ORCHID, BEE and I
Through a fictional diary, Orchid, Bee and I (OBI) extends an open invitation to enter a near-future scenario as anthropologists—encountering a world that is at once familiar and strange, and uncovering its underlying mechanisms. We call this approach Speculative Anthropology.
Conceived during Christmas 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic in the U.K, the project has slowly unfolded as a self-reflexive journey to cope with—and make sense of—what is happening around us. It draws on observation, frustration, fear and hope, while probing the paradoxes of protection and isolation, care and intimacy, and the enduring human desire for companionship with other species on a damaged planet.
Developed in collaboration with artists, designers, researchers, and filmmakers, OBI foregrounds world-building as a shared practice, encouraging imaginative rethinking of present realities through the lens of projected near-futures.
LINKS
‘Orchid, Bee and I’
KoozArch column: Living with Precarity: #3 Speculative Anthropology, 2022
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project is an ongoing collective endeavour with many friends and collaborators: Co-Producer: Laura Belinky
Cinematographer: Keidrych Wasley
Movement Artist: Mira Hirtz
Bio Designer: Clara Acioli
Food Designer: Orlando Lovell
Mask Designer: Vicky Wright
Composer: Robert Gerard Pietrusko
Sound Designer: Alonso Esquinca
Orchid Sound Advisor: Ke Guo
Design Researcher: Agata Nguyen Chuong
Funding support: Elephant Trust (2023)