Study Project 2016
Using nature as a 3D-Printer
I wanted to turn away from machines and mechanical production and experiment with solutions nature can offer. As I started working with bees, I asked myself what they can give to us besides honey. Are they only diligent nectar collectors or are these seemingly untiring workers experts in generating biomorph structures?
Featured on:
Beewax
Beewax is formed in the eight glandular fields, the wax mirrors, on the abdominal side of honey bees. They "sweat" it out in the form of tiny wax platelets and work the platelets with their mouth tools until they have the right consistency to process it further. The wax consists of over 300 different chemical compounds. They use this wax to build their entire dwelling and also to make the honeycombs typical of bees. However, the wax glands are only active at a certain age of the bee. Only builder bees develop these glandular fields when they are about 12-18 days old. After that, they regress, but can be reactivated in emergency situations.
How the build
Bees actually build layered construction out of wax, somehow similar to thousends of tiny 3D-printers.They use the little space they have as efficient as possile. The wax the bees work with to make their honeycombs is even produced by themselves. When they erect the walls of the combs they use their own body as templates and construct cylindrical walls around it. After several experiments I managed to control the bees so that they built the desired objects. Result of last summer´s work werelots of different objects of which every single one is unique.
Impressions
This project has been explored in a number of articles:
Using nature as a 3D-Printer
Featured on:
Beewax
Beewax is formed in the eight glandular fields, the wax mirrors, on the abdominal side of honey bees. They "sweat" it out in the form of tiny wax platelets and work the platelets with their mouth tools until they have the right consistency to process it further. The wax consists of over 300 different chemical compounds. They use this wax to build their entire dwelling and also to make the honeycombs typical of bees. However, the wax glands are only active at a certain age of the bee. Only builder bees develop these glandular fields when they are about 12-18 days old. After that, they regress, but can be reactivated in emergency situations.
How the build
Bees actually build layered construction out of wax, somehow similar to thousends of tiny 3D-printers.They use the little space they have as efficient as possile. The wax the bees work with to make their honeycombs is even produced by themselves. When they erect the walls of the combs they use their own body as templates and construct cylindrical walls around it. After several experiments I managed to control the bees so that they built the desired objects. Result of last summer´s work werelots of different objects of which every single one is unique.
Impressions
Making of Video