Stories of Extinction
Lauren Cosson
History and English
Stories of Extinction: The role of creativity in responding to and resisting the decline of bees
Speaker: Rosamund Portus
Speaker: Rosamund Portus
Really interesting discussion about the extinction of bees and how they are portrayed in our popular culture. We were shown some varied and unique examples of how bees have been explored in creative practice from musical composition, creations of artificial hives, bee prints on textiles etc. Although this is not relevant to my discipline or my dissertation this year, I think this was a seminar that is relevant to topical issues of every day life which is just as important. I have learnt today that there are over 20,000 species of bee and that the impact of campaigning for bees can equally have widespread positive effects on other endangered species. I think this was also particularly useful in terms of narrowing down a thesis; Rosamund spoke about how her PhD took shape as she realised the task she set out for herself was too ambitious and decided to instead follow a more specific route. Rosamund’s presentation also challenged the audience to think about whether bees are too positively portrayed in our society and have become a symbol that overlooks some of the negative aspects of bees and their relation to one another in the hive.