Edge Greenway 2022 - Superorganism Collective

Inner West Council, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Edge Greenway Residency 2022 extended our inspiration from bees as a classic superorganism, an indicator species of ecological change, and the touchstone of our projects and practice as the collective Superorganism. For The Edge Greenway 2022 we continued to take inspiration from bees and celebrate the coming together of cooperative individuals, creativity, and the complex grace of healthy ecosystems and their cycles. We staged a series of collaborative events and rituals that attuned attention to different circular rhythms: cycles of time, cycles of life, cycles of exchange, cycles of breath.

Over the residency we held dance performances, guided bicycle rides, community making workshops including turmeric shibori technique flags, bees-wax candle and floral scented balms. Along the way we continued to gather wishes in a series coalescing collective practices inspired by superorganisms. 2022 was a tumultuous time of Covid, flood and restless political change. To work with these tensions, we invited the public to write down bad ideas and burn them as an act of metabolism and transformation. It was humourous, heartening and cathartic.

Scent making
We entered the world of botanical oils and stories of scent with perfumier and botanical skin care expert Jocelyn Fullerton. In the workshop community joined in a balm making workshop that lead us through the wonders of plant oils, medicinal applications and fascinating stories about perfume and how smell is profoundly links to connection and communication.

YouWho?
Led by dancer Renata Commisso this event explored reflection, connection and how we imagine ourselves. Our residency container (metaphorical hive) was clad in in mirrors of different shapes, sizes and orientations to create an optical, shape shifting experience inspired by the bee’s visual system. Renata catalysed reflective conversation by inviting the community to engage with mirrors as objects of mystery, imagination and while negotiating fear and judgement that can arise. Working with improvised sounds created by double bass player Marie Louise Bethune, Reanta drew community into conversations and then interpreted them into dances.

Bees on Bikes and the waggle dance part 2
Taking inspiration from the circuitous, yet efficient and connective, ways in which both bees and cyclists navigate their environment we staged a series of guided bike rides with Pedal Set Go.. During different rides we learnt from local experts about the ecosystems and multi-species communities in the local area, engaged in guided commutes between parts of the Inner West and the Greenway. We then gathered on open ground an created a waggle dance on bikes. This was the second iteration of a dance inspired by the bee waggle dance – a navigational dance using the figure 8 to communicate distance and direction to nectar sources.