Flight Log of a London Bumblebee

2025











Screened at 
British Film Institute (BFI), BBC Television Centre, London Breeze Film Festival


Flight Log of a London Bumblebee develops from Become Pollinators and focuses on how bumblebees produce vibrations between 200 and 400 Hz during floral sonification (also known as buzz-pollination) and how this process is affected by the urban environment in London. The work translates scientific research into a sensory experience that allows audiences to listen to a process that normally sits outside everyday human perception.











What Do Pollinators Hear in the City?

Scientific sound editing techniques derived from floral sonification were blended with environmental sound recordings captured in London.
By layering pollination-related vibration frequencies with urban soundscapes, the work explores how pollinators might experience the city through sound.
This process shapes an auditory narrative that places biological vibration within a human-dominated acoustic environment.







Eggplant Flower

Unlike many flowering plants, eggplant pollen is released primarily through the vibration of buzz-pollination, directly aligning the plant’s reproductive process with the sonic focus of the work.
A 3D scan of the flower was used to capture its physical structure, which was then edited and refined to clarify form and surface detail.








Multisensory Experience

The sound composition was brought into TouchDesigner to explore how vibrational sound could be experienced visually.
Audio data, including frequency and amplitude, was used to drive visual changes in real time, allowing sound to directly shape movement and form, creating a more immersive and embodied way of perceiving pollinators’ world.








Screening at the British Film Institute (BFI)




Jingwen Zeng