Symbiotic – image 3 from the series Pictures of 1000 Words: Abstractions of Ancient Wisdom
Symbiotic, along with the other 6 images in the series, has been installed into its official location for ArtPrize 2014 at the First United Methodist Church, at 227 East Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, MI. This photo of it was taken right after it was framed, while it was still in the shop. Thank you, Mr. Lane Elmer 🙂
Symbiotic is the third image in the series entitled “Pictures of 1000 Words: Abstractions of Ancient Wisdom”. It was created using the text from Proverbs 21:25 – Proverbs 27:10.
The subject matter of each image in this series is inspired by some aspect relating to design.
The theme of this third image, entitled Symbiotic, is interdependent design. This bee covered in pollen represents a symbiosis with plant life that takes the concept of eco-engineering to new levels!
Plant seeds grow into the next generation of the plants that made them. In order to make seeds, plants need to exchange pollen between flowers. Since plants can’t move, this becomes a bit of an engineering dilemma! Enter the Honey Bee as one of several solutions to this problem. The honey bee is a complex organism consisting of many moving parts and an amazing capacity for 3-dimensional navigation. Bees utilize a specific and involved process to make the honey which they use as a food source. Pollen is collected from flowers along with the nectar they require to make the honey, and in the process pollen is spread from flower to flower. Plants, flowers, bees, and seeds each represent highly developed design individually, but the interaction between such diverse, unique, and fully functional design models suggests a higher level of design. The integration of individual parts into the survival of an ecological whole results in the existence of entire ecosystems that depend on complex, self-sustaining processes.