The magnificent structure was as quiet as a graveyard and with a drying pile of dead bees littering the ground. The hive was removed and brought to the museum. The Santa Barbara Beekeepers Association took core samples and sent them to a lab for analysis to discover what caused the death of the colony. The results remain inconclusive.
The bees that once thrived within the now-vacant hive remain vibrant in The Bee Cell. This juxtaposition serves as a poignant reminder of the ecological fragility facing bees and informs our mission to provide powerful experiences to people about our collective relationship to the natural world.
Ethan Turpin
Ethan Turpin’s creative practice blends old and new media to examine humanity’s complex relationships with nature. Working as a video producer and artist, his documentaries and art installations have shown in film festivals, galleries, and museums nationwide, spanning topics such as complexity theory, endangered species, and wildfire. Turpin’s solo exhibit “Stereocollision” showed at the California Museum of Photography in 2012. The Visions From The New California Award was granted to Turpin in 2010. He received a BFA in 1997 from the Kansas City Art Institute.
Jonathan Smith
Jonathan Smith spent decades as a voracious traveler, covering over 90 countries and the learning the rudiments of many languages. After developing a language teaching guide, he turned his attention toward adventures of the imagination through making art. His immersive installations often involve combinations of light, sound, and video projection. In particular, he enjoys exploring methods to create dimensional imagery by pointing his projectors at unorthodox “screens”. He founded The Environment Makers Inc in 2020, along with his partner Kym Cochran.