Contribution short abstract:

ORCHID, BEE and I is a film-based experiment that seeks to converge the anthropological and the speculative, as well as the lived experiences and world-building. It is a fictional ethnography of a near future, prompted by personal and collective experiences of the pandemic and the climate crisis.

Contribution long abstract:

ORCHID, BEE and I is a film-based experiment that centres around the encounter between the anthropological and the speculative and how this convergence expands both. Scenarios are key here. It is through scenarios that we piece together the different threads of world-building, such as, how people live, how they relate to each other and other species, what forms the dominant power takes, and so on. By imagining how a different world might manifest in everyday scenarios, we hope to keep the imaginary alive and flashed out rather than reduced to thin abstraction. Through the design of spaces, props and costumes as well as the soundscape, the scenarios reflect, confront, amplify or challenge certain aspects of the world we are living in now. Also, each scenario is a prompt for collaboration, including with movement artists, bio-designers, food designers, mask-makers, sound designers, filmmakers and researchers. World-building is a collective endeavour, after all.

In the world of ORCHID, BEE and I, the ecological collapse and the pandemic have exacerbated. A lonely person seeks paradoxical companionship with an orchid and a bee balloon to spend Christmas Day together. One of the scenarios is PLASTIC LOVE. Starting in the home, it raises questions about companionship and control.

As scenario-based, the project is always back and forth between researching, designing, shooting and editing. We’d love feedback on the balance between the complexity and nuance of messages and film as a medium for effective and affective communication.